Mountains of municipal waste are piling up worldwide, threatening ecosystems and human health while straining urban infrastructure. To turn this crisis around, researchers have developed a technologically feasible and economically viable solution.
Pu... [6992 chars]

Rapid urbanization and global economic growth are fueling an unprecedented rise in solid waste generation, with municipal solid waste expected to surge from 2.01 billion tons in 2018 to over 3.40 billion tons by 2050. Traditional approaches, landfilling, open dumping, and unregulated incineration, are no longer viable. These methods degrade air, water, and soil quality while emitting significant greenhouse gases, particularly methane, which has a global warming potential far exceeding carbon dioxide.

Devdiscourse

Billions of tons, one solution: Circular waste system promises urban revolution

Kolkata: The message was loud and clear: local climate shocks, the results of global warming, are now striking harder than the larger, slower-moving universal crisis.Climate experts, activists and NGOs on Wednesday met to present a ‘Climate emergency... [2515 chars]

Kolkata: The message was loud and clear: local climate shocks, the results of global warming, are now striking harder than the larger, slower-moving u.

Times of India

City experts highlight local climate shock issues ahead of COP30 meet

The world has far fewer places to securely store carbon dioxide deep underground than previously thought, steeply lowering its potential to help stem global warming, according to a new study that challenges long-held industry claims about the practic... [5954 chars]

The world has far fewer places to securely store carbon dioxide deep underground than previously thought, steeply lowering its potential to help stem global warming, according to a new study that challenges long-held industry claims about the practice.

CP24 Toronto

There is less room to store carbon dioxide, driver of climate change, than previously thought

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United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's So... [4996 chars]

The world has far fewer places to securely store carbon dioxide deep underground than previously thought, steeply lowering its potential to help stem global warming, according to a new study

Toronto Star

Study: There is less room to store carbon dioxide, driver of climate change, than previously thought

The world has far fewer places to securely store carbon dioxide deep underground than previously thought, steeply lowering its potential to help stem global warming, according to a new study that challenges long-held industry claims about the practic... [5639 chars]

A new study says the world has far fewer places to securely store carbon dioxide deep underground than previously thought, steeply lowering its potential to help stem global warming.

The Associated Press

A study finds there is less room for carbon capture than previously believed

WDIV ClickOnDetroit

A female jumps towards the carbon pole to cross a body of water during a Fierljeppen competition in Kockengen, Netherlands, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025. Peter Dejong/AP
The world has far fewer places to securely store carbon dioxide deep underground tha... [6081 chars]

A new study says the world has far fewer places to securely store carbon dioxide deep underground than previously thought, steeply lowering its potential to help stem global warming. Researchers...

SFGATE

The world has far fewer places to securely store carbon dioxide deep underground than previously thought, steeply lowering its potential to help stem global warming, according to a new study that challenges long-held industry claims about the practic... [6044 chars]

U.S. News & World Report

Study: There Is Less Room to Store Carbon Dioxide, Driver of Climate Change, Than Previously Thought

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UN Climate Change secretary Simon Stiell called on laggards to gets their plans in “as soon as possible”.
PARIS - The United Nations on Sept 3 urged nations late in turning in their climate pl... [2412 chars]

Global emissions need to almost halve by the end of the decade to limit global warming. Read more at straitstimes.com.

The Straits Times

UN pushes nations to submit overdue climate plans

Dozens of the world’s leading climate researchers on Tuesday publicly rebuked a hastily assembled report from the Trump administration that questions the severity of global warming — marking one of the strongest repudiations yet of the president’s ef... [6704 chars]

A group of more than 85 leading climate researchers on Tuesday publicly repudiated a Trump administration report that questions the severity of global warming.

Los Angeles Times

Prominent scientists rebuke the Trump administration for its climate report

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new article, 'Variations in Climate Change Belief Systems Across 110 Geographic Areas' in Nature Climate Change.
Think of climate change beliefs like trees in a forest — no single tree stands alone. Just as trees share root systems and create interconnected ecosystems, our climate beliefs form networks of concepts that support and influence each other. By studying the 'forest' of beliefs rather than isolated 'trees,' we can gain useful insights. We can see which belief clusters have deep, intertwined roots (making them harder to change) and which have shallow connections (making them easier to change).
Using network analysis on a global survey conducted in 2022 (n = 99,074 participants), we constructed maps of climate change belief systems across 110 geographic areas worldwide. Our analysis focused on two key structural features: density (the overall strength of connections between climate beliefs) and inconsistency (conflicts between beliefs). The belief systems included eight key elements covering climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, and policy attitudes.
First, we examined the belief systems of nine countries, representing different continental regions. As Figure 1 illustrates, Global North countries such as the United States, Australia, and Germany hold denser climate belief systems, while Global South countries have relatively looser climate belief systems. For instance, in Germany, individuals who believe climate change is caused by human activities are also likely to worry about climate change. In contrast, such connections are absent or weaker in countries like Guatemala and Brazil.
It is also noteworthy that inconsistency (dashed lines representing negative correlations in Figure 1) is present in some countries such as the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria. A subsequent analysis reveals that inconsistency is more likely in geographic areas where people object to reducing the use of fossil fuels. This objection likely conflicts with other climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, and policy support. For instance, people are likely to exhibit inconsistency in their climate change belief system when they support renewable energy while also opposing reduction in fossil fuel use.
In the Global North—like Europe, the U.S., and Australia—climate beliefs are tightly connected (high density) but sometimes sharply divided: many areas exhibit strong pro-climate beliefs and attitudes, while others indicate more resistance than other geographic areas. In contrast, the Global South—including Sub-Saharan Africa, South America, Asia, Central America, and the Caribbean—leans more pro-climate overall, but the connections between beliefs are weaker (low density). Meanwhile, in the Middle East and North Africa, most areas have weaker pro-climate beliefs and attitudes relative to other regions, and the density of belief systems varies between high and low across countries in the region.
We also investigated how geographic characteristics — climate change information exposure, GDP per capita, economic reliance on carbon resources (coal, oil, and gas), and education level predict belief system density and inconsistency. The results indicate that exposure to information and GDP per capita are positively associated with density. In other words, belief systems are denser in wealthier areas where people are more exposed to climate change information.
Moreover, we found that economic reliance on carbon resources predicts belief system inconsistency. These findings indicate that geographic areas more dependent on coal, oil, or gas as economic resources have greater climate change belief system inconsistency.
Overall, our research reveals how climate change belief systems vary around the world, and the value of considering belief structures and socio-economic context when developing climate communication strategies.

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new article, 'Variations in Climate Change Belief Systems Across 110 Geographic Areas' in Nature Climate Change. Think of climate change beliefs like trees in a forest — no single tree stands […]

Variations in Climate Change Belief Systems Across 110 Geographic Areas

AI in Climate Change Mitigation Market Deep Research Report with Forecast to 2034
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InsightAce Analytic Pvt. Ltd. announces the release of a market assessment report on the "Global AI in Climate Change Mitigation Market - By Component (Hardware, Software, Services), By Deployment Mode (Cloud-Based, On-Premises), By End-Use Industry (Energy & Utilities, Transportation, Agriculture, Construction, Government and Public Sectors), By Application (Carbon Footprint Management, Energy Optimization, Climate Risk Assessment, Sustainable Agriculture), Trends, Industry Competition Analysis, Revenue And Forecast To 2034."The global AI in Climate Change Mitigation Market size is valued at USD 16.7 Bn in 2024 and is predicted to reach USD 80.6 Bn by the year 2034 at a 17.3% CAGR during the forecast period for 2025-2034.Reuest For Free Sample Page:The use of AI to combat climate change and lessen its effects through data analysis is the main focus of the global AI in climate change mitigation market. Measurements of carbon footprint, energy consumption analysis and control, and the usage of renewable energy sources are all made possible by artificial intelligence. By enabling environmentally friendly industrial processes and supporting initiatives addressing global climate change, this market makes a significant contribution to resolving environmental issues.The advancement of AI technology and the growing demand for effective solutions to climate change are driving the steady expansion of the AI in climate change mitigation market. Additionally, the AI in climate change mitigation market is anticipated to expand due to the growing global push for carbon neutrality, especially in regions like North America and Europe, which have strict environmental regulations.List of Prominent Players in the AI in Climate Change Mitigation Market:• Amazon Web Service• Google• IBM Corporation• Siemens• DeepMind• C3.Ai• Predikto• Elemental Excelerator• Microsoft• Tesla• Carbon Clean Solutions• Enel• Schneider Electric• Xpansiv• AutogridMarket Dynamics:Drivers-The AI in climate change mitigation market is expected to grow as a result of increasing investments in clean energy and sustainability projects, supportive government policies and incentives, the growing adoption of AI technologies to address climate change concerns, and advancements in AI technology. As governments and businesses worldwide increasingly utilize AI technology to address the complex issues posed by climate change, the global application of AI in climate change mitigation is expanding significantly.Enquiry Before Buying:Challenges:The main issues limiting the AI in climate change mitigation market are data availability, quality, and ease of access. Even though there is a wealth of data on climate change, a significant portion of the information is fragmented, incomplete, or of variable quality, which makes it challenging for AI algorithms to produce accurate and trustworthy conclusions. The efficiency and scalability of AI models are constrained by data shortages and inconsistencies, which makes it more difficult for them to offer practical suggestions for climate adaptation and mitigation.Regional Trends:The North American AI in Climate Change Mitigation market is anticipated to register a major market share in terms of revenue since increased investment in AI technology aims to mitigate the environmental impact of industrial business processes. Resolutions enacted by the US and Canadian governments have encouraged the use of AI solutions in carbon capture, climate monitoring, and renewable energy generation, particularly in energy production.These resolutions have increased market share. Besides, over the projection period, Asia Pacific is expected to grow at the fastest rate. The market for AI in climate change mitigation is highly prioritised in every nation, demonstrating a strong commitment to sustainability and regulatory frameworks. Several nations, including Germany, France, and the UK, are making significant investments in AI in climate change mitigation technologies for energy, agriculture, and even disaster relief. Additionally, the region's commitment to reducing emissions and its increased focus on cutting-edge infrastructure and technologies support the expansion of the AI in climate change mitigation market.Get Specific Chapter/Information From The Report:Segmentation of AI in Climate Change Mitigation Market-By Component-• Services• Hardware• SoftwareBy Deployment Mode-• Cloud-Based• On-PremisesBy Application-• Energy Optimization• Carbon Footprint Management• Climate Risk Assessment• Sustainable AgricultureBy End-User-• Construction• Energy & Utilities• Agriculture• Transportation• Government and Public SectorsBy Region-North America-• The US• Canada• MexicoEurope-• Germany• The UK• France• Italy• Spain• Rest of EuropeAsia-Pacific-• China• Japan• India• South Korea• South East Asia• Rest of Asia PacificLatin America-• Brazil• Argentina• Rest of Latin AmericaMiddle East & Africa-• GCC Countries• South Africa• Rest of the Middle East and AfricaGet More Information :About Us:InsightAce Analytic is a market research and consulting firm that enables clients to make strategic decisions. Our qualitative and quantitative market intelligence solutions inform the need for market and competitive intelligence to expand businesses. We help clients gain a competitive advantage by identifying untapped markets, exploring new and competing technologies, segmenting potential markets, and repositioning products. Our expertise is in providing syndicated and custom market intelligence reports with an in-depth analysis with key market insights in a timely and cost-effective manner.Contact Us:info@insightaceanalytic.comInsightAce Analytic Pvt. Ltd.Visit:Tel : +1 607 400-7072Asia: +91 79 72967118Follow Us on LinkedIn @ bit.ly/2tBXsgSFollow Us On Facebook @ bit.ly/2H9jnDZTwitter:

InsightAce Analytic Pvt Ltd announces the release of a market assessment report on the Global AI in Climate Change Mitigation Market By Component Hardware Software Services By Deployment Mode Cloud…

AI in Climate Change Mitigation Market Deep Research Report with Forecast to 2034

A blue house that was picked up and settled on an overturned truck during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, USA.
Twenty years ago this week, Hurricane Katrina became one of the worst disasters in U.S. history. Marking the 20-year anniversary, Climate Central used the Climate Shift Index: Ocean and Climate Shift Index: Tropical Cyclones systems to assess the influence of human-caused climate change on the devastating 2005 hurricane.
Katrina achieved its top wind speeds (175 mph) as a Category 5 storm over waters that were made, on average, 0.9°C (1.6°F) warmer as a result of climate change. Our analysis determined that climate change made these ocean temperatures up to 18 times more likely and, along with tropical climate warming, increased Katrina's maximum sustained wind speed by 5 mph. A 5 mph increase could have increased Katrina's damages by 25% or more, according to NOAA.
Every tenth of a degree of ocean warming increases the risks of stronger storms and higher sea levels. And because of climate change, water temperatures in 2025 are warmer than in 2005, opening up the potential for even bigger increases in wind speed.
What do experts say?
Dr. Daniel Gilford, Meteorologist and Climate Scientist at Climate Central, said:
"Already back in 2005, climate change was influencing Atlantic hurricanes and their impacts. If Katrina had formed in today's climate, it likely would have been even more powerful."
This is how climate change impacts tropical cyclones
How do we know climate change influenced this storm?
The Climate Shift Index: Tropical Cyclones (Tropical Cyclone CSI) is grounded in peer-reviewed methodology from 2024. It quantifies the impact of human-caused climate change on a storm's intensity.
The Tropical Cyclone CSI calculates the increase (or decrease) in a storm's wind speeds because of climate change-warmed ocean waters and tropical climate warming.
This system is built on the foundation of the Climate Shift Index: Ocean (Ocean CSI), which is also grounded in peer-reviewed methodology. The Ocean CSI indicates how human-caused climate change has influenced the likelihood of daily sea surface temperatures occurring at nearly any location around the world's oceans.
In the last 20 years, and even in the last 10 years since we wrote this post, the field of event attribution science - which enables us to quantify the influence of climate change on extreme weather such as hurricanes - has evolved significantly. Key advances include our Climate Shift Index systems; a better understanding of how increases in potential intensity affect observed intensities; improved climate and storm modeling; and the strong emergence of the climate signal: global temperatures have risen by approximately 1.3°C since the pre-industrial period and 0.5°C since 2000.
To request an interview with a Climate Central scientist, please contact Tom Di Liberto at tdiliberto@climatecentral.org.
Customize this SST graphic here.

Twenty years ago this week, Hurricane Katrina became one of the worst disasters in U.S. history. Marking the 20-year anniversary, Climate Central assessed the influence of human-caused climate change on the devastating 2005 hurricane.

Climate change intensified Hurricane Katrina; could have been a stronger storm in today's climate

article
The Brief Scientists are refuting a report released by the Department of Energy on climate change. These experts contend that the DOE distorts facts about climate science. The Energy Department's report asserts that climate change isn't the biggest problem for humanity.
More than 85 scientists are taking issue with a climate change report released by the Department of Energy that experts claim is fraught with errors and misrepresentations about climate science.
The Department of Energy's 151-page report , "A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate," was written by the DOE's Climate Working Group, which is made up of four scientists and one economist who have all questioned whether climate change is a large threat to the world.
RELATED: Climate change has made heat waves last longer, study finds
These five members of the climate working group who authored the report, were selected by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a former fossil fuel executive.
In one excerpt from the DOE report , the authors write: "Climate change is real, and it deserves attention. But it is not the greatest threat facing humanity." The authors acknowledge that climate change is a "challenge—not a catastrophe" adding that "misguided policies based on fear rather than facts could truly endanger human well-being."
Climate scientists release review challenging Energy Department's report
Why you should care:
An international group of over 85 climate scientists published a 439-page review where they argue that the Department of Energy's climate report misrepresents facts about climate science.
The climate experts refute the Department of Energy's climate report, where the authors claim that there is no evidence of intense "meteorological" drought in the U.S. or worldwide, referring to droughts with low rainfall.
RELATED: Scientists find climate change made July hotter for 4 out of 5 humans on Earth
Climate scientists explain in their review that higher temperatures and more evaporation can lead to droughts, referencing other published studies that acknowledge how climate change has intensified droughts.
Separately, the group of scientists also discovered several areas in the Department of Energy's report where the authors selected or distorted climate science in the report.
In one example, climate scientists contend that the DOE's findings infer that rising carbon dioxide can be a "net benefit" to U.S. agriculture, but say that the authors of the report neglect to mention the negative impacts of more heat and climate-change-fueled extreme weather events on crops.
NPR reported that the scientists submitted their review of the DOE's Climate Working Group report to the Federal Register as part of the DOE's 30-day open-comment period .
The scientists' review of the DOE report comes after environmental groups and independent scientists sued the Department of Energy over their report. The groups in their lawsuit state that the way the DOE's report is written and created violates transparency laws.
The Source: Information for this story was provided by the Department of Energy's climate report, Axios, and NPR. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.

A group of scientists published a report challenging findings from a Department of Energy report that experts suggest obscure facts about climate change.

Dozens of scientists cite errors in Energy Department climate change report

Globally the extreme weather events around the world recently offer a frightening insight of what lies ahead , addressing climate change is a complex challenge that goes beyond individual efforts. Collaborative efforts to achieve a net zero future is needed and will prevent the world from the disastrous impacts of climate change.
The rising heat waves, climate change disasters such as floods, landslides, wild fires, hurricanes and cyclones, droughts, and desertification. The food systems are constrained, compromised water supply, water and air pollution, rise in the infectious diseases, loss of biodiversity, increased greenhouse gases, etc. Climate crisis is a global problem, and it presents the planet and mankind with challenges.
Given the carbon burden that we put on this planet, we have to act fast. We are sharing a problem of climate change and we have to try to figure it out together. We have to find a way on how to collectively become stronger together and cooperate in a way that drives innovation and progress to achieve greater success. Working together will be key to our success in adapting to climate change and mitigating its impacts.
Governments, leaders, and activists across the world convened in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan in the COP 29 to review the progress of the 2015 Paris Agreement on tacking climate change, and discussed collaboration as key in achieving global climate initiatives, climate finance, carbon market regulation etc.
Collaboration is key in combating climate change and unlocking the immense potential that Africa holds through focusing areas like establishing and supporting good policies that will drive climate action , identifying practices that reduce carbon, investment in renewable energy initiatives, reducing dependence on fossil fuels, promote energy efficiency, green minerals, climate adaptation programmes, strategising on how to increase and access climate financing.
Collaboration builds the capacity to achieve climate goals, enables faster progress, enables the sharing of knowledge, and accelerates action. Furthermore, collaboration helps in pulling financial resources from governments, organisations, and individuals to support climate-related projects, promotes transparency and accountability by enabling stake holders to track progress and hold each other accountable.
Governments and African businesses should unite to collaborate on the fight against climate change and create a more sustainable future. Governments and big businesses like banks, insurers, big companies and civil society organisations are aware of the challenges faced by the communities across the region. Therefore, there is need for internal cooperation for working towards supporting the vulnerable communities that are heavily affected by the climate change impacts through climate-smart agricultural practices, improved energy efficiency, an increase in the deployment of renewable energy projects, reforestation, climate change awareness campaigns to build resilient climate groups, waste reduction and recycling , water conservation, advocacy, and policy change.
Climate change requires a global response and collaboration among countries, civil society organisations, the private sector, and individuals. By working together, we can develop effective solutions to mitigate climate change and create a more sustainable future.
Written by Modern Gumisiriza, ED at Youth for Nature Conservancy
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Climate change requires a global response and collaboration among countries, civil society organisations, the private sector, and individuals

Collaboration is crucial for climate solutions

More than 85 scientists are taking issue with a climate change report released by the Department of Energy that experts claim is fraught with errors and misrepresentations about climate science.
The Department of Energy's 151-page report, "A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate," was written by the DOE's Climate Working Group, which is made up of four scientists and one economist who have all questioned whether climate change is a large threat to the world.
RELATED: Climate change has made heat waves last longer, study finds
These five members of the climate working group who authored the report, were selected by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a former fossil fuel executive.
In one excerpt from the DOE report, the authors write: "Climate change is real, and it deserves attention. But it is not the greatest threat facing humanity." The authors acknowledge that climate change is a "challenge—not a catastrophe" adding that "misguided policies based on fear rather than facts could truly endanger human well-being."
Why you should care:
An international group of over 85 climate scientists published a 439-page review where they argue that the Department of Energy's climate report misrepresents facts about climate science.
The climate experts refute the Department of Energy's climate report, where the authors claim that there is no evidence of intense "meteorological" drought in the U.S. or worldwide, referring to droughts with low rainfall.
RELATED: Scientists find climate change made July hotter for 4 out of 5 humans on Earth
Climate scientists explain in their review that higher temperatures and more evaporation can lead to droughts, referencing other published studies that acknowledge how climate change has intensified droughts.
Separately, the group of scientists also discovered several areas in the Department of Energy's report where the authors selected or distorted climate science in the report.
In one example, climate scientists contend that the DOE's findings infer that rising carbon dioxide can be a "net benefit" to U.S. agriculture, but say that the authors of the report neglect to mention the negative impacts of more heat and climate-change-fueled extreme weather events on crops.
NPR reported that the scientists submitted their review of the DOE's Climate Working Group report to the Federal Register as part of the DOE's 30-day open-comment period.
The scientists' review of the DOE report comes after environmental groups and independent scientists sued the Department of Energy over their report. The groups in their lawsuit state that the way the DOE's report is written and created violates transparency laws.
The Source: Information for this story was provided by the Department of Energy's climate report, Axios, and NPR. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.

The hidden health crisis: How climate change is affecting human well-being
By Adebayo Adeleye
Climate change is often associated with melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and extreme weather events. However, its impact on human health is a growing concern that cannot be ignored. Rising temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, and increased frequency of natural disasters are all taking a toll on our well-being. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), climate change is the single biggest health threat facing humanity.
The Direct and Indirect Health Impacts: Climate change affects human health in many direct and indirect ways. Prolonged exposure to high temperatures can lead to heat-related illnesses, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory problems. Extreme weather events like floods, droughts, and storms can cause injuries, displacement, and loss of life. Climate change also exacerbates existing health conditions, such as diabetes, mental health issues, and waterborne diseases.
Heat-Related Illnesses on the Rise: Heat-related illnesses are becoming increasingly common due to rising temperatures. Heat exhaustion, heatstroke, and other heat-related illnesses can be life-threatening, especially for vulnerable populations like the elderly, young children, and people with pre-existing medical conditions. A study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives found that heat-related illnesses are responsible for thousands of deaths worldwide each year.
Vector-Borne Diseases Spreading: Climate change is also facilitating the spread of vector-borne diseases like malaria, dengue fever, and Zika virus. Warmer temperatures and changing precipitation patterns are creating ideal breeding conditions for mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects. According to the WHO, the global incidence of dengue fever has increased significantly in recent years, with millions of cases reported worldwide.
Waterborne Diseases a Growing Concern: Flooding and contaminated water sources are leading to outbreaks of waterborne diseases like cholera and diarrhea. Climate change is exacerbating existing water scarcity issues, making it difficult for communities to access clean water and sanitation. In many parts of the world, people are forced to rely on untreated water sources, increasing their risk of contracting waterborne diseases.
Mental Health Impacts: Climate-related stress, anxiety, and trauma can have long-term effects on mental health and well-being. The uncertainty and unpredictability of climate-related events can cause significant distress, especially for those who have experienced displacement, loss, or trauma. According to the American Psychological Association, climate change is a significant stressor that can exacerbate existing mental health conditions.
Vulnerable Populations Disproportionately Affected: The most vulnerable populations, including children, older adults, and those with pre-existing medical conditions, are disproportionately affected by climate-related health impacts. In low-income countries, climate change is pushing already vulnerable communities further into poverty and compromising their access to healthcare. According to the WHO, the health impacts of climate change are felt most severely in countries with weak health systems and inadequate infrastructure.
Mitigation approach: To mitigate the health impacts of climate change, we need to take a multi-faceted approach. Some strategies include:
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions: Transitioning to renewable energy sources and increasing energy efficiency can help reduce the severity of climate change.
Improving healthcare infrastructure: Strengthening healthcare systems and providing access to quality healthcare can help communities adapt to climate-related health impacts.
Promoting climate-resilient agriculture: Supporting climate-resilient agriculture practices can help ensure food security and reduce the risk of waterborne diseases.
Raising awareness and building resilience: Educating communities about climate-related health risks and promoting resilience-building activities can help reduce vulnerability.
Individual Actions:
While governments and international organizations have a critical role to play in addressing climate change, individual actions can also make a difference. Some ways to contribute include:
Reducing carbon footprint: Using public transport, carpooling, or driving electric or hybrid vehicles can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Conserving water: Using water efficiently and reducing waste can help conserve this precious resource.
Supporting climate-resilient agriculture: Buying locally sourced produce and supporting sustainable agriculture practices can help promote climate resilience.
Staying informed: Staying up-to-date with climate-related health risks and taking steps to protect oneself and one's community can help reduce vulnerability.
Conclusion: Climate change is a complex and multifaceted issue that requires a comprehensive response. By understanding the health impacts of climate change and taking action to mitigate them, we can protect human health and promote sustainable development for all. It is essential that governments, international organizations, and individuals work together to address this growing health crisis and ensure a healthier, more resilient future for generations to come.
•.Dr. Adebayo Matthew, Adeleye (Ph.D., Ibadan) Researcher on Environmental Pollution and Control

The Nation Newspaper The hidden health crisis: How climate change is affecting human well-being

The hidden health crisis: How climate change is affecting human well-being

Applies to England
Details
One of the Climate Change Committee's (CCC) priority recommendations in its recent progress report on climate adaptation (April 2025) was for government to set improved objectives and targets. The government has already committed to explore how stronger objectives can be set to improve preparedness for the impacts of climate change.
This letter from the Minister for Water and Flooding, Emma Hardy, who is also responsible for leading climate adaptation efforts across government, asks the CCC for its assessment of the climate change assumptions that should be built into the government's planning on climate adaptation. This will inform the government's ongoing development of stronger objectives for managing climate risks.
The Adaptation Committee provides independent, expert advice on preparing for and adapting to climate change to the UK and devolved governments and parliaments. The committee reports every 2 years on progress in adapting to climate change in England.

Letter from Defra to Baroness Brown, Chair of the Adaptation Committee for the Climate Change Committee (CCC).

Letter from Defra to Baroness Brown and the Climate Change Committee (CCC)

For years, scientists have been warning us about the looming crisis of climate change. However, according to a recent study, nearly 15 percent of Americans do not believe climate change is real, and 37 percent are not worried about it. In another study, less than half of Americans (45 percent) believe climate change will pose a serious threat in their lifetime. Even though the majority of people worldwide express worry about climate change, most don't feel that they have the power to make a significant difference. How do you make collective change if a major subset of a population does not agree that a problem exists, or feels helpless about the problem? One neuroscientist thinks the answer may lie in our brain: change how people perceive climate change.
Why our brain struggles with climate change
Ann-Christine Duhaime, Nicholas T. Zervas Distinguished Professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School and the faculty lead of Harvard Global Health Institute's Climate Change, War, and Health Scholarly Working Group, believes that climate change is too big and too complicated a problem for humans to wrap their heads around easily.
'It is difficult for us to perceive it because we never had to deal with something like this before,' said Duhaime. 'We are the first generations to have to face this rapid, human-caused climate change problem. There is no historical reference point for us to understand it and evolution didn't need for us to recognize and act on this kind of crisis that didn't exist when we were being designed mostly for short-term survival benefit.'
She explained that our brain is designed to make calculations using millions of minuscule molecular changes weighted primarily to enhance short-term survival success. However, it does not perform as well when dealing with long-term problems such as climate change, making it hard to imagine the connection between our choices today and the future 50 or 100 years from now.
'And the way we often frame the climate issue is not helping either, when we stress doom and gloom without giving something to work towards,' Duhaime added. 'The brain relies on the reward system to make decisions and to change behavior. While fear can be a motivator, research shows that there is a better chance of behavioral change if there is a positive reward attached to it.'
Our adaptive brain
Duhaime said that the brain is inherently designed to be exquisitely flexible. Humans are highly adaptable to changes in their environment. This adaptability, or plasticity in neural terms, is what allows us to discover new strategies to meet new challenges — one of which is that the brain can change what it finds rewarding as circumstances change.
'What if we offer an attainable, alternative positive vision — a compelling reward — that connects to the specific actions people take today?' asked Duhaime. 'Given new information presented in a relatable way, the brain can make different decisions and take different actions. If we take climate action and also prioritize diplomatic solutions now to reduce these synergistic crises, we are shifting how we use our human and economic resources in a way that can bend the curve towards a more livable future for generations to come. But this requires a paradigm shift, which is challenging, to say the least.'

For years, scientists have been warning us about the looming crisis of climate change. However, according to a recent study, nearly 15 percent of Americans do not believe climate change is…

At the heart of climate change, war, and health: A case for changing public perspective

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Tuesday approved the KP Climate Action Board Bill, 2025, for the establishment of a climate action board.
The development came during a session chaired by Speaker Babar Saleem Swati.
The draft law moved by law minister Aftab Alam Afridi was unanimously passed by the house after the incorporation of amendments suggested by some opposition members.
Under the law, the climate action board will 'plan, oversee and execute all climate-related initiatives, streamline decision-making and synergise cross-sector efforts to address climate risks faced by the province and for matters connected there with and incidental thereto'.
Demands release of Imran's detained nephews, action against those 'misusing powers'
The draft bill says the climate action or climate initiatives mean any programmes, projects or activities meant to mitigate climate change and the risks associated therewith, adapt to climate change, support climate change research and promote awareness about the climate change with the objective to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, encourage low-carbon economy, enhance climate change resilience and promote sustainable development.
Section 3 of the bill states that there will be the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Climate Action Board to coordinate and oversee climate strategies across departments to ensure harmonisation of efforts. The board will be administratively and functionally independent, while the government will make best efforts to promote, enhance and maintain the board's independence.
The board will have the authority to develop, review, amend and oversee the execution of climate policies and action plans for the province; advise government on climate policies, commitments and strategies; conduct and maintain provincial greenhouse gas inventories and establish emissions baselines, and conduct, promote and oversee research on mitigation, adaptation and climate finance.
The board will also be responsible for climate tagging of all schemes in the Annual Development Programme for alignment with climate goals, mobilising financial resources for climate action and establish, operate and maintain the dedicated Climate Action Board Fund, and coordinating and pitching provincial projects for international climate financing like Green Climate Finance, Climate Investment Finance and Global Environment Facility.
It will also facilitate participation in carbon markets, support the generation of carbon credits, establish and implement carbon pricing mechanisms to encourage low-carbon development, monitor and evaluate the implementation and progress of climate action programmes and projects. Also, the board will conduct public awareness campaigns on climate change, promote environmental sustainability, engage with stakeholders, including communities, industries and civil society, and ensure community resilience to climate change, including systems for adoptive and shock responsive social protection.
The additional chief secretary (planning and development) will be the chairperson of the board, while its members include secretaries of the finance, law, climate change, energy and powers, transport, local government departments, four nominees from the private sector at least one woman and two members of the provincial assembly to be nominated by the speaker.
Statement of object and reasons for the bill said KP faced growing climate-related threats, such as extreme weather, glacial melt and deforestation, which endangered lives, ecosystem and economic stability. However, the absence of a centralised institutional mechanism has limited its ability to respond effectively.
The house also approved the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Aasan Karobar Bill, 2025, and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Tourism (Amendment) Bill, 2025.
The lawmakers also adopted a resolution demanding the release of Shershah Khan and Shahraiz Khan, the nephews of PTI founder Imran Khan.
The resolution, moved by PTI MPA Asif Khan Mehsud, also called for the immediate withdrawal of 'false and vindictive charges' against Shershah and Shahraiz.
It also demanded accountability of all those 'misusing power' and urged authorities to ensure such acts are not repeated.
The resolution said no citizen should be subjected to arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention or political victimisation.
The chair later adjourned the session until next Friday.
Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2025

Demands release of Imran's detained nephews, action against those 'misusing powers'.

KP Assembly passes bill to establish climate action board

CBS News has leaned on content from a climate change group produced by former network staffers.
In recent weeks, CBS News has disclosed in both on-air and online reports its coordination with Climate Central, a nonprofit that calls itself a "policy-neutral" and "independent group of scientists and communicators who research and report the facts about our changing climate and how it affects people's lives."
CBS News has cited Climate Central research dozens of times since 2021, according to Grabien transcripts. But it wasn't until July that the network began consistently referring to "our partners at Climate Central" on air.
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Last month, CBS News published a story about melting glaciers that also aired on "Sunday Morning." Ben Tracy was the correspondent on the segment, with his byline at the top of the article. A disclaimer at the bottom read, "Story produced by Chris Spinder, in partnership with Climate Central. Editor: Chris Jolly."
Another CBS News article in July, also tied to an on-air segment with Tracy, included the disclaimer that the story was "produced in partnership with Climate Central."
Read On The Fox News App
Tracy and Spinder don't work for CBS News, at least not anymore. They work for Climate Central. Only Jolly is a current CBS News staffer, according to his LinkedIn page.
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Climate Central's website promotes its "Partnership Journalism" program, which it says "contributes data, science and data reporting, editing and guidance to joint features coverage informed by new climate data" to other outlets.
"A partner outlet contributes local reporting, including field reporting, photography and some editing for a story. We contribute data and charts plus a science reporter and an editor," Climate Central states. "For a text story, we help craft a feature in a way that puts climate change in appropriate and accurate context. For broadcast media, we provide story and interview suggestions and help develop and review scripts. Climate Central's researchers assist with fact-checking."
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Outlining how it gets credited, Climate Central says, "We share bylines with print partners and ask broadcast partners to mention our partnership in their coverage." It also says, "There is no charge to the authors or their institutions and the work is explanatory, not promotional."
Tracy, CBS News' former senior national and environmental correspondent, left the network in September 2024. On his Instagram page, he now calls himself a "Climate Journalist on assignment for Climate Central."
"For Climate Central, I'm Ben Tracy," he says to viewers at the end of his on-air reports.
Spinder, a longtime producer for CBS News, left the network in May and immediately joined Climate Central as a senior producer, according to his LinkedIn page.
"I produce network-quality, broadcast-standard feature news stories focusing on climate and environmental topics and distribute them to 200+ stations across the United States," Spinder writes on his Linkedin profile. "We operate in conjunction with the independent, nonprofit, non-partisan science-based platform Climate Central and adhere to the highest level of journalistic standards that we've practiced for decades working inside traditional network news operations including CBS Network News."
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Climate Central's site links to articles from local news outlets it has partnered with. Shari Bell, the group's vice president for content creation, told Fox News Digital that Climate Central "works with many news organizations." When asked which other national outlets have used its produced content, like CBS News, Bell cited The Weather Channel and Scripps News.
Bell confirmed Tracy and Spinder began working for Climate Central earlier this year but refrained from elaborating on what goes into the editorial process in its collaboration with CBS News.
Climate Central describes itself as a "nonadvocacy organization" that "communicates climate change science, effects, and solutions to the public and decision-makers." Among its stated values: "We advance no specific policy, legislation, or technology to address climate change. We are scrupulously non-advocacy and non-partisan."
The organization emphasizes "equity," writing, "We are committed to investigating and communicating the unequal burdens of climate change and to engaging with affected communities," a sentiment echoed in its "Fairness statement."
"Climate change is an engine of inequity. Around the world, socially and economically disadvantaged groups that have barely contributed to the problem often face its gravest threats and impacts," the group states. "In turn, these impacts magnify the inequalities that precede them, as the most-affected populations commonly have the fewest resources to prepare, respond, or recover. In the United States, historically marginalized groups at special risk include Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities."
Paramount, Cbs Forced To Pay Eight Figures, Change Editorial Policy In Settlement With President TrumpIt adds, "Climate Central regularly highlights the fundamental inequities of climate change. We reaffirm our commitment to investigate and publicize the unequal burdens of climate change, and to increase our efforts in this area. We also reaffirm our commitment to engage with affected communities in developing and disseminating our materials, and to increase our efforts to feature experts from diverse backgrounds."
The website also includes a "Picturing Our Future" page featuring interactive split images showing world landmarks underwater if "we keep our current carbon path" towards global warming.
After Fox News Digital asked CBS News for comment, the network scrubbed the "partnership" language in its disclaimer from one of the articles, which now reads, "This story was provided by Climate Central," and also removed Tracy's byline. A spokesperson for CBS News declined to comment.
Original article source: CBS News leans on reporting produced by outside climate change group

CBS News has been airing segments produced by climate change nonprofit Climate Central with the help of a correspondent and a producer who previously worked for the network.

CBS News leans on reporting produced by outside climate change group

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Tuesday approved the KP Climate Action Board Bill, 2025, for the establishment of a climate action board.
The development came during a session chaired by Speaker Babar Saleem Swati.
The draft law moved by law minister Aftab Alam Afridi was unanimously passed by the house after the incorporation of amendments suggested by some opposition members.
Under the law, the climate action board will 'plan, oversee and execute all climate-related initiatives, streamline decision-making and synergise cross-sector efforts to address climate risks faced by the province and for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto.'
Demands release of Imran's detained nephews, action against those 'misusing powers'
The draft bill says the climate action or climate initiatives mean any programmes, projects or activities meant to mitigate climate change and the risks associated therewith, adapt to climate change, support climate change research and promote awareness about the climate change with the objective to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, encourage low-carbon economy, enhance climate change resilience and promote sustainable development.
Section 3 of the bill states that there will be the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Climate Action Board to coordinate and oversee climate strategies across departments to ensure harmonisation of efforts. The board will be administratively and functionally independent, while the government will make best efforts to promote, enhance and maintain the board's independence.
The board will have the authority to develop, review, amend and oversee the execution of climate policies and action plans for the province; advise government on climate policies, commitments and strategies; conduct and maintain provincial greenhouse gas inventories and establish emissions baselines, and conduct, promote and oversee research on mitigation, adaptation and climate finance.
The board will also be responsible for climate tagging of all schemes in the Annual Development Programme for alignment with climate goals, mobilising financial resources for climate action and establish, operate and maintain the dedicated Climate Action Board Fund, and coordinating and pitching provincial projects for international climate financing like Green Climate Finance, Climate Investment Finance and Global Environment Facility.
It will also facilitate participation in carbon markets, support the generation of carbon credits, establish and implement carbon pricing mechanisms to encourage low-carbon development, monitor and evaluate the implementation and progress of climate action programmes and projects. Also, the board will conduct public awareness campaigns on climate change, promote environmental sustainability, engage with stakeholders, including communities, industries and civil society, and ensure community resilience to climate change, including systems for adoptive and shock responsive social protection.
The additional chief secretary (planning and development) will be the chairperson of the board, while its members include secretaries of the finance, law, climate change, energy and powers, transport, local government departments, four nominees from the private sector at least one woman and two members of the provincial assembly to be nominated by the speaker.
Statement of object and reasons for the bill said KP faced growing climate-related threats, such as extreme weather, glacial melt and deforestation, which endangered lives, ecosystem and economic stability. However, the absence of a centralised institutional mechanism has limited its ability to respond effectively.
The house also approved the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Aasan Karobar Bill, 2025, and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Tourism (Amendment) Bill, 2025.
The lawmakers also adopted a resolution demanding the release of Shershah Khan and Shahraiz Khan, the nephews of PTI founder Imran Khan.
The resolution, moved by PTI MPA Asif Khan Mehsud, also called for the immediate withdrawal of 'false and vindictive charges' against Shershah and Shahraiz.
It also demanded accountability of all those 'misusing power' and urged authorities to ensure such acts are not repeated.
The resolution said no citizen should be subjected to arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention or political victimisation.
The chair later adjourned the session until next Friday.
Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2025

Demands release of Imran's detained nephews, action against those 'misusing powers'

PA passes bill to establish climate action board

The recent floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, generally attributed to cloudbursts, caught both the government and local communities off guard.
These events highlighted a significant gap in climate change adaptation policies and action plans, as disaster preparedness measures and early warning systems were either lacking or insufficient. The lack of proactive, anticipatory planning not only intensified the immediate damage but also highlighted the urgent need to integrate foresight planning and anticipatory adaptation approaches into climate policies and disaster risk management at the provincial and local levels.
Climate change–related extreme events are among the most serious challenges facing humanity in the twenty-first century. The phenomenon of climate change is leading to higher temperatures, erratic rainfall patterns, and an increased frequency of extreme events, such as flash floods, heatwaves and droughts. These, in turn, are causing loss of life, land degradation, livelihood insecurity, disruption of food systems and displacement of people. Scientists and experts agree that the impacts of climate change are evident in recurring natural disasters, and the recent surge in such events has caused widespread destruction across the globe.
Pakistan is one of the most climate change vulnerable countries, and according to Germanwatch, it is among the top-most affected countries by the impacts of extreme weather events. According to the Global Climate Risk Index, Pakistan was ranked the fifth most vulnerable country in 2023-24, affected severely by climate change-related extreme events.
Flooding in Pakistan is a continuous and devastating natural disaster, particularly during the monsoon season (June to September). The country has faced severe floods over the years; however, the frequency and severity of floods have increased since 2010, resulting in significant loss of lives, displacement and economic damage. The recent heavy rains and flash floods have caused more than 700 deaths and about 1000 injuries in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Karachi. [And now Punjab is going through a flood devastation].
The series of catastrophic floods since 2010 has led to the destruction of infrastructure and the displacement of millions of people. Compounding the crisis, the melting of the glaciers in the mountainous Hindukush-Himalayan region has increased the risk of glacial lake outburst floods and landslides. KP and Gilgit-Baltistan are among the regions most severely affected by long-term shifts in temperature and weather patterns. These mountainous regions have experienced increasingly frequent and intense climate change-related challenges, including riverine floods, heatwaves, glacial lake bursts, droughts, and cloud bursts, which have had profound effects on local ecosystems, livelihoods and overall environmental resilience.
In response to the climate challenges, Pakistan has pursued mitigation and adaptation through consistent policy measures and regulatory frameworks. The Pakistan Environmental Protection Ordinance (1983) was the first major step in establishing key institutions, such as the Pakistan Environmental Protection Council and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency. This was followed by the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act (1997), the country's first comprehensive legislation focused on environmental protection, sustainable development and mainstreaming environmental concerns into national policies. Building on this foundation, the Pakistan Climate Change Act (2017) and the National Climate Change Policy, first introduced in 2012 and revised in 2021, reflect Pakistan's commitment to climate-resilient development and adaptation.
The National Adaptation Plan (NAP) was released in 2023 after the devastating floods of 2022. Similarly, in KP, a significant step towards environmental governance was taken in 2014 when the KP Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Act was enacted and a Climate Change Cell was established within the EPA to assess the effects of climate change across various sectors in the province and to develop action plans and coping strategies. Consequently, KP became the first province in Pakistan to draft and approve a Provincial Climate Change Policy in 2017; similarly, the Climate Change Action Plans for various districts of KP have also been developed. Similarly, the first-ever Urban Policy of the province was also created, in which climate change adaptation and mitigation have been emphasised exclusively.
A deep dive into the national and provincial climate change adaptation policies and action plans reveals that most of these policies are reactive and built around a singular vision of a predictable future. Consequently, these plans lack flexibility to adapt to future trends and shocks, such as unexpected weather events or shifting socio-economic conditions. This highlights the importance of anticipatory adaptation, which emphasises the proactive approach to prepare for possible multiple futures. Anticipatory adaptation refers to planned actions aimed at reducing vulnerability to climate change impacts before they occur. This contrasts with reactive adaptation, which addresses climate impacts only after they have already taken place.
While Pakistan's climate change policies and adaptation plans present a holistic, multi-sectoral framework to address climate impacts and disasters, they largely overlook anticipatory adaptation and community perspectives, instead relying on a top-down approach. The unprecedented damage to lives and infrastructure caused by recent floods and other disasters over the past few years has further highlighted this gap. Despite commitments outlined in national and provincial adaptation policies regarding community engagement, genuine efforts to meaningfully engage local communities, especially women and smallholder farmers, remain limited in practice.
Integrating a foresight approach into climate change planning enables policymakers to think beyond linear projections and consider multiple futures, taking into account critical uncertainties, megatrends and potential disruptive events that are often overlooked in current policy frameworks.
Foresight and anticipatory adaptation help identify risks as well as opportunities that otherwise remain hidden. Climate change adaptation policy frameworks should integrate foresight-based scenario planning, strengthen community participation, and prioritise anticipatory adaptation measures to ensure resilience against future climate uncertainties.

The recent floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, generally attributed to cloudbursts, caught both the government and local communities off guard.These events highlighted a significant gap in climate change...

Disaster foresight

Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav met the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) President, Andre Correa do Lago, and his team in Delhi on Monday and discussed important agenda items for the gathering in November in Brazil's Belem. Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav with COP30 President Andre Correa do Lago. (X)
In a post on X, Yadav said the discussion focused on the Global Goal on Adaptation, the status of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and the Presidency plans. 'Reiterated how India, under the leadership of PM Shri @narendramodi ji, through its whole-of-government approach, has been combating the climate change crisis through its domestic and international climate action programmes.'
On June 5, Yadav told HT that India's goal of becoming a developed country by 2047 is of paramount importance, and the country's climate actions should align with that. He explained India's stand on climate change negotiations amid geopolitical disruptions.
India is formulating its first comprehensive National Adaptation Plan (NAP) to enhance resilience to climate change. NAP represents a major step forward in aligning adaptation planning with India's national development priorities and global climate commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement.
Yadav had said the NAP seeks to protect lives, ecosystems, and livelihoods by understanding current and future climate risks and vulnerabilities, identifying medium- and long-term priorities for climate adaptation, and establishing systems, policies, measures, and capacities to ensure strengthened adaptation planning, budgeting, and implementation.
Officials said India is expected to submit its national adaptation plan this year.
Selwin Hart, special adviser to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on climate change, has told HT that the UN chief has written to heads of state and governments inviting them to an event on September 24, and to use the platform to announce their new NDCs.
On July 22, Guterres said fossil fuels are on the verge of 'running out of the road', and the world is on the cusp of a new clean energy era.
On August 29, the COP30 Presidency sent its seventh letter to the international community and parties to the Paris Agreement. It said reinforcing multilateralism and the climate change regime under the UNFCCC, connecting the climate regime to people's real lives and the real economy, and accelerating the implementation of the Paris Agreement were three interconnected priorities the Brazilian Presidency envisions for COP30.

In a post on X, Yadav said their discussion focused on the Global Goal on Adaptation, the status of Nationally Determined Contributions, and the Presidency plans

Bhupender Yadav meets COP30 President, discusses climate agenda

The island of Ireland has a moderate climate with few temperature extremes. Its temperature record is still 'only' 33C. Almost every other country has been hotter at some point.
However, even somewhere with a relatively pleasant and cool climate isn't immune to the risks of climate change. Recent severe storms such as Floris, Bert, Darragh, and Éowyn have brought strong winds, more intense floods, and a greater risk of blackouts and eroded coastlines.
It's too soon to definitively link this extreme weather to climate change, but computer models that simulate the climate decades into the future predict stronger storms and more floods.
We are already noticing extreme weather happening at unexpected times of year. The sea level is rising and coastlines are eroding at an alarming rate.
Ireland's position on the edge of the Atlantic — the very reason for its mild climate — makes it especially vulnerable.
Those recent severe storms remind us that climate change is a serious threat to wellbeing and, in the longer term, the survival of human life as we know it.
Around 40% of the Irish population lives within a few miles of the coast. That's where the ports, airports, and other infrastructure Ireland's small open economy depends on are concentrated. Key industries such as tourism, fisheries, and aquaculture are particularly exposed to disruption.
Higher seas and stronger storms are particular economic and social threats, not just environmental threats.
As coastal populations grow, risks to homes, businesses, and infrastructure will only escalate
A government opinion tracking initiative has indicated there is no shortage of climate change awareness in Ireland.
However, awareness alone has not translated into urgent action. Too often, the conversation around climate change gets stuck on the reliability of electric vehicles or whether wind turbines spoil the view. Such debates miss the point and risk fuelling climate scepticism.
Recognising ourselves as the chief perpetrators of climate change is the first step towards real behavioural change. This means moving away from a linear economy of extraction and waste towards a circular one based on reusing, repurposing, and recycling resources wherever possible.
Scientists have an invaluable role to play here.
An initiative called the Maharees Conservation Association is leveraging local knowledge to protect the northern peninsula of Dingle. Picture: Domnick Walsh
Given the relatively recent recognition that a climate-driven increase in extreme weather is a serious hazard, Ireland now needs a foundation of relevant evidence to ensure it makes the right decisions about living with and adapting to climate change.
This must include robust modelling and predictions about what is in store, particularly around storms and rising seas.
Policymakers must translate this into clear strategies for coping with the risk of flooding — from flood defences and storm-resistant infrastructure to better water management during periods of alternating droughts and downpours.
A community initiative called the Maharees Conservation Association is leveraging local knowledge to protect the northern peninsula of Dingle in Kerry — one of the first places Atlantic storms slam into. The area is implementing a coastal erosion management plan, and the Dingle Hub — a non-profit community enterprise — is working to turn the region into a low-carbon society.
Social entrepreneurs are not only contributing to lower carbon emissions, they are also educating, facilitating, and supporting communities in tackling climate change
The Irish Government too has made a statutory commitment to achieve a 'climate-neutral' and climate-resilient economy by 2050 — a crucial step in a country with one of the larger carbon footprints in the world.
Meanwhile, local authorities are leading campaigns on circular economies, energy use, and are establishing climate action regional offices to focus on climate change.
Ireland cannot hold back the seas or calm the storms, but it can decide how to respond — through stronger science, smarter policy, and, above all, collective responsibility.
As sea levels rise, storms surge, and flooding increases, there is a need for us all to find ways of being part of climate solutions rather than merely being part of the problem.
Graham J Dwyer is an associate professor of social innovation at Trinity College Dublin. Karen Helen Wiltshire is a professor of climate sciences in Trinity College Dublin. This piece was first published on
The Conversation.

Given the relatively recent recognition that a climate-driven increase in extreme weather is a serious hazard, Ireland now needs a foundation of relevant evidence to ensure it makes the right…

Stronger science, smarter policy, and collective responsibility will help us fight climate change

There is a stark gap between students' lived experiences of climate catastrophes and the climate change taught in schools, especially in vulnerable regions of India, according to a recent report.
The report titled 'Towards Quality Climate Change Education For All,' by academicians Ruchira Das and Ranjana Das, claimed that the policies on environment and climate science within the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2023 are not successfully implemented.
'Climate change is no longer an appropriate term for us to use; we are in a climate emergency', said Justin Matthew, Associate Professor of History, University of Delhi, who attended a seminar on the report.
It was also highlighted that there was a disproportionate impact on women, labour classes and tribal and rural populations from climate change. 'The Global South lacks climate adaptive infrastructure and coping strategies, making the need for climate education even more necessary,' said Anand Singh, regional director for 'Education International: Asia-Pacific'.
Citing her experience, Huma Masood from UNESCO, said the 2023 Kerala floods were an example of how climate events displace populations.
Jyoti Dalal and Krishna Menon, faculty members at DU, stated that the market-driven nature of modern education was a barrier to successful policy development and implementation in the country.
They also highlighted how the lack of input by disadvantaged groups and women in educational policies has a significant impact on the efficiency of the policies.

Report reveals disconnect between climate education in schools and real-life climate crises in India, urging urgent policy changes.

Stark gap between climate change taught in India and lived experience: report

For decades, Houstonian Lisa Brenskelle spent her days working as a chemical engineer, and her free time fighting for environmental and climate issues.
'I am a Christian, and Christianity is very clear that the whole reason we're on the planet is to take care of it,' Brenskelle said. 'Destroying a stable climate is not taking care of it.'
It was this conviction that landed 60-year-old Brenskelle on a Zoom call in mid-August, staring down a panel of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency representatives.
The topic? An obscure-sounding rule, the 'endangerment finding,' that falls under the Clean Air Act and justifies the federal government's efforts to combat climate change. It affirmed that greenhouse gas emissions harmed public health and welfare, which put them in the EPA's purview.
Since January, new EPA leaders and President Donald Trump have been vocal about their efforts to dismantle that finding — permanently, if possible. Brenskelle thought that would be very bad.
'Human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are the primary cause of observed climate change,' Brenskelle told EPA officials on the Zoom call, citing consistent statements from three U.S. agencies, one federal research program and the scientific academies.
This, she said, meant that since climate change is impacting the nation's health, the government had to be able to regulate it. She later said that as a Houstonian and a Christian, 'all of this was very personal.'
Swarms of researchers at Houston's universities have focused on that personal impact for Houstonians: the city's unique position in the climate story.
With its industrial footprint and massive vehicle emissions, Houston has repeatedly ranked among the top five urban areas worldwide for climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions, according to the global data collaboration ClimateTRACE.
Yet as a coastal city with a major port, Houston is also at risk from a warming climate that fuels stronger storms.
'Houston is a funny location because we have this juxtaposition of this huge emissions powerhouse, but then we're also ground zero for climate change in the United States,' said Sylvia Dee, a climate scientist at Rice University.
'Houston and the Gulf Coast in general have every type of climate disaster made worse by climate change,' she added.
Houston is on 'borrowed time'
Hundreds of Houstonians have died in the past couple of decades from the region's floods, freezes, droughts, high winds and heat waves. Researchers have found that some of the city's most memorable recent weather events were made worse by climate change.
This local impact drove Houston city council member Abbie Kamin to speak during the EPA's four days scheduled for virtual public input. Like Brenskelle, she waited in the virtual queue to comment on the agency's plan to nix federal climate regulation.
'This is a very Houston issue. We are already seeing the impacts of climate change. We have had nine federally declared disasters in 11 years, and that's floods to droughts to freezes,' Kamin later told the Chronicle, highlighting Hurricane Harvey as one example. She said she planned to use 'any and all avenues' to protect the city for her nearly quarter-million constituents.
'Here in Houston, we are on borrowed time,' Kamin said.
A peer-reviewed study from 2022 found that up to half of the Houston-area structures that flooded during Hurricane Harvey five years earlier would not have filled with water without climate change's exacerbating impact. It concluded climate change has made key weather events more extreme, 'such as with rainfall during hurricanes.'
New EPA leadership has questioned the reliability of such conclusions. The agency's August proposal to nix the endangerment finding and related vehicle emission standards said that 'developments cast significant doubt on the reliability' of its own former assessment on the dangers of human-triggered climate change.
The environmental agency pointed to a new climate report from the Department of Energy that does not disprove the mechanics of climate change, but questions the relationship between that change and increases in extreme weather. The report's logic has been criticized by many climate scientists.
Hurricanes and other storms came up frequently in public arguments against the EPA's plan to repeal the endangerment finding. So did a number of other health triggers felt in Houston, including the direct impacts of hotter temperatures.
John Balbus, who until February directed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' climate office, said that scientific consensus around health impacts had solidified in the years since the EPA's deep dive into existing research led to the endangerment finding.
As one example, he pointed to a landmark paper from 2021 that found over a third of heat-related deaths globally could be attributed to climate change. An unprecedented declaration followed: 200 of the world's leading medical journals called the catastrophic health risks caused by climate change 'unequivocal.'
'The science is very strong,' Balbus said. 'Climate change is often called a force multiplier, and it is absolutely a force multiplier for health inequity in this country.'
In the initial months of Trump's second presidential term, many of the federal government's climate officials and projects were terminated – Balbus included.
Trump and the 'climate change religion'
Trump made clear his disdain for the 'climate change religion' since taking office, in April dismissing about 400 scientists and experts who were working on a comprehensive National Climate Assessment on U.S. impacts. But his administration came up with an alternative, a review written by a five-member Climate Working Group hand-picked by Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
Wright has acknowledged that greenhouse gas emissions are raising global temperatures, but as he told a packed room at Houston-based energy conference CERAWeek in March, he thinks climate change is 'a side effect of building the modern world.'
The Department of Energy released its climate report on July 23, which was quickly followed by the Environmental Protection Agency's official move to end the endangerment finding. These two most recent actions are the latest in a string of efforts since January to turn national climate policy on its head.
The report concluded that 'the combination of overly sensitive models and implausible extreme scenarios for future emissions yields exaggerated projections of future warming.'
According to Travis Fisher, the Cato Institute's head of energy and environment who helped put together the new report, the goal to 'reorient the debate about climate science' was achieved by confronting gatekeepers and illuminating inconvenient truths. The think tank leader said in a blog post on the process that he believes 'human activity is causing observable climate change, but it's not a crisis.'
Texas researcher leads scientists' rebuttal
To Andrew Dessler, a Texas A&M professor and head of the Texas Center for Extreme Weather, the effort followed the playbook of tobacco companies starting in the 1960s: raise doubts about the science.
'They just want to muddy the waters to the extent where the U.S. government can say, 'We don't know how bad it is, and therefore we can't regulate it,'' Dessler said. 'That's the ultimate goal, as far as I can tell.'
When Dessler first read the 150-page report, he said he 'felt it made a mockery of science.' Taking to multiple social media channels, he asked if any other climate scientists were putting together a rebuttal. Dozens responded offering to help him organize one, but none took the lead. So it fell on him.
The result, over 450 pages written by more than 85 climate scientists in one month, said that in its current form, the DOE report 'fails to adequately represent the scientific understanding of climate change.'
Dessler said the researchers mainly argued that report authors had cherry-picked or misrepresented data and information in a way that allowed them to frame climate science with an inaccurate level of doubt.
Still, the DOE's climate report could prove instrumental in the government's case for nixing the endangerment finding, and with it the federal government's ability to regulate climate – not only under Trump, but for future administrations.
'If the environmental agency of the second biggest polluter on Earth isn't able to regulate greenhouse gasses, that's a big setback,' said Daniel Cohan, an atmospheric scientist at Rice University.
'That's going to exacerbate global warming, which Houston is extremely vulnerable to,' Cohan said.
'The greatest injustice'
Meanwhile, Houston's own Brenskelle is just warming up.
After retiring from her day job on her birthday in July, she is focused on what her husband used to call her 'second full-time job' — leading the justice advocacy ministry for her Lutheran congregation.
She said influencing policy is one of the most impactful things Christians can do, a way to turn charity work — which she said focuses on helping victims — into justice work, or efforts to prevent victimization.
'From my perspective, the greatest injustice at present is the degradation of the environment, because it affects all people everywhere, and all other moving things. There is no other justice issue that has that kind of enormous impact,' she said.
The government is no longer accepting input on the DOE's climate report, but the EPA's proposal to nix greenhouse gas emissions rules is up for public comment through an online portal until Sept. 15.
They have received over 80,000 responses so far.

Houston's emissions and extreme weather vulnerability make it "ground zero for climate change," according to local critics of a proposed end to the EPA's endangerment finding.

‘Ground zero for climate change': Houstonians react to Trump climate rollbacks

A group of more than 85 scientists have issued a joint rebuttal to a recent U.S. Department of Energy report about climate change, finding it full of errors and misrepresenting climate science.
This comes weeks after the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Environmental Defense Fund filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration that alleges that Energy Secretary Chris Wright "quietly arranged for five hand-picked skeptics of the effects of climate change" to compile the government's climate report and violated the law by creating the report in secret with authors "of only one point of view."
The DOE's Climate Working Group consisted of four scientists and one economist who have all questioned the scientific consensus that climate change is a large threat to the world and sometimes frame global warming as beneficial.
The group of climate scientists found several examples where the DOE authors cherry-picked or misrepresented climate science in the agency's report. For instance, in the DOE report the authors claim that rising carbon dioxide can be a "net benefit" to U.S. agriculture, neglecting to mention the negative impacts of more heat and climate-change fueled extreme weather events on crops.
The DOE report also states that there is no evidence of more intense "meteorological" drought in the U.S. or globally, referring to droughts that involve low rainfall. But the dozens of climate scientists point out that this is misleading, because higher temperatures and more evaporation — not just low rainfall — can lead to and exacerbate droughts. They say that there are, in fact, many studies showing how climate change has exacerbated droughts.
"This report was reviewed internally by a group of DOE scientific researchers and policy experts from the Office of Science and National Labs," writes Ben Dietderich, chief spokesperson for the DOE in an email to NPR.
Dietderich adds that "the Trump administration is committed to engaging in a more thoughtful and science-based conversation about climate change and energy."
The Trump administration wants the government to stop regulating climate pollution. The DOE report was cited multiple times by the Environmental Protection Agency in its recent proposal to roll back what's known as the endangerment finding, which is the basis for rules regulating climate pollution, including from coal and gas-fired power plants, cars and trucks, and methane from the oil and gas industry.
The DOE report "is about providing fodder for further actions down the track, which will roll back progress on climate action," says John Cook, a senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne who studies climate science misinformation. " The DOE report is basically arguing climate change is no big deal, therefore we shouldn't act. Always it's about trying to delay action and maintain the status quo."
The group of more than 85 scientists recently submitted their review of the Climate Working Group report to the Federal Register as part of the DOE's 30-day open-comment period, which closes on Tuesday.
Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, coordinated the response from dozens of climate experts. He says unlike the DOE report, climate reports from groups such as the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change feature the work of hundreds of global scientists and require multiple rounds of peer review.
Dessler argues that this DOE report, released in late July, is important to pay attention to, because of what he and other scientists identify as problems with the science, and because of how the report is being used by the Trump administration to roll back the endangerment finding. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin has said the goal of the administration is "driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion."
Travis Fisher is the director of energy and environmental policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. He coordinated the work of the DOE's Climate Working Group. He says the DOE would look at what comes in during the open-comment period.
"If there are errors, they'll correct them, of course," Fisher says. "And I don't know if any group like this could produce a 150-page document without any errors. So we'll see what comes up."

More than 85 scientists say that a recent U.S. Department of Energy report is full of errors and misrepresents climate science.

Dozens of scientists find errors in a new Energy Department climate report

As the clock ticks down on the public comment period for the EPA's proposed repeal of the 2009 Endangerment Finding, much of the backlash centers on the argument that the DOE report justifying the regulatory move allegedly contradicts the scientific consensus on climate change. So now would be a good time to remind everyone that there is no scientific consensus about man-made climate change (97% or otherwise) despite what's been reported in the press for years.
Ever since Al Gore declared in 2007 that the science around climate change had been settled, the climate industry has endeavored to present a unified front and project an overwhelming scientific consensus to reinforce its appeal to authority and shut down dissent.
For the past decade, it has been widely reported that 97% of climate scientists supposedly agree that human activities are causing anthropogenic global warming. This headline number is based on a 2013 research study published by Cook et al. which looked at 11,944 climate research papers published in the Environmental Research Letters journal between 1991 and 2011.
After first categorizing each publication as either endorsing global warming or rejecting or expressing no opinion on the theory, the Cook study then subjectively characterized the climate change view of each author. Only 33% of the papers included in the 21-year sample endorsed global warming theory and, of these, 97% agreed with the consensus view that human activity is the cause.
This is the '97% scientific consensus' number that has been repeated ad nauseam without mentioning the fact that two-thirds of the climate papers included in the Cook study were agnostic on the subject of man-made climate change. Yeah, really.
The main takeaway from the Cook consensus study is just how big a business climate change has become. Doing the math, 11,944 climate research papers published over 21 years works out to roughly one new climate paper every 16 hours, highlighting the research propaganda machine behind the public narrative.
National Center for Energy Analytics Mark P Mills Texas Public Policy Foundation Chuck DeVore Brent Bennett State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) Manhattan Institute The Heritage Foundation American Enterprise Institute API - American Petroleum Institute Fmr. Rep. Jason Isaac American Institute for Economic Research - AIER American Energy Institute Energy Policy Research Foundation, Inc. (EPRINC) David A. CFA Institute FIASI .org NYU Stern School of Business NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business PetroNerds U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Skeptical Science
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BOTTOMLINE: 'The main takeaway from the Cook consensus study is just how big a business climate change has become. Doing the math, 11,944 climate research papers published over 21 years works out to roughly one new climate paper every 16 hours, highlighting the research propaganda machine behind the public narrative.'

'As the clock ticks down on the public comment period for the EPA's proposed repeal of the 2009 Endangerment Finding, much of the backlash centers on the argument that the DOE report justifying…'

HEADLINE: 'There is no scientific consensus about man-made climate change (97% or otherwise)', By PAUL TICE

Evidence on climate change is clear
Interestingly, juxtaposed in the letters to the editor section in the Aug. 2-3 edition were two letters, one of which lauded your coverage of climate change and its possible effect on Frederick County and the other denigrating climate change as 'hysteria.' ('Great coverage of climate change'; 'Climate effects have been hyped')

Evidence on climate change is clear

ISLAMABAD: The Cambridge University Press & Assessment on Tuesday unveiled the Pakistan edition of Climate Quest, a pioneering climate literacy programme designed to empower young learners with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to respond to the climate crisis.
Developed in collaboration with Cambridge Zero at the University of Cambridge and the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), the Pakistan edition is part of Cambridge's wider global commitment to embedding climate change education across all levels of learning.
The free 2.5-hour self-paced online course is tailored for learners in years 8 to 12 and is open to students across all education boards, including government schools.
The course provides a foundational awareness of climate change and connects global climate science with pressing local challenges such as the 2010 floods, the 2017 heatwave, Lahore's air pollution crisis, and Pakistan's national sustainability policies, including flood protection plans.
By linking global science to regional realities, Climate Quest equips students to translate learning into action, encouraging them to develop community-based projects that advance sustainability and climate resilience. The launch event in Pakistan brought together school leaders, policymakers, journalists, and representatives from the Ministry of Climate Change. The ceremony was attended by Romina Khurshid Alam, Coordinator to the PM on Climate Change, Faisal Khan Tarakai, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education, and Farah Naz Akbar, Parliamentary Secretary for the MoFEPT.
Speaking at the event, Peter Phillips, Chief Executive of Cambridge University Press & Assessment, said, 'Pakistan is on the frontline of the climate crisis, but it is also home to one of the world's largest youth populations, full of resilience, innovation, and talent. Through Climate Quest, we want to support learners in Pakistan not only to understand the science of climate change but to design and lead solutions that make a real difference in their communities.'
Uzma Yousuf, Country Director Pakistan Cambridge, said that Climate Quest Pakistan is more than a programme — it is a call to action. 'Our effort is for our children to ensure they are equipped with the climate adaptability and resilience needed to navigate the challenges of today and tomorrow. By embedding local context into global learning, we are empowering students to see themselves as climate leaders and ambassadors for their communities.'
The launch event was featured a panel discussion as well, moderated by Talat Hussain with panelists which included Dr Mehreen Mujtaba, Director Climate Change, Nutrition and Health Pandemic Fund Focal Point, MoNHSR&C, and Malik Amin Aslam, Former Federal Minister/Advisor to Prime Minister on Climate Change with the theme of 'Climate in the classroom: teaching for a resilient future.'
The initiative is part of a wider global framework: Climate Quest will continue to expand into more countries and age groups, with content and assessments updated regularly to reflect the latest in climate science and education.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025

ISLAMABAD: The Cambridge University Press & Assessment on Tuesday unveiled the Pakistan edition of Climate ...

Cambridge launches Pakistan edition of Climate Quest

Introduction
Climate change is no longer just an environmental issue; it has become one of the most pressing economic challenges of our time. The increasing frequency of natural disasters, rising global temperatures, sea-level rise, and shifting weather patterns are not only affecting ecosystems but also shaking the foundations of global markets. Businesses, investors, policymakers, and governments are realizing that climate risks translate into economic risks. From agriculture to energy, from finance to manufacturing, every sector is vulnerable.
Global markets operate on stability, predictability, and growth. Climate change disrupts all three. As extreme weather events damage supply chains, droughts reduce agricultural productivity, floods displace communities, and wildfires threaten infrastructure, the costs to economies rise. Additionally, climate-related policies, carbon pricing mechanisms, green technologies, and changing consumer preferences are reshaping global trade and investment flows.
In this essay, we will explore the multifaceted effects of climate change on global markets, including direct economic costs, sectoral impacts, financial market risks, trade disruptions, and investment opportunities in the green economy. We will also analyze the role of governments, corporations, and international institutions in mitigating risks and shaping a sustainable future.
1. Understanding Climate Change as an Economic Risk
Climate change manifests in various forms—rising global average temperatures, melting ice caps, ocean acidification, extreme weather events, and shifts in rainfall patterns. While traditionally discussed in environmental and scientific terms, economists and market analysts now frame climate change as a systemic economic risk.
1.1 Physical Risks
Physical risks stem from the direct impact of climate change on assets, infrastructure, and supply chains. For example:
Hurricanes damaging oil refineries and ports.
Droughts reducing crop yields and increasing food prices.
Rising sea levels threatening coastal cities, ports, and real estate.
1.2 Transition Risks
Transition risks arise from the shift toward a low-carbon economy. Governments and corporations are under pressure to reduce carbon emissions. Policies such as carbon taxes, emissions trading schemes, and restrictions on fossil fuels can disrupt industries. For example:
Coal and oil companies losing market value.
Automakers investing heavily in electric vehicles (EVs).
Banks reconsidering lending to high-carbon industries.
1.3 Liability Risks
Companies may face lawsuits and compensation claims for contributing to climate change or failing to disclose climate-related risks. This is especially relevant for energy companies and corporations that knowingly pollute or understate their carbon footprint.
2. Climate Change & Sectoral Impacts on Global Markets
Different sectors are affected in different ways. Let us examine key industries:
2.1 Agriculture & Food Markets
Agriculture is highly climate-sensitive. Droughts, floods, and erratic rainfall affect crop yields. For instance:
Wheat and rice production in Asia is threatened by heatwaves.
Coffee and cocoa crops in Africa and Latin America are shifting to higher altitudes.
Fisheries are impacted by ocean warming and acidification.
This leads to food price volatility in global markets, affecting trade balances and creating inflationary pressures.
2.2 Energy Markets
Energy is central to climate change discussions. Fossil fuel demand is declining in developed economies, while renewable energy sources are expanding. Oil-exporting nations face revenue risks, while renewable energy industries like solar, wind, and hydropower attract massive investments.
The volatility of oil prices is no longer just geopolitical but also linked to climate policies. For example, announcements of net-zero commitments by large economies reduce investor confidence in long-term fossil fuel projects.
2.3 Real Estate & Infrastructure
Rising sea levels and extreme weather events threaten coastal cities. Real estate markets in regions like Miami, Bangkok, and Jakarta face declining property values. Insurance premiums for flood-prone areas are skyrocketing, affecting mortgage markets and construction industries.
2.4 Manufacturing & Supply Chains
Global supply chains are highly exposed to climate disruptions. For instance:
Floods in Thailand in 2011 disrupted global automobile and electronics supply chains.
Droughts in Taiwan affected semiconductor manufacturing due to water shortages.
This introduces volatility into global trade and stock markets.
2.5 Financial Services & Insurance
Banks, asset managers, and insurers are increasingly recognizing climate risks.
Insurance companies face rising claims from natural disasters.
Investors are shifting capital toward green bonds, ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) funds, and sustainable infrastructure.
Central banks are assessing climate stress tests for financial institutions.
3. Climate Change & Global Trade
Climate change impacts global trade flows in multiple ways:
Resource Scarcity – Countries dependent on water-intensive crops may face shortages, forcing imports and changing trade patterns.
Energy Transition – Demand for fossil fuels is declining, while demand for lithium, cobalt, and rare earth metals (critical for EVs and batteries) is rising.
Maritime Trade Risks – Rising sea levels threaten major ports, while melting Arctic ice is opening new shipping routes, reshaping trade dynamics.
Carbon Border Taxes – The EU and other regions are introducing carbon border adjustment mechanisms (CBAM), taxing imports based on carbon footprints. This shifts competitiveness in global markets.
4. Financial Market Reactions
Global financial markets are increasingly pricing in climate risks.
Equity Markets: High-carbon companies like oil and coal firms see declining valuations. Meanwhile, renewable energy companies, EV makers, and green technology firms see rising stock prices.
Bond Markets: Green bonds are growing rapidly, financing renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure, and climate adaptation projects.
Commodity Markets: Weather volatility creates fluctuations in agricultural commodities like wheat, corn, and soybeans. Energy commodities like oil and gas face policy-driven demand shocks.
Insurance & Derivatives: Catastrophe bonds (CAT bonds) are being used to hedge climate disaster risks. Weather derivatives are also gaining attention.
5. Regional Impacts of Climate Change on Markets
5.1 Developed Economies
The EU is leading in carbon neutrality policies, creating new opportunities in green energy and circular economy industries.
The U.S. is investing heavily in clean energy, EVs, and climate resilience infrastructure.
Japan and South Korea are shifting toward hydrogen energy.
5.2 Emerging Markets
India faces both risks and opportunities: rising heat threatens agriculture, but renewable energy investment is booming.
China is the largest investor in green technologies but still heavily reliant on coal.
African economies dependent on agriculture are highly vulnerable to droughts and floods.
6. Opportunities in Climate Change
While climate change poses risks, it also creates enormous opportunities in new industries.
Renewable Energy – Solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal energy investments are surging.
Electric Vehicles (EVs) – Demand for EVs, batteries, and charging infrastructure is rising globally.
Sustainable Finance – ESG funds and green bonds are reshaping global capital flows.
Carbon Markets – Trading carbon credits is emerging as a billion-dollar industry.
Climate Tech Startups – Innovations in carbon capture, vertical farming, and water desalination are attracting venture capital.
7. Government & Institutional Role
7.1 Policy Interventions
Carbon Pricing: Through taxes or cap-and-trade systems.
Subsidies: For renewable energy and green technology adoption.
Regulations: Emission standards for vehicles, industries, and power plants.
7.2 International Cooperation
Paris Agreement: A global framework for emission reductions.
COP Summits: Annual climate conferences influencing global policy.
Trade Policies: Carbon border taxes, green trade agreements.
7.3 Central Banks & Financial Regulators
Institutions like the Bank of England and European Central Bank are incorporating climate risks into monetary policy, banking regulations, and financial stability assessments.
8. Long-Term Structural Changes in Global Markets
Climate change is accelerating structural changes in global markets:
Shift from fossil fuels to renewables.
Integration of ESG principles into investment decisions.
Redesign of supply chains to reduce climate exposure.
Urban planning focusing on climate resilience.
Emergence of circular economy models.
9. Case Studies
9.1 The 2011 Thailand Floods
Disrupted global automobile and electronics supply chains, costing billions to global corporations like Toyota, Honda, and Western Digital.
9.2 California Wildfires
Insurance companies faced record claims, while real estate markets in fire-prone areas saw declining values.
9.3 European Carbon Markets
The EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) became the world's largest carbon market, pushing industries to reduce emissions and creating new investment products.
10. The Future of Global Markets in a Climate-Changed World
Looking ahead, climate change will increasingly dictate how global markets function.
By 2050, trillions of dollars may shift from fossil fuels to green energy.
Financial institutions that ignore climate risks may face systemic crises.
Countries leading in renewable technologies may dominate future global trade.
Companies failing to adapt to climate realities may lose competitiveness.
The global economy will transition toward sustainability, but the pace and effectiveness of this shift will determine how severe climate-related disruptions become.
Conclusion
Climate change is no longer a distant or abstract risk—it is a present and growing force reshaping global markets. From agriculture to finance, from trade to technology, every sector feels its impact. Market volatility, resource scarcity, and new regulatory landscapes make climate change a defining factor of 21st-century economics.
At the same time, climate change is driving innovation, creating new industries, and reshaping global capital flows. The transition toward renewable energy, sustainable finance, and resilient infrastructure offers both challenges and opportunities.
For investors, corporations, and policymakers, the key lies in recognizing that climate change is not just an environmental issue but a systemic economic transformation. Global markets that adapt early, invest in sustainability, and embrace green innovation will thrive in the new climate economy, while those that resist change may face significant losses.
In essence, climate change is rewriting the rules of global markets—and how humanity responds will determine not only the stability of economies but the future of our planet.

Introduction
Climate change is no longer just an environmental issue; it has become one of the most pressing economic challenges of our time. The increasing frequency of natural disasters, rising global temperatures, sea-level rise, and shifting weather patterns are not only affecting ecosystems but also shaking the foundations of global markets. Businesses, investors, policymakers, and governments are realizing that climate risks translate into economic risks. From agriculture to energy, …

Climate Change & Its Effect on Global Markets for BSE:SENSEX by GlobalWolfStreet

Climate Law No. 7552 entered into force after being published in the Official Gazette dated 9 July 2025. This information note summarises the main provisions of the Climate Law and its implementation mechanisms.
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Climate Law No. 7552 entered into force after being published in the Official Gazette dated 9July2025. This information note summarises the main provisions of the Climate Law and its implementation mechanisms.
Purpose and Scope of the Climate Law
The main purpose of the Climate Law is to concretise Turkey's targets for combating climate change in line with its green growth vision and net zero emission target and to establish the necessary institutional, administrative and legal structure to achieve these targets. In this context, it is aimed to;
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions,
Ensure adaptation to climate change,
Establish carbon markets,
Strengthen institutional coordination.
The Climate Law imposes obligations on a wide range of stakeholders, from public institutions to the private sector, and encourages individuals and society to take an active role in combating climate change.
Basic Principles and Definitions
The Climate Law is based on principles such as equality, climate justice, precaution, participation, transparency, sustainability and fair transition. New concepts with environmental and economic dimensions such as "emission trading system", "climate justice", "voluntary carbon markets", "primary market", "embedded greenhouse gas" are also included in the Climate Law.
Climate Change Presidency
With the Climate Law, the Climate Change Presidency, which is responsible for the implementation of climate policies, has been structured as the main institution. The Presidency is tasked with many issues such as the preparation of policy and strategy documents, carrying out monitoring and reporting activities, establishing the Emission Trading System and implementing carbon pricing mechanisms.
The Climate Change Presidency is authorised to request information and documents from public institutions and the private sector. This situation requires attention in terms of data sharing and protection of personal data in practice.
Planning Process and Local Adaptation Mechanisms
The Climate Law envisages that climate policies should be planned not only at the central but also at the local level. In this context:
It is obligatory to establish a Provincial Climate Change Coordination Board in each province.
Local climate change action plans will be prepared in line with the national climate change strategy and action plans.
These plans will be periodically updated, and their performance will be monitored.
Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The Climate Law requires the followings, within the framework of various regulations of institutions and organisations:
Energy, water and raw material efficiency,
Prevention of pollution at source,
Increasing the use of renewable energy,
Reducing the carbon footprint of products, businesses, institutions and organisations,
Use of alternative clean or low carbon fuels and raw materials,
Expansion of electrification,
Developing clean technologies and increasing their utilisation,
Taking measures in areas such as waste management and zero waste practices.
Emissions Trading System (ETS)
The Climate Law sets forth establishment of an Emissions Trading System (ETS) in Turkey. Under the ETS, the followings will be put into use:
Greenhouse gas emission permit allocations,
Market stabilisation and flexibility mechanisms,
Voluntary carbon markets,
Carbon pricing instruments.
Before full implementation of the ETS, a pilot period will be implemented and the scope and duration of the pilot period and the procedures and principles regarding the implementation will be determined by the Carbon Market Board by taking the opinions of the relevant institutions, organisations and non-governmental organisations.
Authorisation, Audit and Obligations
Within three years from the date of entry into force of the Climate Law, the enterprises that will be included in the scope of the ETS are obliged to obtain a greenhouse gas emission permit. In the event of a change in the nature or operation of the facility and the persons holding the greenhouse gas emission permit, this permit must be updated or cancelled. The authority to audit will be vested in the Directorate of Climate Change and relevant administrations, and administrative sanctions will be imposed in case of breach of obligations.
Compliance Process and Timeline
Regarding the obligations imposed by the Climate Law, the relevant institutions and organisations are required to comply until 31 December 2027 and the President of the Republic is authorised to extend this period up to one year.
This transition period necessitates the preparation of implementing regulations and sectoral guidelines.
Conclusion
The Climate Law is the beginning of a new era in Turkey's climate policies. This law is not only a holistic regulation in terms of environmental legislation, but also touches many different areas such as energy, agriculture, industry, finance and even human rights.
In the upcoming period, the following issues will need to be carefully monitored:
Secondary regulations on ETS and carbon pricing,
The scope of the Presidential powers and its relationship with other institutions,
Balance between information and document sharing and PDP legislation,
Procedures and sanctions to be applied in authorisation and audit processes.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

Climate Law No. 7552 entered into force after being published in the Official Gazette dated 9 July 2025. This information note summarises the main provisions of the Climate Law and its implementation…

Turkey's First Climate Law Enters Into Force

More than 85 scientists are taking issue with a climate change report released by the Department of Energy that experts claim is fraught with errors and misrepresentations about climate science.
The Department of Energy's 151-page report , "A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate," was written by the DOE's Climate Working Group, which is made up of four scientists and one economist who have all questioned whether climate change is a large threat to the world.
RELATED: Climate change has made heat waves last longer, study finds
These five members of the climate working group who authored the report, were selected by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a former fossil fuel executive.
In one excerpt from the DOE report , the authors write: "Climate change is real, and it deserves attention. But it is not the greatest threat facing humanity." The authors acknowledge that climate change is a "challenge—not a catastrophe" adding that "misguided policies based on fear rather than facts could truly endanger human well-being." Climate scientists release review challenging Energy Department's report
Why you should care:
An international group of over 85 climate scientists published a 439-page review where they argue that the Department of Energy's climate report misrepresents facts about climate science.
The climate experts refute the Department of Energy's climate report, where the authors claim that there is no evidence of intense "meteorological" drought in the U.S. or worldwide, referring to droughts with low rainfall.
RELATED: Scientists find climate change made July hotter for 4 out of 5 humans on Earth
Climate scientists explain in their review that higher temperatures and more evaporation can lead to droughts, referencing other published studies that acknowledge how climate change has intensified droughts.
Separately, the group of scientists also discovered several areas in the Department of Energy's report where the authors selected or distorted climate science in the report.
In one example, climate scientists contend that the DOE's findings infer that rising carbon dioxide can be a "net benefit" to U.S. agriculture, but say that the authors of the report neglect to mention the negative impacts of more heat and climate-change-fueled extreme weather events on crops.
NPR reported that the scientists submitted their review of the DOE's Climate Working Group report to the Federal Register as part of the DOE's 30-day open-comment period .
The scientists' review of the DOE report comes after environmental groups and independent scientists sued the Department of Energy over their report. The groups in their lawsuit state that the way the DOE's report is written and created violates transparency laws.
The Source: Information for this story was provided by the Department of Energy's climate report, Axios, and NPR. This story was reported from Washington, D.C. ScienceEnvironment

LAHORE: Cambridge University Press & Assessment has unveiled the Pakistan edition of Climate Quest, a pioneering climate literacy programme designed to empower young learners with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to respond to the climate crisis.
Developed in collaboration with Cambridge Zero at the University of Cambridge and the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), the Pakistan edition is part of Cambridge's wider global commitment to embedding climate change education across all levels of learning.
The free, 2.5-hour self-paced online course is tailored for learners in Years 8 to 12 and is open to students across all education boards, including government schools. The course provides a foundational awareness of climate change and connects global climate science with pressing local challenges such as the 2010 floods, the 2017 heatwave, Lahore's air pollution crisis, and Pakistan's national sustainability policies, including flood protection plans.
By linking global science to regional realities, Climate Quest equips students to translate learning into action, encouraging them to develop community-based projects that advance sustainability and climate resilience.
The launch event in Pakistan brought together school leaders, policymakers, journalists, and representatives from the Ministry of Climate Change. It was attended by Ms. Romina Khurshid Alam, Coordinator to the PM on Climate Change, Mr. Faisal Khan Tarakai, Minister Elementary and Secondary Education for KPK and Ms. Farah Naz Akbar, Parliamentary Secretary for the MoFEPT​.
Speaking at the event, Peter Phillips, Chief Executive of Cambridge University Press & Assessment, said:
'Pakistan is on the frontline of the climate crisis, but it is also home to one of the world's largest youth populations, full of resilience, innovation, and talent. Through Climate Quest, we want to support learners in Pakistan not only to understand the science of climate change but to design and lead solutions that make a real difference in their communities.'
Adding her perspective, Uzma Yousuf, Country Director Pakistan, Cambridge, said:
'Climate Quest Pakistan is more than a programme — it is a call to action. Our effort is for our children, to ensure they are equipped with the climate adaptability and resilience needed to navigate the challenges of today and tomorrow. By embedding local context into global learning, we are empowering students to see themselves as climate leaders and ambassadors for their communities.'
The launch event was featured a panel discussion as well, moderated by Talat Hussain with panelists which included Dr. Mehreen Mujtaba, Director Climate Change, Nutrition and Health​ Pandemic Fund Focal Point, MoNHSR&C​ , and Mr. Malik Amin Aslam, Former Federal Minister/Advisor to Prime Minister ​on Climate Change, on the theme ' Climate in the classroom: teaching for a resilient future'.
The initiative is part of a wider global framework: Climate Quest will continue to expand into more countries and age groups, with content and assessments updated regularly to reflect the latest in climate science and education.

LAHORE: Cambridge University Press & Assessment has unveiled the Pakistan edition of Climate Quest, a pioneering climate literacy programme designed to empower young learners with the knowledge,…

Cambridge launches Pakistan edition of Climate Quest to empower youth with climate resilience, action

On 27–28 November, the conference 'Climate Compass 2025: The Art of Adaptation in the Light of Science" will take place in Tartu, marking 160 years since the beginning of meaningful weather observations in Estonia. The event will bring together researchers, decision-makers, practitioners and climate enthusiasts to discuss the causes and impact of climate change and the ways of adapting to it. Participants share the latest scientific insights and discuss the needs for future development.
The first day of the conference, which focuses on the global picture of climate change, will be in English. Topics presented by several world-renowned researchers will range from the causes and current state of climate change to sustainable solutions that can help societies adapt to ongoing changes.
The second day of the conference, which will be in Estonian, will focus on Estonia's needs in adapting to climate change. The discussions will touch upon the societal impact and ways of coping with crises, offer sustainable solutions for spatial planning, and explore the history of climate research in Estonia.
The programme of the conference will be published on 27 October.

On 27–28 November, the conference 'Climate Compass 2025: The Art of Adaptation in the Light of Science" will take place in Tartu, marking 160 years since the beginning of meaningful weather…

International research conference 'Climate Compass 2025: The Art of Adaptation in the Light of Science'

Earth's average temperature rose more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in 2024 for the first time – a critical threshold in the climate crisis. At the same time, major armed conflicts continue to rage in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and elsewhere.
What should be increasingly clear is that war now needs to be understood as unfolding in the shadow of climate breakdown.
The relationship between war and climate change is complex. But here are three reasons why the climate crisis must reshape how we think about war.
Wars and climate change are inextricably linked. Climate change can increase the likelihood of violent conflict by intensifying resource scarcity and displacement, while conflict itself accelerates environmental damage. This article is part of a series, War on climate, which explores the relationship between climate issues and global conflicts.
1. War exacerbates climate change
The inherent destructiveness of war has long degraded the environment. But we have only recently become more keenly aware of its climatic implications.
This follows efforts primarily by researchers and civil society organisations to account for the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from fighting, most notably in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as to record emissions from all military operations and post-war reconstruction.
One study, conducted by Scientists for Global Responsibility and the Conflict and Environment Observatory, has made a best guess that the total carbon footprint of militaries across the globe is greater than that of Russia, which currently has the fourth-largest footprint in the world.
The US is believed to have the highest military emissions. Estimates by UK-based researchers Benjamin Neimark, Oliver Belcher and Patrick Bigger suggest that, if it were a country, the US military would be the 47th-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. This would put it between Peru and Portugal.
These studies, though, rest on limited data. Sometimes partial emissions data is reported by military agencies, and researchers have to supplement this with their own calculations using official government figures and those of associated industries.
There is also significant variation from country to country. Some military emissions, most notably those of China and Russia, have proved almost impossible to assess.
Wars can also put international cooperation on climate change and the energy transition at risk. Since the start of the Ukraine war, for instance, scientific cooperation between the west and Russia in the Arctic has broken down. This has prevented crucial climate data from being compiled.
Critics of militarism argue that the acknowledgement of war's contribution to the climate crisis ought to be the moment of reckoning for those who are too willing to spend vast resources on maintaining and expanding military power. Some even believe that demilitarisation is the only way out of climate catastrophe.
Others are less radical. But the crucial point is that recognition of the climate costs of war increasingly raises moral and practical questions about the need for more strategic restraint and whether the business of war can ever be rendered less environmentally destructive.
2. Climate change demands military responses
Before the impact of war on the climate came into focus, researchers debated whether the climate crisis could act as a 'threat multiplier'. This has led some to argue that climate change could intensify the risk of violence in parts of the world already under stress from food and water insecurity, internal tensions, poor governance and territorial disputes.
Some conflicts in the Middle East and Sahel have already been labelled 'climate wars', implying they may not have happened if it were not for the stresses of climate change. Other researchers have shown how such claims are deeply contentious. Any decision to engage in violence or go to war is always still a choice made by people, not the climate.
Harder to contest is the observation that the climate crisis is leading militaries to be deployed with greater frequency to assist with civilian emergencies. This encompasses a wide range of activities from combating wildfires to reinforcing flood defences, assisting with evacuations, conducting search-and-rescue operations, supporting post-disaster recovery and delivering humanitarian aid.
Whether the climate crisis will result in more violence and armed conflict in the future is impossible to predict. If it does, military force may need to be deployed more frequently. At the same time, if militaries are depended upon to help respond to the growing frequency and intensity of climate-related disasters, their resources will be further stretched.
Governments will be confronted with tough choices about what kinds of tasks should be prioritised and whether military budgets should be increased at the expense of other societal needs.
3. Armed forces will need to adapt
With geopolitical tensions rising and the number of conflicts increasing, it seems unlikely that calls for demilitarisation will be met any time soon. This leaves researchers with the uncomfortable prospect of having to rethink how military force can – and ought to be – wielded in a world simultaneously trying to adapt to accelerating climate change and escape its deep dependence on fossil fuels.
The need to prepare military personnel and adapt bases, equipment and other infrastructure to withstand and operate effectively in increasingly extreme and unpredictable climatic conditions is a matter of growing concern. In 2018, two major hurricanes in the US caused more than US$8 billion (£5.95 billion) worth of damage to military infrastructure.
My own research has demonstrated how, in the UK at least, there is growing awareness among some defence officials that militaries need to think carefully about how they will navigate the major changes unfolding in the global energy landscape that are being brought about by the energy transition.
Militaries are being confronted with a stark choice. They can either remain as one of the last heavy users of fossil fuels in an increasingly low-carbon world or be part of an energy transition that will probably have significant implications for how military force is generated, deployed and sustained.
What is becoming clear is that operational effectiveness will increasingly depend on how aware militaries are of the implications of climate change for future operations. It will also hinge on how effectively they have adapted their capabilities to cope with more extreme climatic conditions and how much they have managed to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.
In the early 19th century, the Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz famously argued that while war's nature rarely changes, its character is almost constantly evolving with the times.
Recognising the scale and reach of the climate crisis will be essential if we are now to make sense of why and how future wars will be waged, as well as how some might be averted or rendered less destructive.

Wars are now unfolding in the shadow of climate breakdown.

Three reasons why the climate crisis must reshape how we think about war

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Donti was recognized for her innovative work on AI for climate and energy.
PITTSBURGH, Sept. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- TIME named Climate Change AI co-founder Priya Donti to the 2025 TIME100 AI, a list recognizing the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI). She was named to the list for her innovative work in AI for power grid decarbonization, and for her leadership through Climate Change AI in mobilizing a global community to impactfully harness AI for climate action.
"AI can be an asset for climate and energy, but only if its development is guided by actual climate needs and planetary limits," says Donti. "Shoutout to those in the community working to shape a responsible, equitable, climate-aligned AI future."
Donti is the second member of Climate Change AI to be named to the TIME100 AI list, following the recognition of founding member Sasha Luccioni in 2024.
To assemble the list, TIME's editors and reporters examined the key stories in AI over the past year and consulted with expert sources and industry leaders for recommendations. The result is a list of 100 leaders, innovators, shapers, and thinkers who have a stake in the future of AI.
See the full list here: time.com/time100ai
The TIME100 AI will appear in the September 8, 2025, issue of TIME, available on newsstands as of Friday, August 29.
About Climate Change AI: Climate Change AI (CCAI) is a nonprofit that empowers a global community of innovators, practitioners, and decision-makers to accelerate responsible climate action through the use of AI, by addressing critical gaps in expertise, education, coordination, and research-to-deployment infrastructure. Since 2019, CCAI has inspired, informed, and connected thousands of stakeholders across the academic, private, and public sectors through networking and knowledge-sharing events, summer schools and other educational programs, international policy reports, and multi-million dollar global grants programs. See the CCAI website for further details.

/PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- TIME named Climate Change AI co-founder Priya Donti to the 2025 TIME100 AI, a list recognizing the 100 most influential people in...

Climate Change AI Co-Founder Priya Donti Named to TIME's Third Annual List of the TIME100 AI

Analysis: Ireland's position on the edge of the Atlantic – the very reason for its mild climate – makes it especially vulnerable to extreme weather
By Graham J Dwyer and Karen Helen Wiltshire, TCD
The island of Ireland has a moderate climate, with few temperature extremes. Its temperature record is still "only" 33°C – almost every other country has been hotter at some point. But even somewhere with a relatively pleasant and cool climate isn't immune to the risks of climate change. Recent severe storms like Floris, Bert, Darragh and Eowyn have brought strong winds, more intense floods and a greater risk of blackouts and eroded coastlines.
It's too soon to definitively link this extreme weather to climate change, but computer models that simulate the climate decades into the future predict stronger storms and more floods. We are already noticing extreme weather happening at unexpected times of year. The sea level is rising and coastlines are eroding at an alarming rate.
Ireland's position on the edge of the Atlantic – the very reason for its mild climate – makes it especially vulnerable. Those recent severe storms remind us that climate change is a serious threat to wellbeing and, in the longer-term, survival of human life as we know it.
From RTÉ Radio 1's Drivetime, Thousands of homes without power after Storm Floris
Environmental threats are economic threats
Around 40% of the Irish population lives within a few miles of the coast. That's where the ports, airports and other infrastructure Ireland's small open economy depends on are concentrated. Key industries like tourism, fisheries and aquaculture are particularly exposed to disruption. Higher seas and stronger storms are particularly economic and social threats, not just environmental threats. As coastal populations grow, risks to homes, businesses and infrastructure will only escalate.
A government opinion tracking initiative has indicated there is no shortage of climate change awareness in Ireland. But awareness alone has not translated into urgent action. Too often, the conversation around climate change gets stuck on the reliability of electric vehicles or whether wind turbines spoil the view. Such debates miss the point and risk fuelling climate scepticism.
Recognising our human selves as the chief perpetrator of climate change is the first step towards real behavioural change. This means moving away from a linear economy of extraction and waste, towards a circular one based on reusing, repurposing and recycling resources wherever possible.
Building resilience
Scientists have an invaluable role to play here. Given the relatively recent recognition that a climate-driven increase in extreme weather is a serious hazard, Ireland now needs a foundation of relevant evidence to ensure it makes the right decisions about living with and adapting to climate change. This must include robust modelling and predictions about what is in store, particularly around storms and rising seas.
Policymakers must translate this into clear strategies for coping with the risk of flooding – from flood defences and storm-resistant infrastructure to better water management during periods of alternating droughts and downpours.
There is some good news, as some communities are showing resilience in action. For instance, a community initiative called the Maharees Conservation Association is leveraging local knowledge to protect the northern peninsula of Dingle in Kerry – one of the first places Atlantic storms slam into. The area is implementing a coastal erosion management plan and the Dingle Hub, a non-profit community enterprise, is working to turn the region into a low carbon society. Also, social entrepreneurs are not only contributing to lower carbon emissions but they are also educating, facilitating and supporting communities in tackling climate change.
The Irish government too has made a statutory commitment to achieve a "climate-neutral" and climate-resilient economy by 2050: a crucial step in a country with one of the larger carbon footprints in the world. Meanwhile local authorities are leading campaigns on circular economies, energy use, and are establishing climate action regional offices to focus on climate change.
Ireland cannot hold back the seas or calm the storms. But it can decide how to respond – through stronger science, smarter policy and, above all, collective responsibility. As sea levels rise, storms surge and flooding increases there is a need for us all to find ways of being part of climate solutions rather than merely being part of the problem.

Ireland's position on the edge of the Atlantic – the very reason for its mild climate – makes it especially vulnerable to extreme weather

Why Ireland's mild temperatures won't protect it from the climate crisis

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopi a -/African Media Agency (AMA)/UN News- The Africa Climate Summit next week is an unmissable opportunity to send a clear global message, according to a powerful joint statement issued today by UN Climate Change and the Government of Ethiopia: "Africa is ready to supercharge climate action, but COP30 must ensure Africa is fully enabled to do so."
The joint statement – issued at Climate Week today in Addis Ababa – comes as nations around the world prepare for the crucial COP30 global climate conference in Brazil in November.
The statement – from H.E. Dr Fitsum Assefa, Ethiopia's Minister of Planning and Development, and Mr Simon Stiell, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary – sets the stage for the Africa Climate Summit starting this coming Monday 8 September, in Addis Ababa.
"This Climate Week has shown that no continent holds greater potential than Africa for climate actions that transform lives and economies for the better. With the world's youngest population, vast natural resources, unparalleled renewable energy potential, and extraordinary diversity and human ingenuity, Africa is a colossal coiled spring of climate action possibility,' said the statement.
"This Climate Week has shown that African innovators are putting forward pioneering solutions, to boost climate resilience and cut planet-heating emissions. However, it has also highlighted again that only a fraction of this potential has yet been realized. Global decarbonisation is charging ahead, with clean energy investments hitting $2 trillion last year alone, driving economic growth and millions of new jobs, but only a fraction of that investment is flowing to African nations."
The two leaders pointed to recent United Nations climate COPs delivering concrete global outcomes that should materially benefit Africa and other developing nations.
"But to realize these benefits, COP30 must take the next concrete steps forward: with ambitious outcomes which convert agreements into results on the ground, and scalable solutions which drive a new era of implementation... Because when all nations are empowered to take bold climate actions, this strengthens the entire global economy and lifts up all the world's 8 billion people,' the statement concludes.
During the Climate Week, Ethiopia also announced its bid to host the COP32 UN Climate Conference in 2027.
"We have the capacity, the facilities, the location, the connectivity to host the much-anticipated climate summit," Ethiopian President H.E. Taye Atske-Selassie said.
The joint statement and announcement of Ethiopia's bid for COP32 cap a highly productive Climate Week attended by delegates from 119 countries, and hundreds of representatives from NGOs, investors and other international organizations.
During the Climate Week, in focused workshops and "implementation labs" over 40 initiatives driving implementation were featured, so they can be replicated in other markets and scaled up.
Noura Hamladji, UN Climate Change Deputy Executive Secretary said: "Climate Week has been about connecting the international climate process to people's daily lives. We've worked together here in Addis to help translate pledges into actions. From community mini-grids to recycling innovations in Kibera, Kenya; to green bonds in Morocco and digital platforms tracking ambition across the continent: we've heard from innovators of climate action that is profitable, scalable, and irreversible."
The Climate Week also advanced work on key issues being negotiated at COP30 in Brazil, across issues including climate adaptation, finance pathways, and a just transition.
Negotiators also participated in solutions-focused workshop, as part of Climate Week's new approach this year, aiming to bring the intergovernmental process and real-economy implementation closer together. By clustering mandated meetings in the COP process together, the Climate Week also delivered cost savings and efficiencies.
Mrs Hamladji thanked the Government of Ethiopia for its leadership in hosting the Climate Week: "Ethiopia has long stood as a symbol of African independence, a founding member of the United Nations, and today the diplomatic capital of Africa — home to the African Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa".
"This is a country whose influence in regional diplomacy, security, and sustainable development, together with its innovative and dynamic society, made it an ideal setting for the week's vital work".
H.E. Dr Fitsum Assefa, Ethiopian Minister of Planning and Development said: "By gathering here for Climate Week, a global platform for Parties and non-Party stakeholders, we reaffirm Addis Ababa's role as a hub of the Global South, a place where ideas are exchanged, partnerships forged, and practical solutions launched. This Climate Week is not just an event. It is a bridge between negotiation and implementation. It is where ambition meets action, where commitments are translated into real solutions that reach communities, restore ecosystems, and advance sustainable development."
Mukhtar Babayev, President of COP29 in Azerbaijan said: "Each region has its own challenges and solutions. This high-level ministerial event convened by the COP29 Presidency within the Climate Week in Africa will serve as an important space for in-depth engagement on Africa's core challenges, with a focus on potential solutions through maximizing the opportunities for effective actions.'
﻿Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of UN Climate Change
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Climate Week in Addis Ababa shows: "Africa is a colossal coiled spring of climate action possibility"

UN and Ethiopia urge Africa Climate Summit to send a clear message: COP30 must deliver for African nations

Challenging the mainstream: The NIPCC report on climate change
The 2009 Climategate emails revealed IPCC-affiliated scientists manipulating data, suppressing dissent and exaggerating global warming claims. Evidence showed collusion to bypass FOIA requests, delete inconvenient data and blacklist skeptical scientists — proving the "scientific consensus" was politically manufactured.
CO2 is essential for plant growth, and higher levels may enhance agricultural yields and medicinal plant production. Earth's climate has always fluctuated naturally due to solar activity, ocean cycles and geological factors — current warming is not unprecedented.
IPCC models overestimate CO2's warming effect (likely only 0.3 C–1.1 C per doubling) and fail to account for natural events like solar cycles. The "97 percent consensus" claim is debunked — studies show far less agreement, with many scientists rejecting IPCC conclusions due to methodological bias.
The IPCC operates as a political body, prioritizing alarmism over objective science to justify centralized control. Scientists face career pressures, grant incentives and censorship, leading to confirmation bias and agenda-driven research.
Instead of ineffective carbon taxes and green energy mandates, societies should focus on adaptation — preparing for natural climate shifts. The NIPCC advocates for independent, transparent science free from corporate and government conflicts of interest.
In the ongoing debate over global warming, a new report is challenging the established narrative and prompting a reevaluation of the science behind climate change. "Climate Change Reconsidered," a 400-page analysis by the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), offers a compelling counter-argument to the widely accepted views of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This report, authored by Dr. Craig D. Idso, Robert M. Carter and S. Fred Singer, and discussed in their book "Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming: The NIPCC Report on Scientific Consensus," raises critical questions about the IPCC's findings and calls for a more balanced and transparent approach to climate science.
The NIPCC report begins by revisiting the 2009 Climategate scandal. As explained by the Brighteon.AI engine Enoch , the 2009 Climategate scandal was the explosive leak of internal emails and documents from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia , exposing how top United Nations-affiliated climate scientists — key players in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — were manipulating data, suppressing dissenting research and colluding to exaggerate global warming claims.
The revelations proved that the so-called "scientific consensus" on man-made climate change was politically manufactured, with researchers deleting inconvenient data, blacklisting skeptical scientists from peer-reviewed journals and discussing how to bypass Freedom of Information requests to hide their methods. This scandal shattered public trust in climate science, confirming what critics had long suspected: that the climate alarmism industry is driven by ideology, funding and power.
Beyond scandals, the NIPCC report delves into the complexities and uncertainties often overlooked in mainstream climate narratives. It argues that a warmer world could potentially benefit humans and wildlife, citing reduced winter mortality and positive impacts on plant growth and medicinal plant production. The authors also contend that society's ability to adapt to climate change is significantly underestimated.
One of the report's most contentious claims is its challenge to the oft-cited "97 percent consensus" on climate change. The NIPCC argues that this statistic is misleading and lacks robust scientific backing. For instance, Naomi Oreskes' 2004 paper, frequently cited as evidence of the consensus, only found 75 percent agreement with the IPCC's position. Subsequent studies, such as one by Klaus-Martin Schulte, found that less than half of the reviewed papers supported the consensus. The NIPCC further criticizes the methodology of these studies, claiming they rely on flawed surveys and abstract-counting exercises that do not accurately reflect the scientific community's views.
The report provides a detailed survey of the physical science of global warming, highlighting several key points:
Atmospheric carbon dioxide : CO2 is a mild greenhouse gas with a diminishing warming effect as its concentration increases. Doubling its concentration would likely cause a warming of about 0.3 C to 1.1 C.
: CO2 is a mild greenhouse gas with a diminishing warming effect as its concentration increases. Doubling its concentration would likely cause a warming of about 0.3 C to 1.1 C.
Natural variability : Earth's temperature has fluctuated naturally throughout history, and the current warming trend is not unprecedented.
: Earth's temperature has fluctuated naturally throughout history, and the current warming trend is not unprecedented.
Solar forcing : Solar activity plays a significant role in climate change, with variations in solar radiation potentially having a greater impact than previously recognized.
: Solar activity plays a significant role in climate change, with variations in solar radiation potentially having a greater impact than previously recognized.
Climate models : The models used by the IPCC are flawed, overestimating climate sensitivity to CO2 and poorly modeling forcings and feedbacks.
: The models used by the IPCC are flawed, overestimating climate sensitivity to CO2 and poorly modeling forcings and feedbacks.
Policy implications: The NIPCC argues that the net effect of warming and rising CO2 levels is likely to be beneficial, challenging the IPCC's economic impact assessments.
The report also explores why scientists disagree about global warming, citing several factors:
Interdisciplinary nature : Climate science is a complex field requiring insights from multiple disciplines, and few scholars have mastery over more than one or two areas.
: Climate science is a complex field requiring insights from multiple disciplines, and few scholars have mastery over more than one or two areas.
Scientific uncertainties : Fundamental uncertainties arise from insufficient observational evidence, disagreements over data interpretation, and model parameter settings.
: Fundamental uncertainties arise from insufficient observational evidence, disagreements over data interpretation, and model parameter settings.
Agenda-driven science : The IPCC, as a political body, is predisposed to finding a human impact on global climate, which undermines its credibility.
: The IPCC, as a political body, is predisposed to finding a human impact on global climate, which undermines its credibility.
Human bias: Climate scientists, like all humans, can be biased due to careerism, grant-seeking, political views and confirmation bias.
The authors of the NIPCC report advocate for a more open and honest debate about climate change, urging policymakers to seek advice from independent, nongovernment organizations and scientists free of financial and political conflicts of interest. They argue that the current narrative, which often stifles dissenting views, is not conducive to scientific progress.
Ultimately, the NIPCC report suggests that the best approach to climate change is adaptation. Rather than investing in costly and potentially ineffective mitigation strategies, the authors argue that we should focus on preparing for and adapting to extreme climate events and changes, regardless of their origin.
In conclusion, "Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming: The NIPCC Report on Scientific Consensus" offers a fresh perspective on the climate change debate, challenging the mainstream narrative and inviting us to rethink our approach to this complex issue. Whether you agree or disagree, one thing is clear: the debate is far from over. As we continue to grapple with the challenges posed by climate change, it is crucial to maintain an open dialogue and consider all scientific viewpoints.
Watch this video about the book "Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming: The NIPCC Report on Scientific Consensus" by Craig Idso, Robert M. Carter and S. Fred Singer.

The 2009 Climategate emails revealed IPCC-affiliated scientists manipulating data, suppressing dissent and exaggerating global warming claims. Evidence showed collusion to bypass FOIA requests, delete…

Challenging the mainstream: The NIPCC report on climate change

India records the highest number of snakebite fatalities worldwide, between 46,000 and 60,000 annually. A study published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases by Imon Abedin at Dibru-Saikhowa Conservation Society in Tinsukia, India and colleagues suggests that climate change-related shifts in the geographic distribution of venomous snakes will increase the risk of snakebites in certain regions.
The Big Four refers to four venomous snake species responsible for the greatest number of medically significant human snakebite cases on the Indian subcontinent. However, how the changing geographic distribution of these species due to climate change may affect envenomation risk across India has not been previously assessed.
In order to better understand how climate change might change different regions' exposure to venomous snakes, researchers analyzed predictive models visualizing the current and future geographic distribution of the Big Four species under different climate scenarios. The researchers then analyzed regional socioeconomic and public health data to develop a snakebite risk index for Indian districts and states over the next 50 years.
The researchers found that climate change may shift the geographic distribution of the Big Four into the Northern and Northeastern states, increasing snakebite risks in India. The study had several limitations, however, and future studies attempting replication are needed.
The accuracy of the prediction models is contingent on data quality and snake occurrence is difficult to document in large, rural regions, leading to potential undercounting. Additionally, the compounded effects of land use change, urbanization, and habitat degradation may limit the value of predictive models on snake distribution.
According to the authors, "Climate change is altering snake species' geographic ranges, resulting in expansions, contractions, or shifting ranges. Such changes may increase human–snake interactions across rural and urban areas, presenting new challenges for public health and medical management. Consequentially, to mitigate snakebite risk in affected regions, it is essential to implement strategies that enhance decision-making in health care delivery, antivenom research, and production capabilities."
"This is the first study in India to integrate climate-based species distribution models with socioeconomic vulnerability and health care capacity," the authors noted. "It shows that climate change is not just an environmental crisis but it's also a looming public health crisis."

India records the highest number of snakebite fatalities worldwide, between 46,000 and 60,000 annually. A study published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases by Imon Abedin at Dibru-Saikhowa Conservation Society in Tinsukia, India and colleagues suggests that climate change-related shifts in the geographic distribution of venomous snakes will increase the risk of snakebites in certain regions.

Climate change may contribute to new snakebite hotspots in India

MADRID (AP) — The extremely hot, dry and windy conditions, which fueled one of the IberianPeninsula's most destructive wildfire seasons in recorded history, were 40 times more likely due to climate change, according to a study released Thursday.
The analysis by World Weather Attribution, or WWA, said the weather conditions were about 30% more intense compared to the preindustrial era, when heavy reliance on fossil fuels began.
Summer wildfires
Hundreds of wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula broke out in July and August. They spread rapidly thanks to temperatures that pushed above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and strong winds.
The fires in Spain and Portugal killed eight people, forced more than 35,000 evacuations and scorched more than 640,000 hectares (1.58 million acres) or roughly two-thirds of Europe's total burned area this year.
Most blazes are now under control, officials say, as temperatures have dropped considerably.
'Hotter, drier and more flammable conditions are becoming more severe with climate change, and are giving rise to fires of unprecedented intensity,' said Clair Barnes, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College, London.
Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The role of climate change
WWA, a group of researchers that examines whether and to what extent extreme weather events are linked to climate change, focused on the conditions that allowed the Iberian wildfires to spread that fast, including during Spain's hottest ten-day period on record in August, according to the country's weather agency AEMET.
Without climate change, similar ten-day spells of hot, dry and windy conditions would be rare, expected once every 500 years, they found.
'This quick study is one more line of evidence showing how human-caused climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme heat and combined hot and dry fire weather conditions,' said Valérie Masson-Delmotte, a climate scientist at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, who was not involved in the study.
WWA's analysis wasn't a full attribution study. Those seek to determine the influence of climate change, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, on a specific extreme weather event. This time, the researchers looked at weather observations without using climate models. But the results were consistent with existing research on wildfires in the region, the researchers said, and another study WWA recently published on this year's fires in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, which found that climate change made fire-prone weather conditions there 10 times more likely.
'While fires are a characteristic of the Mediterranean climate, human-caused climate change increases the recurrence and severity of conditions favorable for intense fires, making fire control efforts much more challenging,' Masson-Delmotte said.
Neglecting rural areas
The researchers mentioned other factors that have contributed to the severity of the wildfires, including large population shifts that have taken place over decades in Spain and Portugal from the countryside to cities. The study said this has resulted in large areas of neglected overgrown farms and forests, which further fuel the fires.
Removing vegetation using machinery, encouraging grazing by sheep, horses and goats and using other methods, such as controlled burns, would reduce the risk during wildfire seasons, researchers said.
'From a human perspective, most of these rural areas have suffered massive abandonment since the 1970s, which has allowed fine fuels to accumulate to dangerous levels, a problem worsened by inadequate forestry management,' said Ricardo Trigo, a professor at the University of Lisbon's geophysics, geographical engineering and energy department.
On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez proposed a 10-point plan to better prepare the country for natural disasters made worse by climate change. It included coordinating with neighboring Portugal and France.

The extremely hot, dry and windy conditions, which fueled one of the IberianPeninsula's most destructive wildfire seasons in recorded history, were 40 times more likely due to climate change,…

Climate change made heat and dryness that fueled Iberian wildfires 40 times more likely, study finds

A group of more than 85 scientists have issued a joint rebuttal to a recent U.S. Department of Energy report about climate change, finding it full of errors and misrepresenting climate science.
This comes weeks after the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Environmental Defense Fund filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration that alleges that Energy Secretary Chris Wright "quietly arranged for five hand-picked skeptics of the effects of climate change" to compile the government's climate report and violated the law by creating the report in secret with authors "of only one point of view."
The DOE's Climate Working Group consisted of four scientists and one economist who have all questioned the scientific consensus that climate change is a large threat to the world and sometimes frame global warming as beneficial.
The group of climate scientists found several examples where the DOE authors cherry-picked or misrepresented climate science in the agency's report. For instance, in the DOE report the authors claim that rising carbon dioxide can be a "net benefit" to U.S. agriculture, neglecting to mention the negative impacts of more heat and climate-change fueled extreme weather events on crops.
The DOE report also states that there is no evidence of more intense "meteorological" drought in the U.S. or globally, referring to droughts that involve low rainfall. But the dozens of climate scientists point out that this is misleading, because higher temperatures and more evaporation — not just low rainfall — can lead to and exacerbate droughts. They say that there are, in fact, many studies showing how climate change has exacerbated droughts.
"This report was reviewed internally by a group of DOE scientific researchers and policy experts from the Office of Science and National Labs," writes Ben Dietderich, chief spokesperson for the DOE in an email to NPR.
Dietderich adds that "the Trump administration is committed to engaging in a more thoughtful and science-based conversation about climate change and energy."
The Trump administration wants the government to stop regulating climate pollution. The DOE report was cited multiple times by the Environmental Protection Agency in its recent proposal to roll back what's known as the endangerment finding, which is the basis for rules regulating climate pollution, including from coal and gas-fired power plants, cars and trucks, and methane from the oil and gas industry.
The DOE report "is about providing fodder for further actions down the track, which will roll back progress on climate action," says John Cook, a senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne who studies climate science misinformation. " The DOE report is basically arguing climate change is no big deal, therefore we shouldn't act. Always it's about trying to delay action and maintain the status quo."
The group of more than 85 scientists recently submitted their review of the Climate Working Group report to the Federal Register as part of the DOE's 30-day open-comment period, which closes on Tuesday.
Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, coordinated the response from dozens of climate experts. He says unlike the DOE report, climate reports from groups such as the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change feature the work of hundreds of global scientists and require multiple rounds of peer review.
Dessler argues that this DOE report, released in late July, is important to pay attention to, because of what he and other scientists identify as problems with the science, and because of how the report is being used by the Trump administration to roll back the endangerment finding. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin has said the goal of the administration is "driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion."
Travis Fisher is the director of energy and environmental policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. He coordinated the work of the DOE's Climate Working Group. He says the DOE would look at what comes in during the open-comment period.
"If there are errors, they'll correct them, of course," Fisher says. "And I don't know if any group like this could produce a 150-page document without any errors. So we'll see what comes up."
Fisher adds, "It's just a matter of good government and good science to address all comments that come in."

A group of more than 85 scientists have issued a joint rebuttal to a recent U.S. Department of Energy report about climate change, finding it full of errors and misrepresenting climate science.
This comes weeks after the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Environmental Defense Fund filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration that alleges that Energy Secretary Chris Wright "quietly arranged for five hand-picked skeptics of the effects of climate change" to compile the government's climate report and violated the law by creating the report in secret with authors "of only one point of view."
The DOE's Climate Working Group consisted of four scientists and one economist who have all questioned the scientific consensus that climate change is a large threat to the world and sometimes frame global warming as beneficial.
The group of climate scientists found several examples where the DOE authors cherry-picked or misrepresented climate science in the agency's report. For instance, in the DOE report the authors claim that rising carbon dioxide can be a "net benefit" to U.S. agriculture, neglecting to mention the negative impacts of more heat and climate-change fueled extreme weather events on crops.
The DOE report also states that there is no evidence of more intense "meteorological" drought in the U.S. or globally, referring to droughts that involve low rainfall. But the dozens of climate scientists point out that this is misleading, because higher temperatures and more evaporation — not just low rainfall — can lead to and exacerbate droughts. They say that there are, in fact, many studies showing how climate change has exacerbated droughts.
"This report was reviewed internally by a group of DOE scientific researchers and policy experts from the Office of Science and National Labs," writes Ben Dietderich, chief spokesperson for the DOE in an email to NPR.
Dietderich adds that "the Trump administration is committed to engaging in a more thoughtful and science-based conversation about climate change and energy."
The Trump administration wants the government to stop regulating climate pollution. The DOE report was cited multiple times by the Environmental Protection Agency in its recent proposal to roll back what's known as the endangerment finding, which is the basis for rules regulating climate pollution, including from coal and gas-fired power plants, cars and trucks, and methane from the oil and gas industry.
The DOE report "is about providing fodder for further actions down the track, which will roll back progress on climate action," says John Cook, a senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne who studies climate science misinformation. " The DOE report is basically arguing climate change is no big deal, therefore we shouldn't act. Always it's about trying to delay action and maintain the status quo."
The group of more than 85 scientists recently submitted their review of the Climate Working Group report to the Federal Register as part of the DOE's 30-day open-comment period, which closes on Tuesday.
Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, coordinated the response from dozens of climate experts. He says unlike the DOE report, climate reports from groups such as the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change feature the work of hundreds of global scientists and require multiple rounds of peer review.
Dessler argues that this DOE report, released in late July, is important to pay attention to, because of what he and other scientists identify as problems with the science, and because of how the report is being used by the Trump administration to roll back the endangerment finding. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin has said the goal of the administration is "driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion."
Travis Fisher is the director of energy and environmental policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. He coordinated the work of the DOE's Climate Working Group. He says the DOE would look at what comes in during the open-comment period.
"If there are errors, they'll correct them, of course," Fisher says. "And I don't know if any group like this could produce a 150-page document without any errors. So we'll see what comes up."
Fisher adds, "It's just a matter of good government and good science to address all comments that come in."
Copyright 2025 NPR

The extremely hot, dry and windy conditions, which fueled one of the Iberian Peninsula's most destructive wildfire seasons in recorded history, were 40 times more likely due to climate change, according to a study released Thursday.
The analysis by World Weather Attribution, or WWA, said the weather conditions were about 30% more intense compared to the preindustrial era, when heavy reliance on fossil fuels began.
Summer wildfires
Hundreds of wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula broke out in July and August. They spread rapidly thanks to temperatures that pushed above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and strong winds.
The fires in Spain and Portugal killed eight people, forced more than 35,000 evacuations and scorched more than 640,000 hectares (1.58 million acres) or roughly two-thirds of Europe's total burned area this year.
Most blazes are now under control, officials say, as temperatures have dropped considerably.
"Hotter, drier and more flammable conditions are becoming more severe with climate change, and are giving rise to fires of unprecedented intensity," said Clair Barnes, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College, London.
Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The role of climate change
WWA, a group of researchers that examines whether and to what extent extreme weather events are linked to climate change, focused on the conditions that allowed the Iberian wildfires to spread that fast, including during Spain's hottest ten-day period on record in August, according to the country's weather agency AEMET.
Without climate change, similar ten-day spells of hot, dry and windy conditions would be rare, expected once every 500 years, they found.
"This quick study is one more line of evidence showing how human-caused climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme heat and combined hot and dry fire weather conditions," said Valérie Masson-Delmotte, a climate scientist at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, who was not involved in the study.
WWA's analysis wasn't a full attribution study. Those seek to determine the influence of climate change, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, on a specific extreme weather event. This time, the researchers looked at weather observations without using climate models. But the results were consistent with existing research on wildfires in the region, the researchers said, and another study WWA recently published on this year's fires in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, which found that climate change made fire-prone weather conditions there 10 times more likely.
"While fires are a characteristic of the Mediterranean climate, human-caused climate change increases the recurrence and severity of conditions favorable for intense fires, making fire control efforts much more challenging," Masson-Delmotte said.
Neglecting rural areas
The researchers mentioned other factors that have contributed to the severity of the wildfires, including large population shifts that have taken place over decades in Spain and Portugal from the countryside to cities. The study said this has resulted in large areas of neglected overgrown farms and forests, which further fuel the fires.
Removing vegetation using machinery, encouraging grazing by sheep, horses and goats and using other methods, such as controlled burns, would reduce the risk during wildfire seasons, researchers said.
"From a human perspective, most of these rural areas have suffered massive abandonment since the 1970s, which has allowed fine fuels to accumulate to dangerous levels, a problem worsened by inadequate forestry management," said Ricardo Trigo, a professor at the University of Lisbon's geophysics, geographical engineering and energy department.
On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez proposed a 10-point plan to better prepare the country for natural disasters made worse by climate change. It included coordinating with neighboring Portugal and France.
© 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

The extremely hot, dry and windy conditions, which fueled one of the Iberian Peninsula's most destructive wildfire seasons in recorded history, were 40 times more likely due to climate change, according to a study released Thursday.

Egypt's Minister of Local Development and Acting Minister of Environment, Manal Awad, convened a high-level coordination meeting with senior officials from the Ministry of Environment and the Central Department for Climate Change to review Egypt's climate efforts in preparation for the upcoming COP30 climate summit in Brazil next year.
During the meeting, Awad emphasized that the Central Department for Climate Change plays a pivotal role in advancing Egypt's climate commitments and strengthening coordination with both domestic and international partners. She underscored the urgency of equipping climate units across government ministries with the necessary training to accelerate the implementation of climate adaptation and mitigation measures.
The Ministry of Environment presented an assessment report evaluating how various ministries are addressing climate change. The report also introduced a guiding framework to help institutions align their sectoral action plans with Egypt's National Climate Change Strategy 2050. In parallel, the ministry has begun developing an adaptation framework for the governorates of Qena and Kafr El-Sheikh, in partnership with Germany's GIZ.
Ali Abu Senna, head of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, noted that the ministry is currently digitizing its monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) system to track greenhouse gas emissions across key sectors including energy, agriculture, industry, and waste. The system also monitors climate adaptation and mitigation efforts, while documenting extreme weather events—such as heatwaves, cold spells, and unseasonal rainfall—and their impacts on vulnerable sectors, particularly agriculture.
Sharif Abdel Rahim, Assistant to the Minister for Climate Policy, highlighted the significance of Egypt's interactive climate risk map. This tool identifies areas most vulnerable to climate risks and serves as a critical input for development planning. He reaffirmed Egypt's commitment to its international climate obligations and the implementation of its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Soha Taher, Head of the Central Department for Climate Change, outlined several key donor-supported initiatives currently underway. These include the EU-funded 'EU Green' programme, the French Development Agency–backed Transformation of Financial Systems for Climate in Egypt project, and the ongoing preparation of Egypt's first Biennial Transparency Report (1BTR) and Fifth National Communication (5NC) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, supported by the Global Environment Facility.
Egypt has thus far submitted three National Communications, in 1999, 2010, and 2016, and a Biennial Update Report in 2019. A fourth National Communication is currently under preparation. In June 2023, Egypt also updated its NDCs to reflect a more ambitious target of generating 42% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
© 2025 Daily News Egypt. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).

The Ministry of Environment presented an assessment report evaluating how various ministries are addressing climate change

Egypt intensifies climate action ahead of COP30 in Brazil

MADRID (AP) — The extremely hot, dry and windy conditions, which fueled one of the IberianPeninsula's most destructive wildfire seasons in recorded history, were 40 times more likely due to c…

Sian Kou-Giesbrecht studies Earth's systems, combining both ecology and global-scale models to advance our understandings of how carbon and nutrient cycles throughout Canadian ecosystems, largely forests, are altered by global change.
This fall, she joins SFU's School of Resource and Environmental Management (REM) as an assistant professor and Liber Ero Chair in Climate Action and Sustainability.
Using both field-based observations and global climate models, Kou-Giesbrecht works to help us better understand how the terrestrial biosphere responds to global change, and what this means for our climate down the line.
'I look at how rising atmospheric CO2 concentration, increasing temperature, changing precipitation regimes, intensifying wildfire, land use change and nitrogen pollution, among others, are affecting the ability of ecosystems to take up and store carbon, which in turn feeds back to climate change,' says Kou-Giesbrecht.
The results of her research are used to better inform future climate projections and goals, like the IPCC's target of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees.
Kou-Giesbrecht explains that because her research links field observations with global climate models, the results are grounded in real-world observations, making simulations more accurate.
'By improving our understanding of ecosystem carbon and nutrient cycling dynamics and integrating this knowledge into climate models, my work helps improve climate change projections used to inform climate change policies both in Canada and globally,' says Kou-Giesbrecht.
It's this research-to-action that pulled Kou-Giesbrecht to SFU — and the West Coast mountains didn't hurt either!
'SFU clearly demonstrates a strong commitment to engaged research. I'm excited for the opportunity to work alongside colleagues who are tackling a wide range of climate change-related challenges through diverse approaches,' she says. 'REM is a great fit for me because of its strong focus on actionable research to build a socially just and ecologically sustainable world. This mission deeply resonates with me and reflects the direction I want my research to grow in.'
She's also looking to recruit both graduate and undergraduate students to her team as her Terrestrial Biosphere Modelling in CaNada (TBM-CaN) research group sets up roots at SFU.
Students working with Kou-Giesbrecht can expect to learn similar multidisciplinary approaches to understanding Earth's systems, including field work and modelling, and the opportunity to apply their research beyond the lab.
'I try to encourage holistic thinking about the Earth system and human impacts and thinking across scales — from an individual research site to the globe,' she says. 'My group works closely with Environment and Climate Change Canada and we're also part of several international networks and initiatives, which gives students the opportunity to engage with both government research scientists and the global research community.'
Want to learn more about Kou-Giesbrecht and the TBM-CaN group? Click here.

Sian Kou-Giesbrecht studies Earth's systems, combining both ecology and global-scale models to advance our understandings of how carbon and nutrient cycles throughout Canadian ecosystems, largely…

Earth systems researcher joins SFU as Liber Ero Chair in Climate Action and Sustainability and assistant professor in REM

In the development discourse, one of the most overused terms is probably "mainstreaming." Over the past 25 years, Bangladesh has invested billions of dollars in mainstreaming community-based approaches, gender equity and climate change adaptation, for example, through thousands of development projects. However, while health is a human right, has it been mainstreamed in our climate change policies and actions?
Till now, the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP, 2009) has been our most treasured climate change policy instrument. It has 44 programmes grouped under six themes. The first theme is "Food Security, Social Protection and Health," which includes "Adaptation in health sector" as one of its nine programmes. This health programme has three basic purposes: i) to conduct research and monitoring of climate change impacts on disease patterns (of malaria, dengue, diarrhoea and heatstroke); ii) to estimate the social and economic costs of such diseases; and iii) to formulate measures to adapt to climate change impacts. However, the BCCSAP programmes were essentially research-focused.
Thirteen years on, Bangladesh achieved another milestone by formulating the National Adaptation Plan (2023-2050), popularly known as the NAP. Many of us may think that, given the climate change impacts on the health sector, the NAP may have emphasised health significantly. But health issues have barely been touched on in some of the six goals of NAP. Under Goal 3, climate-resilient healthcare and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities will be developed to improve human well-being and liveability in urban areas, while Goal 6 expects technological innovations in health and WASH to fight climate change. While the plan has also identified 113 interventions costing a total of $230 billion by 2050, only three interventions are directly linked to health. Speaking of finance, these three interventions would cost only 1.36 percent of the total NAP budget.
Apparently, the main reason for the NAP's low focus on health is the draft Bangladesh Health-National Adaptation Plan (HNAP). This reasonable five-year plan was drafted by the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) and the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2018. Now, more than seven years later, it is still a draft. So, Bangladesh has efficiently missed the opportunity to strategise adaptation in the health arena twice in the last seven years. But we were not supposed to be facing this disappointment because the country's National Health Policy 2011 made "monitoring climate-induced health disasters and prevalence and patterns of related diseases, and developing measures to address these" as one of its 19 primary goals, and related that goal with relevant principles and strategic actions 14 years ago.
Since FY2016, the Bangladesh government has been preparing climate budgets for 25 ministries, departments, and divisions. The total allocation for climate-relevant interventions for FY2026 is Tk 41,208.97 crore—5.2 percent of the total national budget and 0.66 percent of the GDP. The Health Services Division (HSD), representing the health ministry, received Tk 610.22 crore, which is only 1.48 percent of the total climate budget of FY2026. Further, it is only 1.97 percent of the HSD's total budget, making it the fifth-lowest proportion among all 25 agencies.
Another way to track climate-related investments in the health sector is the disbursement of the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF). The trust allocated Tk 3,831.68 crore (2010-2024) to 877 projects under 21 ministries and divisions. To implement three projects, the HSD received Tk 22.12 crore, which is only 0.58 percent of the BCCTF's allocation till December 2024.
Therefore, Bangladesh is not doing well in taking strong climate action in the health sector through effective policies, plans or finance. We need to shift our way of seeing health in the climate change context. As the era of climate change-induced losses and damages has already begun, we have to bring that lens into our health sector. We have delayed taking adaptive measures in the health sector due to institutional, policy, legislative and financial constraints, creating a significant gap in adaptation, which will continue causing losses and damage. We may think that physical and mental health-related loss and damage are only non-economic issues. However, illness due to heatwaves or loss of limbs during cyclones not only affects physical and mental well-being, causing non-economic losses, but it also leads to economic damages by reducing household income and saving. On the other hand, damage of crops or fish in the ponds due to floods is not only an economic loss, but it also affects the mental health of the family members as well as their physical health due to lower food security.
It is high time the environment, health, planning, and finance ministries came together to comprehensively plan how to deal with climate change-induced losses and damages in the health sector to fill in the adaptation void we have created over the years. In transdisciplinary research, the core problem gets the focus, not the academic disciplines involved in solving it. We now need "trans-ministerial" climate action for the health sector.
Dr Haseeb Md. Irfanullah is an independent environment and climate change consultant and visiting research fellow at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB). He can be reached at [email protected].Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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Bangladesh is not doing well in taking strong climate action in the health sector.

We must do better in mainstreaming health into climate action

A few years ago, the link between climate change and conflict was a niche policy area. It has now begun to dominate UN climate summits. That recognition is about to be elevated a step higher as the Africa Climate Summit prepares to pass the Common African Position: a key policy document on climate, peace, and security.
African diplomats like Ali Mohamed, Kenya's special climate envoy, hope the summit – to be held 8-10 September in Ethiopia's Addis Ababa – will be a 'game changer' that will 'spark a seismic shift for a unified, continent-wide climate pact to replace isolated national plans'.
Bringing a unified approach to the growing challenge of climate impacts and conflict is a key aim of the eponymous Common African Position, according to Olayinka Ajala, who helped author the first draft of the declaration. The New Humanitarian spoke to Ajala, a senior lecturer in politics and international relations at Leeds Beckett University, in early August, ahead of the Summit.
Ajala was keen to stress that he was only involved in the earliest version of the declaration, which has since gone through numerous rounds of diplomatic revisions and approvals.
But Ajala's perspectives provide insight into the core aims of the declaration – which could be the biggest moment for the climate-conflict policy agenda this year, given that hosts Brazil decided not to include a dedicated day for it at the COP30 summit in November.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
The New Humanitarian: What is the African Common Position on Climate, Peace, and Security?
Olayinka Ajala: Common African Positions (CAP) are policy documents on issues identified by the African Union as needing a continental-wide approach. It's a very strong policy document, because every country within the African Union is represented at one stage or the other during the process. They exist for many issues, including food security, migration and displacement and technology.
The common position on Climate Change, Peace, and Security came about because the African Union realised that we have policy documents for conflict, climate change, water resources and so on, but nothing that brings together these issues.
The Common African Position was designed to improve understanding of climate change as not just a threat multiplier, but to show there is a direct causative relationship between climate change and conflict.
The CAP's main aim is to bring together policies to prevent and manage climate-related insecurity and to sustain peace on the continent. The draft contained different thematic areas, including governance and fragility, resource management, the role of non-state actors and climate finance. There are policy frameworks on each of those thematic areas.
Another key aim is to bring out and prove that climate change is increasing insecurity on the continent. The Common African Position was designed to improve understanding of climate change as not just a threat multiplier, but to show there is a direct causative relationship between climate change and conflict – and how this could be addressed through a continental, wide policy framework.
The New Humanitarian: Why is this issue so important?
Ajala: Because for a very long time, climate change was seen as a threat multiplier aggravating existing hostilities. But the key aspect of the CAP is to prove that climate change has significantly contributed to an increase in conflict and changed the dynamics of conflict. We need to address that holistically.
Climate and conflict works out differently in different countries. For instance, the dynamics of farmer-pastoralist conflict in Nigeria is different from that in Senegal, it's different from eastern Africa.
Ten to 15 years ago farmers and pastoralists lived – mostly – in symbiotic relationships, whereby they were able to cohabitate and work together in some ways. But in the last decade, we've seen an increase across the continent in conflicts, some not violent, many very violent in nature.
The New Humanitarian: How are climate impacts creating new conflict dynamics?
Ajala: There have been increases in resource based conflicts, like over water.
Often, when you look at so many countries, these conflicts arise between different ethnic groups or different communities. So for a long time, we've identified it as ethnic conflict.
But when we then dig deeper and look at the dynamics of this conflict, we then see how climate impacts are creating tension.
A big example is changing rainfall patterns – its intensity and timing. It's led farmers to change when they plant and harvest their crops.
While pastoralists, like Fulanis and Tuaregs, have established movement patterns over decades, farming seasons are now different. So it creates issues: If a pastoralist's animals destroy some crops, and then the farmers react by killing the animals, conflict erupts. There's confusion, but what they don't understand is that the farming timetable has changed because of climate change. This is a direct example of how a climate impact is driving conflict.
But that doesn't get attributed to climate change. Farmers and pastoralists just think, 'why are they being more hostile'. There are other underlying dynamics that also aggravate this issue – not least increasing populations' food demands, meaning previously sufficient grazing areas are now not big enough.
The New Humanitarian: Does climate just affect farmer-herder conflicts or is it broader?
Ajala: It's broader. So there are so many other issues. The reason why I've emphasised farmer-herder conflicts is because it's the one that comes across many of the countries that we've seen.
In the Sahel, drought has displaced many farmers, and when they move to other communities, it increases competition and sometimes results in conflict. Lake Chad used to support 30 million people in the region, but it shrunk significantly in the last 30-40 years, and a lot of people are no longer supported. So many of them are now having to look for alternative forms of livelihood.
And this is where the non-state actors then come in: They can offer alternative livelihoods or food. People, as a means of survival, are joining armed groups, engaging in trafficking, engaging in kidnapping, engaging in conflict and violence against the state.
The New Humanitarian: What impacts do you hope the common position document will have?
Ajala: It will be a key negotiating document for the AU at COPs (UN climate summits), where officials can have a unified policy framework that they can present to negotiate on issues relating to climate change and security in Africa. It should improve Africa's diplomatic strength, because it's the voice of all the countries on the continent.
Outside the COPs, it's also a solid core document that can link activities being done across nation states, regional organisations, and local communities. Having this umbrella-type policy document would alone have a significant impact, because individual states can then draw upon it to have their own localised policies in their own country, which also fits into addressing the issues at the regional level and continental level. This might be a new timetable for pastoralist movements to try to restore the previously entrenched symbiotic relationship with groups.
The New Humanitarian: Did the aid cuts from the US and other major donors affect the draft?
No, not specifically, there is no particular focus on a particular funding scheme or mechanism or country or organisation.
Common African Positions aren't normally concerned with this because we understand that things change from time to time, and this is a document that is going to guide the African Union and Africa for the next decade or more. So we can't base that on particular changes or or political issues, temporary political issues around the world, because things change all the time.

Ahead of the Africa Climate Summit, Policy reporter Will Worley spoke to one of the early drafters of the new Common African Position.

Why African nations are looking to unite on climate and conflict

Energy Secretary Chris Wright spearheaded a recent DOE report about climate science. A new rebuttal from more than 85 scientists finds the report is full of errors and misrepresents climate science.
Anna Moneymaker
A group of more than 85 scientists have issued a joint rebuttal to a recent U.S. Department of Energy report about climate change, finding it full of errors and misrepresenting climate science.
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This comes weeks after the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Environmental Defense Fund filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration that alleges that Energy Secretary Chris Wright 'quietly arranged for five hand-picked skeptics of the effects of climate change' to compile the government's climate report and violated the law by creating the report in secret with authors 'of only one point of view.'
The DOE's Climate Working Group consisted of four scientists and one economist who have all questioned the scientific consensus that climate change is a large threat to the world and sometimes frame global warming as beneficial.
The group of climate scientists found several examples where the DOE authors cherry-picked or misrepresented climate science in the agency's report. For instance, in the DOE report the authors claim that rising carbon dioxide can be a 'net benefit' to U.S. agriculture, neglecting to mention the negative impacts of more heat and climate-change fueled extreme weather events on crops.
The DOE report also states that there is no evidence of more intense 'meteorological' drought in the U.S. or globally, referring to droughts that involve low rainfall. But the dozens of climate scientists point out that this is misleading, because higher temperatures and more evaporation — not just low rainfall — can lead to and exacerbate droughts. They say that there are, in fact, many studies showing how climate change has exacerbated droughts.
'This report was reviewed internally by a group of DOE scientific researchers and policy experts from the Office of Science and National Labs,' writes Ben Dietderich, chief spokesperson for the DOE in an email to NPR.
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Dietderich adds that 'the Trump administration is committed to engaging in a more thoughtful and science-based conversation about climate change and energy.'
The Trump administration wants the government to stop regulating climate pollution. The DOE report was cited multiple times by the Environmental Protection Agency in its recent proposal to roll back what's known as the endangerment finding, which is the basis for rules regulating climate pollution, including from coal and gas-fired power plants, cars and trucks, and methane from the oil and gas industry.
The DOE report 'is about providing fodder for further actions down the track, which will roll back progress on climate action,' says John Cook, a senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne who studies climate science misinformation. " The DOE report is basically arguing climate change is no big deal, therefore we shouldn't act. Always it's about trying to delay action and maintain the status quo."
The group of more than 85 scientists recently submitted their review of the Climate Working Group report to the Federal Register as part of the DOE's 30-day open-comment period, which closes on Tuesday.
Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, coordinated the response from dozens of climate experts. He says unlike the DOE report, climate reports from groups such as the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change feature the work of hundreds of global scientists and require multiple rounds of peer review.
Dessler argues that this DOE report, released in late July, is important to pay attention to, because of what he and other scientists identify as problems with the science, and because of how the report is being used by the Trump administration to roll back the endangerment finding. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin has said the goal of the administration is 'driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion.'
Travis Fisher is the director of energy and environmental policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. He coordinated the work of the DOE's Climate Working Group. He says the DOE would look at what comes in during the open-comment period.
'If there are errors, they'll correct them, of course,' Fisher says. 'And I don't know if any group like this could produce a 150-page document without any errors. So we'll see what comes up."
Fisher adds, 'It's just a matter of good government and good science to address all comments that come in.'

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More than 85 veteran climate scientists have pushed back against a Trump administration report downplaying the severity of climate change, submitting more than 400 pages in public comments to the Energy Department on Tuesday.
The department's Climate Working Group report, released July 29 alongside proposals to deregulate some polluting sectors, was authored by five well-known climate change contrarians and even portrayed climate change as potentially beneficial.
In Tuesday's comments, the climate researchers describe that report as 'science-y' in appearance, but grossly misleading, lacking in substance and peer review. For example, the comments criticize the sections on sea level rise, noting the report failed to capture the acceleration of such trends, among other inaccuracies.
'It makes a mockery of science,' said Andrew Dessler, a climate researcher at Texas A&M University who helped organize the public comments to push back against the report, citing mistakes in the document and other flaws.
The researchers' comments are a lengthy, point-by-point rebuttal to the report in the form of a peer review to the Climate Working Group report. It includes a 'Summary for Policy Makers' and zeroes in on everything from the report's portrayal of carbon dioxide as a net benefit for agriculture, to its depiction of the accuracy of climate modeling.
The climate scientists came together quickly in an ad hoc manner, first organized on the social networking site Bluesky, to address what they interpret as the Trump administration's attempt to erase credible climate science from the record.
Their effort involved dozens of experts and some review, but the 30-day public comments deadline forced the researchers to respond quickly. There is, however, a lack of clarity about what process the Energy Department will follow in reviewing the public comments and if it will potentially incorporate them into a final report.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a former fracking company executive who has minimized the ongoing and future harms of climate change, handpicked the working group report's authors: John Christy and Roy Spencer, both research scientists at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, Steven E. Koonin of Stanford University's Hoover Institution, Georgia Tech professor emeritus Judith Curry and Canadian economist Ross McKitrick.
Dessler compared their report to a 'badly written blog post,' but said it demanded a response. 'This is something coming out from the federal government that the federal government could conceivably use to make policy' he told CNN.
In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency has already cited the document as part of the scientific justification for repealing the 'endangerment finding' on greenhouse gas emissions — a 2009 scientific determination that human-caused climate change endangers human health and safety. Repealing the finding could help end many of the government's most significant regulations protecting Americans' health and the environment, including emissions regulations for vehicles, power plants and the oil and gas industry.
Dessler and fellow coauthors of the new comments criticize the Energy Department report for trying to manufacture scientific uncertainty where it does not exist, whether the topic is climate change's influence on extreme weather events or its potential agricultural impacts.
'This is really a rerun of the tobacco battles. The goal here is not to win the debate. They're never going to win the debate. The science of climate change is incredibly solid,' Dessler said. 'All they're trying to do is muddy the waters here, create this idea that there's a debate, and then the government will use that to roll back regulations.'
Robert Kopp, a climate scientist at Rutgers University also involved in the response, said the department's report is 'not scientifically credible,' and the comments filed overall criticize it for aiming to reach a predetermined conclusion, missciting and mischaracterizing studies, and making numerous errors.
The comments summary states that the working group report 'exhibits pervasive problems with misrepresentation and selective citation of the scientific literature, cherry-picking of data, and faulty or absent statistics.' Several climate scientists whose research was cited in the Trump report have said it misused or misrepresented their work, CNN previously reported.
Rebecca Neumann, a researcher at the University of Washington who also took part in the comments, said the administration's report fits in with the evolving arguments of those who minimize the threats climate change poses. 'As outright denial of climate change becomes less tenable, the new approach is to downplay its dangers and exaggerate its upsides,' she said in a statement.
Other mainstream climate scientists and their affiliated groups are also more formally addressing flaws in the Energy Department's report. Last week, for example, the American Meteorological Society, which represents weather and climate experts, published a statement identifying 'foundational flaws' in the report.
'Scientific assessments that emphasize unusual views are unrepresentative of the larger community of subject matter experts,' the society's response states, though it is not clear from the statement whether the American Meteorological Society is submitting its response as a formal comment to the report.
'The DoE Report selectively emphasizes a small set of unrepresentative findings, particularly those that might appear beneficial on superficial examination. This 'cherry picking' also downplays and excludes scientific findings that might be widely understood to be harmful,' the society's statement says. It also points out, as does Dessler, that the arguments put forward in the Climate Working Group report 'are not new,' and have been previously considered by the broader scientific community.
Wright told CNN in August that the department's working group may revisit previously published National Climate Assessments, and he has also expressed interest in holding public climate science debates.
The national assessments — which are congressionally mandated and take years to research and peer review — have been removed from government websites, and the Trump administration dismissed the authors of the next iteration, raising the possibility that the Department of Energy scientists will have a role in writing it.
Dessler said the arguments put forward in the working group document would never survive a peer review in a scientific journal. 'What they are trying to do now is rewrite the rules of science, because they know they cannot win in the actual scientific community. So they are busy trying to figure out a venue where they can win,' Dessler said.

More than 85 veteran climate scientists have pushed back against a Trump administration report downplaying the severity of climate change, submitting more than 400 pages in public comments to the…

Scientists submit coordinated response to Trump admin report casting doubt on climate change: ‘It makes a mockery of science'

How do scientists determine whether climate change is driving extreme weather events like the floods, heat waves and droughts that we're experiencing today? To find out about the science of attribution, Mongabay's Kristine Sabillo recently
interviewed
environmental statistician Clair Barnes of World Weather Attribution (WWA), a global network of researchers that has been analyzing the role of climate change on today's extreme weather.
The idea behind WWA, Barnes said, 'was to look at high-impact weather events and to use the latest science to say something while the conversation is still going on.'
WWA works with partners like the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre that monitor various emergency and disaster alerts channels and issues what it calls a 'trigger' when a disaster has major humanitarian consequences. This can be a heat wave setting temperature records in a region, or a flood killing or displacing a certain number or proportion of the population.
Once WWA researchers decided on an event to study further, they work with local experts who understand the meteorological and geographical processes behind that event. A rapid analysis can take from a few days to up to a few weeks to finish.
Barnes said they use observational weather data and statistical and climate models to understand the role of climate change in the event.
Consider flooding in a river basin due to heavy rains over three days: The researchers
use multiple weather data sets to examine how the maximum three-day rainfall period for that season has changed in that area over the past several years. A statistical model then tells them how the change in rainfall is related to the change in global mean temperature over the years. The latter, scientists have established, has risen mainly due to human-triggered greenhouse gas emissions. Using the models, the researchers
then calculate how likely such heavy rain and flooding is in today's climate compared to pre-industrial times, when temperatures were much cooler.
The researchers further use different climate models to see how much climate change, rather than other factors such as deforestation, influenced the flooding event.
But there are data challenges, Barnes said. While some regions like Europe have good availability of both observed weather data and climate models, others, like parts of Africa, don't.
Still, it's important to do the rapid studies and get the reports out quickly, Barnes said, 'not only to say actually it was climate change, but sometimes to say: we're not seeing evidence that climate change was what caused these terrible impacts. Maybe it's that the infrastructure wasn't maintained, or it was something that we could have avoided in another way.'
Barnes added that while other meteorological agencies around the world are doing similar attribution studies, WWA will continue to analyze weather events, especially highlighting regions that are underrepresented.
Read the full interview
here
.
Banner image:
Rescuers evacuate people from a flooded hospital following landslides and flash flooding in India's northeast state of Manipur. (AP Photo/Donald Sairem).

How do scientists determine whether climate change is driving extreme weather events like the floods, heat waves and droughts that we're experiencing today? To find out about the science of attribution, Mongabay's Kristine Sabillo recently interviewed environmental statistician Clair Barnes of World Weather Attribution (WWA), a global network of researchers that has been analyzing the […]

How scientists unmask climate change's role in extreme weather

MADRID (AP) — The extremely hot, dry and windy conditions, which fueled one of the IberianPeninsula's most destructive wildfire seasons in recorded history, were 40 times more likely due to climate change, according to a study released Thursday.
The analysis by World Weather Attribution, or WWA, said the weather conditions were about 30% more intense compared to the preindustrial era, when heavy reliance on fossil fuels began.
Summer wildfires
Hundreds of wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula broke out in July and August. They spread rapidly thanks to temperatures that pushed above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and strong winds.
The fires in Spain and Portugal killed eight people, forced more than 35,000 evacuations and scorched more than 640,000 hectares (1.58 million acres) or roughly two-thirds of Europe's total burned area this year.
Most blazes are now under control, officials say, as temperatures have dropped considerably.
'Hotter, drier and more flammable conditions are becoming more severe with climate change, and are giving rise to fires of unprecedented intensity,' said Clair Barnes, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College, London.
Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The role of climate change
WWA, a group of researchers that examines whether and to what extent extreme weather events are linked to climate change, focused on the conditions that allowed the Iberian wildfires to spread that fast, including during Spain's hottest ten-day period on record in August, according to the country's weather agency AEMET.
Without climate change, similar ten-day spells of hot, dry and windy conditions would be rare, expected once every 500 years, they found.
'This quick study is one more line of evidence showing how human-caused climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme heat and combined hot and dry fire weather conditions,' said Valérie Masson-Delmotte, a climate scientist at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, who was not involved in the study.
WWA's analysis wasn't a full attribution study. Those seek to determine the influence of climate change, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, on a specific extreme weather event. This time, the researchers looked at weather observations without using climate models. But the results were consistent with existing research on wildfires in the region, the researchers said, and another study WWA recently published on this year's fires in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, which found that climate change made fire-prone weather conditions there 10 times more likely.
'While fires are a characteristic of the Mediterranean climate, human-caused climate change increases the recurrence and severity of conditions favorable for intense fires, making fire control efforts much more challenging,' Masson-Delmotte said.
Neglecting rural areas
The researchers mentioned other factors that have contributed to the severity of the wildfires, including large population shifts that have taken place over decades in Spain and Portugal from the countryside to cities. The study said this has resulted in large areas of neglected overgrown farms and forests, which further fuel the fires.
Removing vegetation using machinery, encouraging grazing by sheep, horses and goats and using other methods, such as controlled burns, would reduce the risk during wildfire seasons, researchers said.
'From a human perspective, most of these rural areas have suffered massive abandonment since the 1970s, which has allowed fine fuels to accumulate to dangerous levels, a problem worsened by inadequate forestry management,' said Ricardo Trigo, a professor at the University of Lisbon's geophysics, geographical engineering and energy department.
On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez proposed a 10-point plan to better prepare the country for natural disasters made worse by climate change. It included coordinating with neighboring Portugal and France.
Suman Naishadham, The Associated Press

MADRID (AP) — The extremely hot, dry and windy conditions, which fueled one of the IberianPeninsula's most destructive wildfire seasons in recorded history, were 40 times more likely due to climate…

MADRID (AP) — The extremely hot, dry and windy conditions, which fueled one of the Iberian Peninsula's most destructive wildfire seasons in recorded history, were 40 times more likely due to climate change, according to a study released Thursday.
The analysis by World Weather Attribution, or WWA, said the weather conditions were about 30% more intense compared to the preindustrial era, when heavy reliance on fossil fuels began.
Summer wildfires
Hundreds of wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula broke out in July and August. They spread rapidly thanks to temperatures that pushed above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and strong winds.
The fires in Spain and Portugal killed eight people, forced more than 35,000 evacuations and scorched more than 640,000 hectares (1.58 million acres) or roughly two-thirds of Europe's total burned area this year.
Most blazes are now under control, officials say, as temperatures have dropped considerably.
'Hotter, drier and more flammable conditions are becoming more severe with climate change, and are giving rise to fires of unprecedented intensity,' said Clair Barnes, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College, London.
Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The role of climate change
WWA, a group of researchers that examines whether and to what extent extreme weather events are linked to climate change, focused on the conditions that allowed the Iberian wildfires to spread that fast, including during Spain's hottest ten-day period on record in August, according to the country's weather agency AEMET.
Without climate change, similar ten-day spells of hot, dry and windy conditions would be rare, expected once every 500 years, they found.
'This quick study is one more line of evidence showing how human-caused climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme heat and combined hot and dry fire weather conditions,' said Valérie Masson-Delmotte, a climate scientist at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, who was not involved in the study.
WWA's analysis wasn't a full attribution study. Those seek to determine the influence of climate change, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, on a specific extreme weather event. This time, the researchers looked at weather observations without using climate models. But the results were consistent with existing research on wildfires in the region, the researchers said, and another study WWA recently published on this year's fires in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, which found that climate change made fire-prone weather conditions there 10 times more likely.
'While fires are a characteristic of the Mediterranean climate, human-caused climate change increases the recurrence and severity of conditions favorable for intense fires, making fire control efforts much more challenging,' Masson-Delmotte said.
Neglecting rural areas
The researchers mentioned other factors that have contributed to the severity of the wildfires, including large population shifts that have taken place over decades in Spain and Portugal from the countryside to cities. The study said this has resulted in large areas of neglected overgrown farms and forests, which further fuel the fires.
Removing vegetation using machinery, encouraging grazing by sheep, horses and goats and using other methods, such as controlled burns, would reduce the risk during wildfire seasons, researchers said.
'From a human perspective, most of these rural areas have suffered massive abandonment since the 1970s, which has allowed fine fuels to accumulate to dangerous levels, a problem worsened by inadequate forestry management,' said Ricardo Trigo, a professor at the University of Lisbon's geophysics, geographical engineering and energy department.
On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez proposed a 10-point plan to better prepare the country for natural disasters made worse by climate change. It included coordinating with neighboring Portugal and France.

A new study says climate change has made extreme weather conditions, like those fueling wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula, 40 times more likely

Climate Change Made Heat and Dryness That Fueled Iberian Wildfires 40 Times More Likely, Study Finds

A new study says climate change has made extreme weather conditions, like those fueling wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula, 40 times more likely. Released Thursday, the analysis by World Weather...

Getty images by Surasak Suwanmake
The impacts of climate change are being felt worldwide. From issues such as rising sea levels, more frequent heat waves, and warmer ocean temperatures, the effects are numerous. Now, there is another adverse side effect from the changing climate: wildfires. Although wildfires have been happening for centuries, they are being worsened by climate change across the globe. How Are Wildfires Being Worsened By Climate Change?
Getty image by Andrew Merry
As previously stated, climate change affects our planet in many ways. One of those ways is by altering the weather. Climate change has caused temperatures to rise, resulting in an increase in the frequency and severity of heatwaves. This results in less rainfall and increased drought. All of this creates a perfect storm for a wildfire to brew. Currently, the massive wildfires in Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus have been worsened by climate change. The NY Post shared statistics from a study conducted by the World Weather Attribution (WWA). They stated that "the fires that killed 20 people, forced 80,000 to evacuate, and burned more than 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres) were 22% more intense in 2025."
These fires, along with hundreds more that have broken out across Europe, were driven by high temperatures, dry conditions, and strong winds. During their research, the WWA found concerning ties to climate change and extreme weather events. Theodore Keeping, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College in London, noted that climate change is amplifying these drier conditions. With these worsened conditions, he argues that "we are seeing new extremes in wildfire behaviour that have pushed firefighters to their limit." How To Combat Climate Change
Although wildfires across the globe are being worsened by climate change, we are not without hope. There are several ways you can start combating climate change today to mitigate its effects on our planet. Below are just a few examples of things you can do to dramatically lessen your carbon footprint and begin to revitalize our planet. Save energy at home Switch to LED light bulbs Use energy-efficient appliances Hang dry clothing instead of using a dryer
Change your home's energy source Rather than gas or oil, see if you can switch to renewable energy, such as wind or solar. Or, install solar panels on your roof
Be mindful of your transportation Rather than driving everywhere, opt for walking, biking, or taking public transportation; this allows for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. For long distances, consider taking a train or a bus
Don't waste food The United Nations shares that "When you throw food away, you're also wasting the resources and energy that were used to grow, produce, package, and transport it." Additionally, as the food rots in landfills, "it produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas," which is not suitable for our environment. So, purchase only what your family can eat.

Scientists are arguing that wildfires across the globe are being worsened by climate change. Find out how the two are connected.

Wildfires Across The Globe Worsened By Climate Change

The extremely hot, dry and windy conditions, which fueled one of the IberianPeninsula's most destructive wildfire seasons in recorded history, were 40 times more likely due to climate change, according to a study released Thursday.
The analysis by World Weather Attribution, or WWA, said the weather conditions were about 30% more intense compared to the preindustrial era, when heavy reliance on fossil fuels began.
Summer wildfires
Hundreds of wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula broke out in July and August. They spread rapidly thanks to temperatures that pushed above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and strong winds.
The fires in Spain and Portugal killed eight people, forced more than 35,000 evacuations and scorched more than 640,000 hectares (1.58 million acres) or roughly two-thirds of Europe's total burned area this year.
Most blazes are now under control, officials say, as temperatures have dropped considerably.
'Hotter, drier and more flammable conditions are becoming more severe with climate change, and are giving rise to fires of unprecedented intensity,' said Clair Barnes, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College, London.
Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The role of climate change
WWA, a group of researchers that examines whether and to what extent extreme weather events are linked to climate change, focused on the conditions that allowed the Iberian wildfires to spread that fast, including during Spain's hottest ten-day period on record in August, according to the country's weather agency AEMET.
Without climate change, similar ten-day spells of hot, dry and windy conditions would be rare, expected once every 500 years, they found.
'This quick study is one more line of evidence showing how human-caused climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme heat and combined hot and dry fire weather conditions,' said Valérie Masson-Delmotte, a climate scientist at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, who was not involved in the study.
WWA's analysis wasn't a full attribution study. Those seek to determine the influence of climate change, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, on a specific extreme weather event. This time, the researchers looked at weather observations without using climate models. But the results were consistent with existing research on wildfires in the region, the researchers said, and another study WWA recently published on this year's fires in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, which found that climate change made fire-prone weather conditions there 10 times more likely.
'While fires are a characteristic of the Mediterranean climate, human-caused climate change increases the recurrence and severity of conditions favorable for intense fires, making fire control efforts much more challenging,' Masson-Delmotte said.
Neglecting rural areas
The researchers mentioned other factors that have contributed to the severity of the wildfires, including large population shifts that have taken place over decades in Spain and Portugal from the countryside to cities. The study said this has resulted in large areas of neglected overgrown farms and forests, which further fuel the fires.
Removing vegetation using machinery, encouraging grazing by sheep, horses and goats and using other methods, such as controlled burns, would reduce the risk during wildfire seasons, researchers said.
'From a human perspective, most of these rural areas have suffered massive abandonment since the 1970s, which has allowed fine fuels to accumulate to dangerous levels, a problem worsened by inadequate forestry management,' said Ricardo Trigo, a professor at the University of Lisbon's geophysics, geographical engineering and energy department.
On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez proposed a 10-point plan to better prepare the country for natural disasters made worse by climate change. It included coordinating with neighboring Portugal and France.

A new study says climate change has made extreme weather conditions, like those fueling wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula, 40 times more likely.

This time next school year, teachers across the state will be required to learn about climate change — following a climate education bill signed by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
Ahead of that, the Illinois Climate Education Hub is launching later this week. It is a platform to help teachers implement the required learning next year, but some teachers are already getting a head start.
"It's super exciting to really expand climate learning in Illinois," said Katie Nahrwold of the nonprofit Subject to Climate, state lead for the Illinois Climate Education Hub. "All of the lessons and resources are aligned to Illinois state standards."
With no state learning program in place, and no money set aside for one, the Illinois Climate Education hub is made possible through a nonprofit — and aims to fill those gaps.
"Currently, there's not the infrastructure or the funding to help teachers implement those changes," said Nahrwold.
The education hub will help teachers with lesson plans and learning.
"And they're Illinois place-based, so they're things that are happening in Illinois."
This all comes ahead of the next school year, when Illinois's first climate change education bill is will require public schools to teach about climate change — identifying and mitigating impacts and evaluating solutions.
"Teachers can feel pretty confident about what they're going on there and getting," said Jeff Grant, a teacher at Downers Grove North High School.
Grant just incorporated a climate change lesson into his class on Tuesday.
"The kids are conscientious of it, you know, and we want to provide them with enough data that they can make their own understandings of stuff as they go through life," Grant said.
Climate Education for Illinois is the organization behind getting the requirement into place in Illinois in the first place.
"We really need to make teachers aware, so that they know this is a resource out there to help their teaching," said Helen von den Steinen of Climate Education for Illinois. "There's a climate justice element to it — of making sure that all the kids are informed."
CBS News Chicago reached out to the Illinois Board of Education. In a statement, a spokesperson further clarified the board is not directly involved in the hub:
"The state does not sanction or approve curriculum. School districts have local control over curriculum. Districts use mandated units of study and the Illinois Learning Standards as guides to make curricular and instructional decisions locally.
"The topic of climate change is already found in the Illinois Learning Standards for Science; thus, instruction already should be taking place. HB 4895 clarified this requirement.
"The bill provided that subject to appropriation, ISBE would develop instructional resources aligned to the standards, as well as professional development for teachers. However, the FY 25 budget did not provide funding for ISBE to do that work. A group of non-profit organizations did come together to create a central space to support teachers and students on climate education, resulting in the IL Climate Education Hub. Note that ISBE does not have a role in the development or maintenance of the hub."
The ISBE did not immediately respond to follow-up questions.
"We want to turn that climate anxiety into climate action and empower our young people," said Nahrwold.
The National Center for Science Education spoke highly of the hub.
"The Illinois Climate Education Hub will help to ensure that today's students are equipped with the knowledge and knowhow they will need to cope with the challenges of tomorrow's warming world," National Center for Science Education deputy director Glenn Branch said in a statement.

With no state learning program in place, and no money set aside for one, the Illinois Climate Education hub is made possible through a nonprofit.

Illinois Climate Education Hub gives teachers head start on climate curriculum

MADRID (AP) — The extremely hot, dry and windy conditions, which fueled one of the IberianPeninsula's most destructive wildfire seasons in recorded history, were 40 times more likely due to climate change, according to a study released Thursday.
The analysis by World Weather Attribution, or WWA, said the weather conditions were about 30% more intense compared to the preindustrial era, when heavy reliance on fossil fuels began.
Hundreds of wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula broke out in July and August. They spread rapidly thanks to temperatures that pushed above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and strong winds.
The fires in Spain and Portugal killed eight people, forced more than 35,000 evacuations and scorched more than 640,000 hectares (1.58 million acres) or roughly two-thirds of Europe's total burned area this year.
Most blazes are now under control, officials say, as temperatures have dropped considerably.
'Hotter, drier and more flammable conditions are becoming more severe with climate change, and are giving rise to fires of unprecedented intensity,' said Clair Barnes, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College, London.
Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The role of climate change
WWA, a group of researchers that examines whether and to what extent extreme weather events are linked to climate change, focused on the conditions that allowed the Iberian wildfires to spread that fast, including during Spain's hottest ten-day period on record in August, according to the country's weather agency AEMET.
Without climate change, similar ten-day spells of hot, dry and windy conditions would be rare, expected once every 500 years, they found.
'This quick study is one more line of evidence showing how human-caused climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme heat and combined hot and dry fire weather conditions,' said Valérie Masson-Delmotte, a climate scientist at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, who was not involved in the study.
WWA's analysis wasn't a full attribution study. Those seek to determine the influence of climate change, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, on a specific extreme weather event. This time, the researchers looked at weather observations without using climate models. But the results were consistent with existing research on wildfires in the region, the researchers said, and another study WWA recently published on this year's fires in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, which found that climate change made fire-prone weather conditions there 10 times more likely.
'While fires are a characteristic of the Mediterranean climate, human-caused climate change increases the recurrence and severity of conditions favorable for intense fires, making fire control efforts much more challenging,' Masson-Delmotte said.
Neglecting rural areas
The researchers mentioned other factors that have contributed to the severity of the wildfires, including large population shifts that have taken place over decades in Spain and Portugal from the countryside to cities. The study said this has resulted in large areas of neglected overgrown farms and forests, which further fuel the fires.
Removing vegetation using machinery, encouraging grazing by sheep, horses and goats and using other methods, such as controlled burns, would reduce the risk during wildfire seasons, researchers said.
'From a human perspective, most of these rural areas have suffered massive abandonment since the 1970s, which has allowed fine fuels to accumulate to dangerous levels, a problem worsened by inadequate forestry management,' said Ricardo Trigo, a professor at the University of Lisbon's geophysics, geographical engineering and energy department.
On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez proposed a 10-point plan to better prepare the country for natural disasters made worse by climate change. It included coordinating with neighboring Portugal and France.

MADRID (AP) — The extremely hot, dry and windy conditions, which fueled one of the IberianPeninsula's most destructive wildfire seasons in recorded history, were 40 times more likely due to climate change, according to a study released Thursday.
The analysis by World Weather Attribution, or WWA, said the weather conditions were about 30% more intense compared to the preindustrial era, when heavy reliance on fossil fuels began.
Hundreds of wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula broke out in July and August. They spread rapidly thanks to temperatures that pushed above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and strong winds.
The fires in Spain and Portugal killed eight people, forced more than 35,000 evacuations and scorched more than 640,000 hectares (1.58 million acres) or roughly two-thirds of Europe's total burned area this year.
Most blazes are now under control, officials say, as temperatures have dropped considerably.
'Hotter, drier and more flammable conditions are becoming more severe with climate change, and are giving rise to fires of unprecedented intensity,' said Clair Barnes, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College, London.
Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
WWA, a group of researchers that examines whether and to what extent extreme weather events are linked to climate change, focused on the conditions that allowed the Iberian wildfires to spread that fast, including during Spain's hottest ten-day period on record in August, according to the country's weather agency AEMET.
Without climate change, similar ten-day spells of hot, dry and windy conditions would be rare, expected once every 500 years, they found.
'This quick study is one more line of evidence showing how human-caused climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme heat and combined hot and dry fire weather conditions,' said Valérie Masson-Delmotte, a climate scientist at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, who was not involved in the study.
WWA's analysis wasn't a full attribution study. Those seek to determine the influence of climate change, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, on a specific extreme weather event. This time, the researchers looked at weather observations without using climate models. But the results were consistent with existing research on wildfires in the region, the researchers said, and another study WWA recently published on this year's fires in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, which found that climate change made fire-prone weather conditions there 10 times more likely.
'While fires are a characteristic of the Mediterranean climate, human-caused climate change increases the recurrence and severity of conditions favorable for intense fires, making fire control efforts much more challenging,' Masson-Delmotte said.
The researchers mentioned other factors that have contributed to the severity of the wildfires, including large population shifts that have taken place over decades in Spain and Portugal from the countryside to cities. The study said this has resulted in large areas of neglected overgrown farms and forests, which further fuel the fires.
Removing vegetation using machinery, encouraging grazing by sheep, horses and goats and using other methods, such as controlled burns, would reduce the risk during wildfire seasons, researchers said.
'From a human perspective, most of these rural areas have suffered massive abandonment since the 1970s, which has allowed fine fuels to accumulate to dangerous levels, a problem worsened by inadequate forestry management,' said Ricardo Trigo, a professor at the University of Lisbon's geophysics, geographical engineering and energy department.
On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez proposed a 10-point plan to better prepare the country for natural disasters made worse by climate change. It included coordinating with neighboring Portugal and France.

The extremely hot, dry and windy conditions, which fueled one of the IberianPeninsula's most destructive wildfire seasons in recorded history, were 40 times more likely due to climate change, according to a study released Thursday.The analysis by World Weather Attribution,...

More than 85 veteran climate scientists have pushed back against a Trump administration report downplaying the severity of climate change, submitting more than 400 pages in public comments to the Energy Department on Tuesday.
The department's Climate Working Group report, released July 29 alongside proposals to deregulate some polluting sectors, was authored by five well-known climate change contrarians and even portrayed climate change as potentially beneficial.
In Tuesday's comments, the climate researchers describe that report as 'science-y' in appearance, but grossly misleading, lacking in substance and peer review. For example, the comments criticize the sections on sea level rise, noting the report failed to capture the acceleration of such trends, among other inaccuracies.
'It makes a mockery of science,' said Andrew Dessler, a climate researcher at Texas A&M University who helped organize the public comments to push back against the report, citing mistakes in the document and other flaws.
The researchers' comments are a lengthy, point-by-point rebuttal to the report in the form of a peer review to the Climate Working Group report. It includes a 'Summary for Policy Makers' and zeroes in on everything from the report's portrayal of carbon dioxide as a net benefit for agriculture, to its depiction of the accuracy of climate modeling.
The climate scientists came together quickly in an ad hoc manner, first organized on the social networking site Bluesky, to address what they interpret as the Trump administration's attempt to erase credible climate science from the record.
Their effort involved dozens of experts and some review, but the 30-day public comments deadline forced the researchers to respond quickly. There is, however, a lack of clarity about what process the Energy Department will follow in reviewing the public comments and if it will potentially incorporate them into a final report.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a former fracking company executive who has minimized the ongoing and future harms of climate change, handpicked the working group report's authors: John Christy and Roy Spencer, both research scientists at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, Steven E. Koonin of Stanford University's Hoover Institution, Georgia Tech professor emeritus Judith Curry and Canadian economist Ross McKitrick.
Dessler compared their report to a 'badly written blog post,' but said it demanded a response. 'This is something coming out from the federal government that the federal government could conceivably use to make policy' he told CNN.
In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency has already cited the document as part of the scientific justification for repealing the 'endangerment finding' on greenhouse gas emissions — a 2009 scientific determination that human-caused climate change endangers human health and safety. Repealing the finding could help end many of the government's most significant regulations protecting Americans' health and the environment, including emissions regulations for vehicles, power plants and the oil and gas industry.
Dessler and fellow coauthors of the new comments criticize the Energy Department report for trying to manufacture scientific uncertainty where it does not exist, whether the topic is climate change's influence on extreme weather events or its potential agricultural impacts.
'This is really a rerun of the tobacco battles. The goal here is not to win the debate. They're never going to win the debate. The science of climate change is incredibly solid,' Dessler said. 'All they're trying to do is muddy the waters here, create this idea that there's a debate, and then the government will use that to roll back regulations.'
Robert Kopp, a climate scientist at Rutgers University also involved in the response, said the department's report is 'not scientifically credible,' and the comments filed overall criticize it for aiming to reach a predetermined conclusion, missciting and mischaracterizing studies, and making numerous errors.
The comments summary states that the working group report 'exhibits pervasive problems with misrepresentation and selective citation of the scientific literature, cherry-picking of data, and faulty or absent statistics.' Several climate scientists whose research was cited in the Trump report have said it misused or misrepresented their work, CNN previously reported.
Rebecca Neumann, a researcher at the University of Washington who also took part in the comments, said the administration's report fits in with the evolving arguments of those who minimize the threats climate change poses. 'As outright denial of climate change becomes less tenable, the new approach is to downplay its dangers and exaggerate its upsides,' she said in a statement.
Other mainstream climate scientists and their affiliated groups are also more formally addressing flaws in the Energy Department's report. Last week, for example, the American Meteorological Society, which represents weather and climate experts, published a statement identifying 'foundational flaws' in the report.
'Scientific assessments that emphasize unusual views are unrepresentative of the larger community of subject matter experts,' the society's response states, though it is not clear from the statement whether the American Meteorological Society is submitting its response as a formal comment to the report.
'The DoE Report selectively emphasizes a small set of unrepresentative findings, particularly those that might appear beneficial on superficial examination. This 'cherry picking' also downplays and excludes scientific findings that might be widely understood to be harmful,' the society's statement says. It also points out, as does Dessler, that the arguments put forward in the Climate Working Group report 'are not new,' and have been previously considered by the broader scientific community.
Wright told CNN in August that the department's working group may revisit previously published National Climate Assessments, and he has also expressed interest in holding public climate science debates.
The national assessments — which are congressionally mandated and take years to research and peer review — have been removed from government websites, and the Trump administration dismissed the authors of the next iteration, raising the possibility that the Department of Energy scientists will have a role in writing it.
Dessler said the arguments put forward in the working group document would never survive a peer review in a scientific journal. 'What they are trying to do now is rewrite the rules of science, because they know they cannot win in the actual scientific community. So they are busy trying to figure out a venue where they can win,' Dessler said.

A multiple exposure photo of Energy Secretary Chris Wright taken at a visit to the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory campus in Golden, Colorado, on April 3.
Get your news from a source that's not owned and controlled by oligarchs.
This story was originally published by
Grist
and is reproduced here as part of the
Climate Desk
collaboration
.
Should you be
worried about climate change?
The answer used to be debatable—literally.
Way back in 2007, NPR aired a debate over the proposition that '
Global Warming Is Not a Crisis
.' The panel had six commentators, divided equally into two sides. Those on the 'not a crisis' side (which included
Jurassic Park
author and nonscientist Michael Crichton) argued that much of the current alarm was based on 'ignorance.' Sure, the climate was changing, but that wasn't anything new, they said. They weren't convinced carbon dioxide was driving it this time around, either.
Those stuck arguing that global warming was not
not
a crisis—an awkward double negative—countered that the scientific community was in near-universal agreement that CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions were at fault. They laid out the dire consequences (rising seas, shrinking ice caps, warming oceans) and called on the audience to think of the planet their children and grandchildren would inherit.
'It can really create perceptions of false equivalence in the public sphere.'
Afterward, conservative think tank
The Heartland Institute
declared that the climate 'realists' had beaten the 'alarmists.' Polling the audience, NPR found that 57 percent thought that global warming was a crisis before the debate, but only 42 percent did afterward. The results seemed to confirm the fears that participant Gavin Schmidt, a NASA climate scientist, had
outlined on his blog
ahead of the event. 'Is this kind of rhetorical jousting useful for clarifying issues of science…? Or does it just validate the least serious opposition?' he wrote.
In 2010, around the time when these kinds of debates were popular, almost half of Americans falsely believed there was
a lot of disagreement
among scientists that climate change was happening. Fast-forward to today, and the public's understanding has evolved. More Americans acknowledge that scientists agree on climate change. People are also
increasingly worried
about the consequences: The intense floods, wildfires, and heat waves battering the country have sparked concern not only for the future, but for the present.
And yet the old way of discussing climate change—framing it as a debate—appears to be coming back into fashion, this time spurred by the federal government.
A new report from the Department of Energy, '
A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate,
' arrived in late July. 'Climate change is a challenge—not a catastrophe,'
Chris Wright
, the Trump-appointed energy secretary, declared in the foreword. He wrote that the public conversation on climate change had 'drifted from the science' because of exaggerated media coverage, potentially leading to 'misguided policies based on fear.'
While the report acknowledged that yes, the planet is getting warmer, and yes, it's caused by humans, it argued that these changes aren't as bad as you think. It contended that carbon dioxide is good for plant growth, that computer models are overstating predictions of future warming, and that sea level rise isn't accelerating.
These conclusions were no surprise considering that the report's five authors—John Christy, Judith Curry, Steve Koonin, Ross McKitrick, and Roy Spencer—have a long track record of pushing back against mainstream narratives about climate change.
'We're losing precious, precious time to help stave off these terrible impacts of climate change.'
Among those who care deeply about climate change, the report sounded alarm bells. Critics pointed to its use of selectively chosen data. A fact-check from the data journalism nonprofit Carbon Brief identified
more than 100 cases of false or misleading claims
in the 140-page document, with some researchers saying their cited work had been mischaracterized. Some scientists, led by Andrew Dessler at Texas A&M University, have begun
organizing an academic response to the report
.
'It is a shock to see the US government, in an official document, deny scientific realities and spew so much disinformation,' said Rachel Cleetus, a senior policy director for climate and energy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
But getting scientists riled up might have been intentional. One of the report's authors, Koonin,
recently told E&E News
that the expected pushback to the DOE report is part of a long-standing effort to create a 'red team, blue team' exercise that could revive the 'debate' over climate change.
'Red team, blue team' is a reference to an adversarial military exercise used to expose weaknesses. The idea, with
roots in 19th-century Prussian war games
, took off in the US during the Cold War in the 1960s and has since become popular in cybersecurity. Companies will hire a 'red' team to try to poke holes in their 'blue' team's digital defenses. These provocations help companies bolster their defenses against actual hackers.
The red team, blue team idea was
floated by an EPA official during President Donald Trump's first term
as a way to challenge mainstream climate science. Before that, it had been raised by Spencer, another author on the 2025 report,
as early as 2009
. For a matter like climate change, however, a loud red-team attack has the effect of making the whole field look wobbly, split into two equally divided sides.
'It can really create perceptions of false equivalence in the public sphere,' said Max Boykoff, an environmental studies professor at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Matt Burgess, an environmental economist at the University of Wyoming, said that the context of the DOE report—the Trump administration's broader assault on climate information—makes it hard to take it seriously. While the DOE report was underway,
officials removed congressionally mandated climate reports
on how climate change affects life in the United States from the federal website they lived on. The administration has also cut
billions in funding
for climate programs and
research
, and has proposed
halting projects
that monitor climate change
.
On the same day the DOE report was released in July, the Environmental Protection Agency fired another shot at climate science,
saying it would roll back
the Obama-era finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health—the scientific foundation that allows the agency to address climate change. In its proposal to repeal this so-called 'endangerment' finding, the EPA cited the new DOE report, and many have interpreted it as a pretext for the EPA's announcement.
So the 'blue team' pushed back. Two environmental groups, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Union of Concerned Scientists, filed
a lawsuit
against both agencies
earlier this month
, arguing that Wright had secretly arranged for five 'hand-picked skeptics' to write a report challenging the scientific consensus on climate change. The lawsuit alleges that involving a 'secret, unaccountable' group in policymaking concerns violated federal law. (The DOE did not respond to a request for comment for this story.)
'I think it's just basically another opportunity for people to yell at each other online.'
But scientists may want to be careful in how they push back at the report, since arguing over fringe viewpoints
may have the effect of amplifying them
, falling into the same trap created by the climate debates of 20 years ago. One study from 2023 found that disinformation about climate change was
more emotionally compelling and persuasive
to people than scientific facts. To Cleetus, the government's revival of the climate 'debate' is a distraction from the task at hand. 'We're losing precious, precious time to help stave off these terrible impacts of climate change,' Cleetus said. 'And I don't know what we will say to our children and grandchildren, that this is what we wasted our time on.'
Much of the polarization around climate change appears to stem from
disagreements over what to do about it
. In recent years, many advocates have justified faster action—more regulations, fewer fossil fuels, and more green technology—by appealing to 'science.' The Biden administration even
enshrined 'listen to science' as its official policy
. But while science can inform policy decisions, it doesn't answer the question of how to navigate the complex moral and cultural issues that come with reimagining life after fossil fuels.
The political left has used the science-has-all-the-answers framing to shut down important conversations about real trade-offs, said Travis Fisher, who helped organize the DOE report. He is also the director of energy and environmental policy at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. He says that by using 'the science' as justification to push through controversial policies, it invites skepticism in science as an objective force.
'There's only so many times you can get hit with that, like, trademark 'science' club before you start saying, 'Hey, what's actually in that club that you have?'' Fisher said. ''Is it as solid as you say it is?''
It bears repeating that
upward of
97 percent of
climate experts agree that human-caused climate change is happening, but there
are
many areas of climate science that merit further study. For example, the question of whether climate change
affects tornadoes
(not yet clear) or just how quickly and strongly CO2 emissions will drive global warming in the future. (The DOE report argues that the planet is less sensitive to CO2 than commonly believed, while scientist James Hansen argues that it's actually
more
sensitive
.) Science is always evolving as new evidence comes in, and it takes many studies to create a sufficient body of evidence before a causal argument can be accepted.
Take that famous 97 percent stat from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, for example. According to
the organization
, it came from 'not just…a single study, but by a converging stream of evidence over the past two decades from surveys of scientists, content analyses of peer-reviewed studies, and public statements issued by virtually every membership organization of experts in this field.'
To Burgess, the environmental economist, the messy context around the DOE report represents a missed opportunity—particularly because he thinks the critics make some good points. There are certain narratives, especially around the
severity of climate impacts
, he said, 'that are underappreciated in the mainstream discourse.'
But the solution, Burgess said, isn't war-room style debates—it's open, transparent collaboration between what might be described as the 'blue team' and 'red team.' As an example of a way to encourage thoughtful engagement, he pointed to the University of Pennsylvania's Adversarial Collaboration Project, which encourages scholars who disagree to work together to resolve
polarizing scientific disputes
.
'We do ourselves and the community a favor when we dispassionately try to, through things like adversarial collaboration, get to the bottom of genuine scholarly debates about how to interpret facts,' Burgess said. 'Even if we don't like the people who interpret the facts differently than we do.'
Wright has hinted that the DOE's report, which is open to the public to comment, may just be the start of the administration's move to stir up debate over climate change. 'We'll probably have public events here in DC this fall,' he said in
an interview with CNN
earlier this month. 'We want to have an honest dialogue with the American people about climate change.'
Burgess interprets the whole episode around report differently. 'I think it's just basically another opportunity for people to yell at each other online and go back to their silos,' he said.

But his energy secretary's call for "honest dialogue" resembles a playbook from the past.

Trump Administration Hopes to Revive the Climate Change 'Debate'

MADRID – The extremely hot, dry and windy conditions, which fueled one of the IberianPeninsula's most destructive wildfire seasons in recorded history, were 40 times more likely due to climate change, according to a study released Thursday.
The analysis by World Weather Attribution, or WWA, said the weather conditions were about 30% more intense compared to the preindustrial era, when heavy reliance on fossil fuels began.
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Summer wildfires
Hundreds of wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula broke out in July and August. They spread rapidly thanks to temperatures that pushed above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and strong winds.
The fires in Spain and Portugal killed eight people, forced more than 35,000 evacuations and scorched more than 640,000 hectares (1.58 million acres) or roughly two-thirds of Europe's total burned area this year.
Most blazes are now under control, officials say, as temperatures have dropped considerably.
'Hotter, drier and more flammable conditions are becoming more severe with climate change, and are giving rise to fires of unprecedented intensity,' said Clair Barnes, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College, London.
Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The role of climate change
WWA, a group of researchers that examines whether and to what extent extreme weather events are linked to climate change, focused on the conditions that allowed the Iberian wildfires to spread that fast, including during Spain's hottest ten-day period on record in August, according to the country's weather agency AEMET.
Without climate change, similar ten-day spells of hot, dry and windy conditions would be rare, expected once every 500 years, they found.
'This quick study is one more line of evidence showing how human-caused climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme heat and combined hot and dry fire weather conditions,' said Valérie Masson-Delmotte, a climate scientist at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, who was not involved in the study.
WWA's analysis wasn't a full attribution study. Those seek to determine the influence of climate change, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, on a specific extreme weather event. This time, the researchers looked at weather observations without using climate models. But the results were consistent with existing research on wildfires in the region, the researchers said, and another study WWA recently published on this year's fires in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, which found that climate change made fire-prone weather conditions there 10 times more likely.
'While fires are a characteristic of the Mediterranean climate, human-caused climate change increases the recurrence and severity of conditions favorable for intense fires, making fire control efforts much more challenging,' Masson-Delmotte said.
Neglecting rural areas
The researchers mentioned other factors that have contributed to the severity of the wildfires, including large population shifts that have taken place over decades in Spain and Portugal from the countryside to cities. The study said this has resulted in large areas of neglected overgrown farms and forests, which further fuel the fires.
Removing vegetation using machinery, encouraging grazing by sheep, horses and goats and using other methods, such as controlled burns, would reduce the risk during wildfire seasons, researchers said.
'From a human perspective, most of these rural areas have suffered massive abandonment since the 1970s, which has allowed fine fuels to accumulate to dangerous levels, a problem worsened by inadequate forestry management,' said Ricardo Trigo, a professor at the University of Lisbon's geophysics, geographical engineering and energy department.
On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez proposed a 10-point plan to better prepare the country for natural disasters made worse by climate change. It included coordinating with neighboring Portugal and France.

MADRID (AP) — The extremely hot, dry and windy conditions, which fueled one of the IberianPeninsula's most destructive wildfire seasons in recorded history, were 40 times more likely due to climate change, according to a study released Thursday. The analysis by World Weather Attribution, or WWA, said the weather conditions were about 30% more intense […]

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Teilen:
Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie
Observations from 35 years of Amazon research show how global climate change and local deforestation affect the rainforest ecosystem
• New study quantifies climatic changes in the rainforest due to local deforestation and global climate change quantified separately
• Data show that deforestation is the main cause, accounting for 75 percent, of the decline in precipitation by 21-millimeter during the dry season since 1985.
• Global climate change is the main cause of the 2°Celsius rise in temperature
The Amazon rainforest is the largest rainforest on Earth and plays a key role in the global climate system. In recent decades, however, major changes have been observed in the water, carbon, and energy cycles in the Amazon region, which influence precipitation levels, for example. However, previous studies have not yet been able in quantitatively differentiating the contributions of the two primary driving factors: rising global temperatures caused by greenhouse gas emissions and the increase in local deforestation.
Researchers from Brazil and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany have successfully quantified the distinct impacts of local deforestation and global climate change on the Amazon region's climate.
Their findings, published in Nature Communications, reveal that local deforestation is the main reason why precipitation during dry seasons has decreased by almost eight percent, or 21 millimeters, since 1985. Luiz Machado, a climate researcher at the University of São Paulo, says: 'Deforestation accounts for almost 75 percent of the decline in rainfall. Even small changes in rainfall during the dry season could therefore have a disproportionate impact on vegetation health.'
According to the researchers, deforestation also accounts for about 16 percent of the 2°Celsius temperature rise. However, a much larger share of about 84 percent of the temperature increase is attributable to global climate change. The study further indicates that the Amazon's climate does not respond linearly to deforestation, with the most severe climatic changes occurring early in the deforestation process, particularly when 10–40 percent of the forest is lost.
Amazon's climate resilience threatened by further deforestation
'It is important to stop further deforestation in order to preserve the climate resilience of the Amazon region,' adds Luiz Machado, who also works as visiting scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz.
In their study, researchers analyzed data from 29 regions within the Brazilian Amazon, gathered over the past 35 years (1985 to 2020) using satellites and atmospheric measurements. By leveraging both long-term data and specialized statistical techniques (parameterization), they successfully distinguished the impacts of deforestation from those of global climate change.
The Brazilian-German team concluded that over 99 percent of the rise in greenhouse gases, such as methane and carbon dioxide, is due to global climate change. However, deforestation accounts for a small share of 0.3 percent of the increase in CO₂.
The rainforest is currently undergoing a critical change
The study also examines the future climate of the Amazon region in 2035. Christopher Pöhlker from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry states, 'If deforestation continues at the current rate, our data indicate that we can expect a further temperature rise of about 0.6 °Celsius and a significant decrease in precipitation of about seven millimeters during the dry season compared to today. This will certainly put additional stress on the forest'. Pöhlker and his colleagues observe that the Amazon is experiencing a critical transformation, which is likely to be accelerated by extreme events such as the extraordinary drought in 2023. However, the complex interactions between climate change and deforestation make it difficult to specify an exact level of deforestation that would lead to the collapse of the entire ecosystem of the Amazon rainforest.
Precipitation amount in millimeters
The amount of precipitation measured in millimeters is not affected by the size of the area, enabling direct comparisons across various locations and time periods. One millimeter of precipitation indicates an even layer of water 1 mm high covering each square meter of ground, equivalent to 1 liter per square meter.
Beteiligte brasilianische Institutionen
University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
MapBiomas, São Paulo, Brazil
Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), Brasília, Brazil
Wissenschaftliche Ansprechpartner:
Prof. Ulrich Pöschl
Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
E-Mail: poschl-office@mpic.de
Dr. Christopher Pöhlker
Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
E-Mail: c.pohlker@mpic.de
Originalpublikation:
How climate change and deforestation interact in the transformation of the Amazon rainforest
Marco A. Franco, Luciana V. Rizzo, Márcio Teixeira, Paulo Artaxo, Tasso Azevedo, Jos Lelieveld, Carlos A. Nobre, Christopher Pöhlker, Ulrich Pöschl, Julia Shimbo, Xiyan Xu, and Luiz A. T. Machado
Nature Communications, 2. September 2025
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63156-0
Weitere Informationen:
Zurück

Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie. Observations from 35 years of Amazon research show how global climate change and local deforestation affect the rainforest ecosystem • New study quantifies climatic changes in the rainforest due to local deforestation and global climate change quantified separately • Data show that deforestation is the main cause, accounting for 75 percent, of the decline in precipitation by 21-millimeter during the dry season since 1985. Researchers from Brazil and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany have successfully quantified the distinct impacts of local deforestation and global climate change on the Amazon region's climate.

Deforestation is closely related to reduced rainfall in the Amazon rainforest

In my previous piece I wrote about how climate change is not an existential crisis. In this piece I used data from an excellent paper 'The Science vs. the Narrative vs. the Voters: Clarifying the Public Debate Around Energy and Climate' by Roger Pielke, Jr. and Ruy Teixeira of the American Enterprise institute(AEI). The paper is based on a survey of over 3,000 voters that was conducted for AEI by YouGov between September 20-26, 2024. I got a number of comments about this piece and responded to them here. A number of objections were raised, and some good points were made, which I acknowledged. But there were also comments that rather made my point about needing a new narrative. There were also a few comments I thought were unfair to the Ecoright and I addressed those.
Here I want to provide further data about the need for a new narrative, again using data from this AEI survey and more detailed data not in the report which Dr. Ruy Teixeira kindly provided to me. As shown in Figure 9, 40% of Americans regard dealing with climate change as a top priority. To put this in perspective, the top five priorities are strengthening the nation's economy (70%), fighting inflation (68%), defending the country from future terrorist attacks (63%), and taking steps to make the social security system financially sound (63%), and reducing health care costs (59%).
Another 28% view it as important but a lower priority while 18% see it as not important and 14% think nothing should be done about. So two-thirds of Americans think climate change is an important issue but it ranks 15th in a list of 18 issues, ahead of dealing with drug addiction, addressing issues around race, and, in last place, dealing with global trade issues. I suspect that Trump's tariffs have made that a higher priority which probably pushes climate change done a slot.
The Ideological Dimension of Climate Change
Looking at more detailed data there are no significant differences for families with or without children, full time or part-time employment, and income. There are modest differences with more women, college educated, and not married people seeing climate change as a priority. Young people (52% of 18-29) and black people (52% ) are more concerned.
But the most pronounced differences, no surprise, are along the political spectrum. Democrats are at 54%, Independents at 44%, and Republicans at a mere 14%. Those who see climate change as not something to be addressed are, respectively, 1%, 12%, and 27%. Similarly, in terms of professed ideology the numbers are 70% for Liberals, 40% for Moderates, 12% for Conservatives. The corresponding numbers for those who don't see climate change as an issue are 1%, 8%, and 31%.
What clearly stands out are the low and high numbers for Republicans and Conservatives. There are a variety of explanations for this. One is that this group largely rejects the science of climate change. Another is that they believe technological solutions will solve the problem. A third is that they are reacting to what has become a liberal cause with a liberal narrative and they simply reject it for that reason.
But how important is this skepticism of Republicans? After all, they only represent 20% of the 262 million eligible U.S. voters vs. 23% for Democrats, 37% for Independent and Other, and 20% not registered. One could argue that this is a fringe of voters that don't matter. But when you look at how people identify in terms of political ideology rather than party, the numbers give a different story. A recent Gallup poll shows that 73% of Americans identify as very conservative, conservative, or moderate. Only 26% identify as liberal or very liberal. America is a center-right country, and it is becoming more so as well as more polarized.
Since 1994 the percentage of Republicans who identify as very conservative or conservative has grown from around 60% to 77% with 18% saying moderate (down from around 32%) and, somewhat remarkably, 4% as liberal or very liberal (down from around 9%). On the flip side, Democrats have moved to the left. Over the last 10 years those identifying as liberal or very liberal has grown from around 25% to 55%, with moderates declining from nearly 50% to 35% and, again rather remarkably, there are 9% who identify as conservative or very conservative, down from around 25%. This vividly illustrates how American is becoming a more polarized country. Interestingly enough, the percentages for Independents (the largest registration block) have remained remarkably constant with 45% as moderate, 30% as conservative or very conservative, and 20% as liberal or very liberal.
America needs a narrative for addressing climate change that appeals to the vast majority of the American people, not the one-quarter who identify as liberal or very liberal. Yet the dominant narrative today has been shaped by this group and is largely unacceptable to everyone else.
The Economic Dimension of Climate Change
More perspective gain be gained through data in the report about how much people are willing to personally pay to address climate change. The question was 'Suppose a proposal was on the ballot next year to add a fee to consumers' monthly electricity bill to combat climate change. If this proposal passes, it would cost your household $X every month. Would you vote in favor of this monthly fee to combat climate change, or would you vote against it?' Figure 10 shows the responses for monthly fees of $1, $20, $40, $70, and $100. A mere $1 per month doesn't get a majority and the numbers drop rapidly after that. Only one-quarter of the American people will pay $20/month. One in 10 will pay $100/month.
Not surprisingly, party affiliation and political ideology matter. Seventy-two percent of Democrats would vote for the bill at $1/month, but only 25% of Republicans. These numbers are 78% for liberals, 51% for moderates, and 18% for conservatives. What's more telling is when you get to the larger numbers. At only $40/month the numbers are 29% for Democrats (8% for Republicans) and 28%, 22%, and 9% for Liberals, Moderates, and Conservatives, respectively. At $75/month not even one-quarter of Democrats (22%) and Liberals (23%) would be willing to pay.
The ability to pay also matters and again the results are telling. At $1/month, 42% of households with less than $50,000 in annual income would be willing to pay; this rises to 51% for those earning $50,000-100,000, and 56% for those making more than $100,000 per year. So just a little over half for the wealthiest income bracket for whom $12/year is 0.01% of annual income. At $40/month these numbers drop to 13%, 25%, and 23%. At $100/month they're 9%, 11%, and 17% respectively. $1,200 per is 1.2% of $100,000.
Four Facts Important for a Succesful Energy Policy to Address Climate Change
From this analysis it is clear that any U.S. energy policy and its associated narrative to address climate change must deal with four facts: (1) climate change is a relatively low priority for most Americans, (2) America is a center-right country and moving to the right, (3) America is becoming more politically polarized, and (4) the appetite to personally pay to address climate change is quite low. In my next piece I will suggest four basic elements for a U.S. policy for climate change.

Climate change is a low priority for most Americans in a center-right and increasingly polarized country, and the appetite to pay for addressing climate change is low.

Putting Climate Change Into Ideological And Economic Perspective

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NEW DELHI: The world risks "running out of time" to act on climate change without cooperation, COP30 President Andre Correa do Lago warned on Monday and stressed on the need to bridge the political and financial divide between developed and developing nations.He also criticised US President Donald Trump's reluctance to engage in climate negotiations . "We understand that President Trump is not going to listen to me. And the problem is that he does not want to talk about the emissions of specific countries," Correa do Lago told reporters.Trump has withdrawn the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change. This is the second time he has directed the US to exit the agreement. He had done so during his first administration and the US rejoined under the Biden administration.Correa do Lago acknowledged that climate negotiations have long been marked by a sharp divide between developed and developing nations."The problem of the negotiation of climate change since the beginning is divided very much the developed countries and the developing countries, because the developing countries insist very much on the necessity of the rich countries to provide the way for developing countries to have a cleaner development," he said."And on the other side, developed countries only want commitments from the developing countries without giving the means to evolve. So this divide is very strong," he said.The COP30 chief stressed that bridging the gap is urgent."We have to try to bridge that, because science tells us we have very little time. The world risks running out of time to act on climate change without cooperation between developed and developing countries," he said."So I think that we have to start to think that the main issue is not to be right, but the main issue is really to combat climate change and to have an effective way of making development something that is cleaner and to bring jobs, to bring new jobs, and to improve the quality of life of people."Noting that the challenge is immense, Correa do Lago said the scale of climate change makes it impossible to address financial and structural issues in the same way it was thought possible 30 years ago."Today, climate change is impacting the entire global economy. Most of our activities will need to be transformed. This is not just about environmental action but it is about investment, innovation, and building a new economy," he said."Ultimately, climate change demands economic solutions. Our countries are rich in talent, entrepreneurs, and capable governments who can imagine and lead this new path of development," he said.He also said that COP30 has to be a meeting of the entire world corresponding to the seriousness of the situation."This is not just about climate change this time. This will have an impact on jobs, economy. We need to exchange many plans and ideas with the government as well as the civil society," he said.COP30, scheduled to take place in Belem, Brazil, in November 2025, will mark the first time the UN climate summit is hosted in the Amazon region."The agenda started with pollution. Now we talk about climate change, which is a much bigger and more complex phenomenon. But the first direct impact on people is pollution," he said, recalling how it spurred movements in Europe and the United States in the 1960s and 1970s.Citing progress in Brazil and India, he highlighted Sao Paulo's "amazing" reductions in air pollution through biofuels and noted India is taking similar steps. However, he acknowledged such solutions can be expensive and called for international cooperation to make them affordable.COP30 CEO Ana Toni echoed Lago's message, saying that pollution control offers an opportunity to link health and climate goals."At COP30, what we're trying to achieve is really accelerating actions that help both development, the well-being of people and prosperity," she said.She pointed in particular to air quality and methane reduction as key areas of focus, noting that cleaner transport in developing countries could simultaneously tackle poverty, protect children's health, and cut emissions."Air pollution and transportation in our cities are not just environmental issues, they are central to development and public health," Toni added.Leaders and negotiators from nearly 200 countries are expected to assess progress since the Paris Agreement and push for stronger commitments to cut emissions, finance adaptation, and support developing nations in transitioning to clean energy when they meet in Brazil.

COP30 President Andre Correa do Lago warns that the world is running out of time to act on climate change, emphasizing the need for cooperation between developed and developing nations. He criticizes…

World running out of time to act on climate change without cooperation: COP30 president

Addis Ababa, September 2, 2025 (ENA) -- African climate negotiators attending the meeting preceding the Second Africa Climate Summit have underscored the urgent need for finance, just transition, and unified political leadership to address the continent's growing vulnerability to climate change.
Speaking to ENA, Princess Abze Djigma, Coordinator of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), stressed that climate action must be backed by concrete implementation.
Africa possesses vast resources, including critical minerals valued in the trillions, but these must be effectively managed and leveraged for sustainable development, she noted.
'Our role is to ensure that just transition is not just a word, but about making development sustainable, fair, and equitable for every single person.'
According to her, affordable financing is critical for African nations already carrying heavy debt burdens and suffering from climate shocks such as floods and droughts.
On his part, Evans Davie Njewa, Chairperson of the LDC Group at the UN Climate, stated that the gathering in Addis Ababa is not only about discussions but also about mobilizing accessible climate finance that reaches affected communities.
He warned that the worsening impacts of climate change, including food insecurity, floods, and destruction of infrastructure, constitute a 'climate emergency' for the continent.
'This finance must be accessible, mostly in the form of grants, and must flow to the people in need.'
Njewa also stressed that climate action must go hand-in-hand with job creation, resilience-building, and poverty reduction.
Angelina Tutuah Mensah, Negotiator on Response Measures, Gender and Climate Change, and Just Transition, called for Africa's unique priorities to be reflected in global climate action.
She warned against unsuitable or hazardous technologies being imposed on the continent and insisted that capacity-building must be tailored to Africa's needs.
Moreover, she underlined that finance is very key for whatever we are doing here.
'Our contribution to emissions is negligible. And therefore, if we need to make certain sacrifices, then we have to be compensated in various ways, including through finance,' Mensah underscored.
The negotiator further urged African Union leaders to make climate change a top priority, ensure ministerial commitment, and adopt a coherent approach across governments.
Climate Institutional Development Advisor at the Ethiopian Ministry of Planning and Development, Mensur Dessie, believes that Africa must raise bold voices and demand realistic support in the global fight against climate change.
Although some progress has been made since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015, the results remain insufficient compared to the scale of the challenges, according to the advisor.
He stressed that Africa, one of the most disproportionately affected regions, has not been receiving the level of support that was anticipated under international commitments.
The ongoing pre-summit event to the Second Africa Climate Summit (ACS2) is taking place in Ethiopia from 5-7 September 2025.
Following this, the Second Africa Climate Summit, which aims to redefine Africa's aspirations for a climate-resilient and prosperous future, will take place from September 8-10.
The Summit will focus on the theme, 'Accelerating Global Climate Solutions: Financing for Africa's Resilient and Green Development'.
The Government of Ethiopia is co-hosting the Summit with the African Union Commission (AUC).

African Climate Negotiators Urge Action on Finance, Unified Leadership Ahead of 2nd Africa Climate Summit

Oslo — Ahead of the Africa Climate Summit, Policy reporter Will Worley spoke to one of the early drafters of the new Common African Position.
A few years ago, the link between climate change and conflict was a niche policy area. It has now begun to dominate UN climate summits. That recognition is about to be elevated a step higher as the Africa Climate Summit prepares to pass the Common African Position: a key policy document on climate, peace, and security.
African diplomats like Ali Mohamed, Kenya's special climate envoy, hope the summit - to be held 8-10 September in Ethiopia's Addis Ababa - will be a "game changer" that will "spark a seismic shift for a unified, continent-wide climate pact to replace isolated national plans".
Bringing a unified approach to the growing challenge of climate impacts and conflict is a key aim of the eponymous Common African Position, according to Olayinka Ajala, who helped author the first draft of the declaration. The New Humanitarian spoke to Ajala, a senior lecturer in politics and international relations at Leeds Beckett University, in early August, ahead of the Summit.
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Ajala was keen to stress that he was only involved in the earliest version of the declaration, which has since gone through numerous rounds of diplomatic revisions and approvals.
But Ajala's perspectives provide insight into the core aims of the declaration - which could be the biggest moment for the climate-conflict policy agenda this year, given that hosts Brazil decided not to include a dedicated day for it at the COP30 summit in November.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
The common position on Climate Change, Peace, and Security came about because the African Union realised that we have policy documents for conflict, climate change, water resources and so on, but nothing that brings together these issues.
The CAP's main aim is to bring together policies to prevent and manage climate-related insecurity and to sustain peace on the continent. The draft contained different thematic areas, including governance and fragility, resource management, the role of non-state actors and climate finance. There are policy frameworks on each of those thematic areas.
Another key aim is to bring out and prove that climate change is increasing insecurity on the continent. The Common African Position was designed to improve understanding of climate change as not just a threat multiplier, but to show there is a direct causative relationship between climate change and conflict - and how this could be addressed through a continental, wide policy framework.
Climate and conflict works out differently in different countries. For instance, the dynamics of farmer-pastoralist conflict in Nigeria is different from that in Senegal, it's different from eastern Africa.
Ten to 15 years ago farmers and pastoralists lived - mostly - in symbiotic relationships, whereby they were able to cohabitate and work together in some ways. But in the last decade, we've seen an increase across the continent in conflicts, some not violent, many very violent in nature.
Often, when you look at so many countries, these conflicts arise between different ethnic groups or different communities. So for a long time, we've identified it as ethnic conflict.
But when we then dig deeper and look at the dynamics of this conflict, we then see how climate impacts are creating tension.
A big example is changing rainfall patterns - its intensity and timing. It's led farmers to change when they plant and harvest their crops.
While pastoralists, like Fulanis and Tuaregs, have established movement patterns over decades, farming seasons are now different. So it creates issues: If a pastoralist's animals destroy some crops, and then the farmers react by killing the animals, conflict erupts. There's confusion, but what they don't understand is that the farming timetable has changed because of climate change. This is a direct example of how a climate impact is driving conflict.
But that doesn't get attributed to climate change. Farmers and pastoralists just think, "why are they being more hostile". There are other underlying dynamics that also aggravate this issue - not least increasing populations' food demands, meaning previously sufficient grazing areas are now not big enough.
In the Sahel, drought has displaced many farmers, and when they move to other communities, it increases competition and sometimes results in conflict. Lake Chad used to support 30 million people in the region, but it shrunk significantly in the last 30-40 years, and a lot of people are no longer supported. So many of them are now having to look for alternative forms of livelihood.
And this is where the non-state actors then come in: They can offer alternative livelihoods or food. People, as a means of survival, are joining armed groups, engaging in trafficking, engaging in kidnapping, engaging in conflict and violence against the state.
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Outside the COPs, it's also a solid core document that can link activities being done across nation states, regional organisations, and local communities. Having this umbrella-type policy document would alone have a significant impact, because individual states can then draw upon it to have their own localised policies in their own country, which also fits into addressing the issues at the regional level and continental level. This might be a new timetable for pastoralist movements to try to restore the previously entrenched symbiotic relationship with groups.
No, not specifically, there is no particular focus on a particular funding scheme or mechanism or country or organisation.
Common African Positions aren't normally concerned with this because we understand that things change from time to time, and this is a document that is going to guide the African Union and Africa for the next decade or more. So we can't base that on particular changes or or political issues, temporary political issues around the world, because things change all the time.
Edited by Andrew Gully.

Africa: Why African Nations Are Looking to Unite On Climate and Conflict

FILE - Firefighters battle a wildfire in Veiga das Meas, northwestern Spain, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Lalo R. Villar, File)By SUMAN NAISHADHAM , Associated PressMADRID (AP) — The extremely…

More than 85 veteran climate scientists have pushed back against a Trump administration report downplaying the severity of climate change, submitting more than 400 pages in public comments to the Energy Department on Tuesday.
The department's Climate Working Group report, released July 29 alongside proposals to deregulate some polluting sectors, was authored by five well-known climate change contrarians and even portrayed climate change as potentially beneficial.
In Tuesday's comments, the climate researchers describe that report as 'science-y' in appearance, but grossly misleading, lacking in substance and peer review. For example, the comments criticize the sections on sea level rise, noting the report failed to capture the acceleration of such trends, among other inaccuracies.
'It makes a mockery of science,' said Andrew Dessler, a climate researcher at Texas A&M University who helped organize the public comments to push back against the report, citing mistakes in the document and other flaws.
The researchers' comments are a lengthy, point-by-point rebuttal to the report in the form of a peer review to the Climate Working Group report. It includes a 'Summary for Policy Makers' and zeroes in on everything from the report's portrayal of carbon dioxide as a net benefit for agriculture, to its depiction of the accuracy of climate modeling.
The climate scientists came together quickly in an ad hoc manner, first organized on the social networking site Bluesky, to address what they interpret as the Trump administration's attempt to erase credible climate science from the record.
Their effort involved dozens of experts and some review, but the 30-day public comments deadline forced the researchers to respond quickly. There is, however, a lack of clarity about what process the Energy Department will follow in reviewing the public comments and if it will potentially incorporate them into a final report.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a former fracking company executive who has minimized the ongoing and future harms of climate change, handpicked the working group report's authors: John Christy and Roy Spencer, both research scientists at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, Steven E. Koonin of Stanford University's Hoover Institution, Georgia Tech professor emeritus Judith Curry and Canadian economist Ross McKitrick.
Dessler compared their report to a 'badly written blog post,' but said it demanded a response. 'This is something coming out from the federal government that the federal government could conceivably use to make policy' he told CNN.
In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency has already cited the document as part of the scientific justification for repealing the 'endangerment finding' on greenhouse gas emissions — a 2009 scientific determination that human-caused climate change endangers human health and safety. Repealing the finding could help end many of the government's most significant regulations protecting Americans' health and the environment, including emissions regulations for vehicles, power plants and the oil and gas industry.
Dessler and fellow coauthors of the new comments criticize the Energy Department report for trying to manufacture scientific uncertainty where it does not exist, whether the topic is climate change's influence on extreme weather events or its potential agricultural impacts.
'This is really a rerun of the tobacco battles. The goal here is not to win the debate. They're never going to win the debate. The science of climate change is incredibly solid,' Dessler said. 'All they're trying to do is muddy the waters here, create this idea that there's a debate, and then the government will use that to roll back regulations.'
Robert Kopp, a climate scientist at Rutgers University also involved in the response, said the department's report is 'not scientifically credible,' and the comments filed overall criticize it for aiming to reach a predetermined conclusion, missciting and mischaracterizing studies, and making numerous errors.
The comments summary states that the working group report 'exhibits pervasive problems with misrepresentation and selective citation of the scientific literature, cherry-picking of data, and faulty or absent statistics.' Several climate scientists whose research was cited in the Trump report have said it misused or misrepresented their work, CNN previously reported.
Rebecca Neumann, a researcher at the University of Washington who also took part in the comments, said the administration's report fits in with the evolving arguments of those who minimize the threats climate change poses. 'As outright denial of climate change becomes less tenable, the new approach is to downplay its dangers and exaggerate its upsides,' she said in a statement.
Other mainstream climate scientists and their affiliated groups are also more formally addressing flaws in the Energy Department's report. Last week, for example, the American Meteorological Society, which represents weather and climate experts, published a statement identifying 'foundational flaws' in the report.
'Scientific assessments that emphasize unusual views are unrepresentative of the larger community of subject matter experts,' the society's response states, though it is not clear from the statement whether the American Meteorological Society is submitting its response as a formal comment to the report.
'The DoE Report selectively emphasizes a small set of unrepresentative findings, particularly those that might appear beneficial on superficial examination. This 'cherry picking' also downplays and excludes scientific findings that might be widely understood to be harmful,' the society's statement says. It also points out, as does Dessler, that the arguments put forward in the Climate Working Group report 'are not new,' and have been previously considered by the broader scientific community.
Wright told CNN in August that the department's working group may revisit previously published National Climate Assessments, and he has also expressed interest in holding public climate science debates.
The national assessments — which are congressionally mandated and take years to research and peer review — have been removed from government websites, and the Trump administration dismissed the authors of the next iteration, raising the possibility that the Department of Energy scientists will have a role in writing it.
Dessler said the arguments put forward in the working group document would never survive a peer review in a scientific journal. 'What they are trying to do now is rewrite the rules of science, because they know they cannot win in the actual scientific community. So they are busy trying to figure out a venue where they can win,' Dessler said.
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A new study says climate change has made extreme weather conditions, like those fueling wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula, 40 times more likely. Released Thursday, the analysis by World Weather

MADRID (AP) — The extremely hot, dry and windy conditions, which fueled one of the IberianPeninsula's most destructive wildfire seasons in recorded history, were 40 times more likely due to climate change, according to a study released Thursday.
The analysis by World Weather Attribution, or WWA, said the weather conditions were about 30% more intense compared to the preindustrial era, when heavy reliance on fossil fuels began.
Summer wildfires
Hundreds of wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula broke out in July and August. They spread rapidly thanks to temperatures that pushed above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and strong winds.
The fires in Spain and Portugal killed eight people, forced more than 35,000 evacuations and scorched more than 640,000 hectares (1.58 million acres) or roughly two-thirds of Europe's total burned area this year.
Most blazes are now under control, officials say, as temperatures have dropped considerably.
'Hotter, drier and more flammable conditions are becoming more severe with climate change, and are giving rise to fires of unprecedented intensity,' said Clair Barnes, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College, London.
Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The role of climate change
WWA, a group of researchers that examines whether and to what extent extreme weather events are linked to climate change, focused on the conditions that allowed the Iberian wildfires to spread that fast, including during Spain's hottest ten-day period on record in August, according to the country's weather agency AEMET.
Without climate change, similar ten-day spells of hot, dry and windy conditions would be rare, expected once every 500 years, they found.
'This quick study is one more line of evidence showing how human-caused climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme heat and combined hot and dry fire weather conditions,' said Valérie Masson-Delmotte, a climate scientist at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, who was not involved in the study.
WWA's analysis wasn't a full attribution study. Those seek to determine the influence of climate change, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, on a specific extreme weather event. This time, the researchers looked at weather observations without using climate models. But the results were consistent with existing research on wildfires in the region, the researchers said, and another study WWA recently published on this year's fires in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, which found that climate change made fire-prone weather conditions there 10 times more likely.
'While fires are a characteristic of the Mediterranean climate, human-caused climate change increases the recurrence and severity of conditions favorable for intense fires, making fire control efforts much more challenging,' Masson-Delmotte said.
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Neglecting rural areas
The researchers mentioned other factors that have contributed to the severity of the wildfires, including large population shifts that have taken place over decades in Spain and Portugal from the countryside to cities. The study said this has resulted in large areas of neglected overgrown farms and forests, which further fuel the fires.
Removing vegetation using machinery, encouraging grazing by sheep, horses and goats and using other methods, such as controlled burns, would reduce the risk during wildfire seasons, researchers said.
'From a human perspective, most of these rural areas have suffered massive abandonment since the 1970s, which has allowed fine fuels to accumulate to dangerous levels, a problem worsened by inadequate forestry management,' said Ricardo Trigo, a professor at the University of Lisbon's geophysics, geographical engineering and energy department.
On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez proposed a 10-point plan to better prepare the country for natural disasters made worse by climate change. It included coordinating with neighboring Portugal and France.

MADRID (AP) — The extremely hot, dry and windy conditions, which fueled one of the IberianPeninsula's most destructive wildfire seasons in recorded history, were 40 times more likely due to clim...

MADRID (AP) — The extremely hot, dry and windy conditions, which fueled one of the IberianPeninsula's most destructive wildfire seasons in recorded history, were 40 times more likely due to climate change, according to a study released Thursday.
The analysis by World Weather Attribution, or WWA, said the weather conditions were about 30% more intense compared to the preindustrial era, when heavy reliance on fossil fuels began.
Summer wildfires
Hundreds of wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula broke out in July and August. They spread rapidly thanks to temperatures that pushed above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and strong winds.
The fires in Spain and Portugal killed eight people, forced more than 35,000 evacuations and scorched more than 640,000 hectares (1.58 million acres) or roughly two-thirds of Europe's total burned area this year.
Most blazes are now under control, officials say, as temperatures have dropped considerably.
'Hotter, drier and more flammable conditions are becoming more severe with climate change, and are giving rise to fires of unprecedented intensity,' said Clair Barnes, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College, London.
Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The role of climate change
WWA, a group of researchers that examines whether and to what extent extreme weather events are linked to climate change, focused on the conditions that allowed the Iberian wildfires to spread that fast, including during Spain's hottest ten-day period on record in August, according to the country's weather agency AEMET.
Without climate change, similar ten-day spells of hot, dry and windy conditions would be rare, expected once every 500 years, they found.
'This quick study is one more line of evidence showing how human-caused climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme heat and combined hot and dry fire weather conditions,' said Valérie Masson-Delmotte, a climate scientist at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, who was not involved in the study.
WWA's analysis wasn't a full attribution study. Those seek to determine the influence of climate change, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, on a specific extreme weather event. This time, the researchers looked at weather observations without using climate models. But the results were consistent with existing research on wildfires in the region, the researchers said, and another study WWA recently published on this year's fires in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, which found that climate change made fire-prone weather conditions there 10 times more likely.
'While fires are a characteristic of the Mediterranean climate, human-caused climate change increases the recurrence and severity of conditions favorable for intense fires, making fire control efforts much more challenging,' Masson-Delmotte said.
Neglecting rural areas
The researchers mentioned other factors that have contributed to the severity of the wildfires, including large population shifts that have taken place over decades in Spain and Portugal from the countryside to cities. The study said this has resulted in large areas of neglected overgrown farms and forests, which further fuel the fires.
Removing vegetation using machinery, encouraging grazing by sheep, horses and goats and using other methods, such as controlled burns, would reduce the risk during wildfire seasons, researchers said.
'From a human perspective, most of these rural areas have suffered massive abandonment since the 1970s, which has allowed fine fuels to accumulate to dangerous levels, a problem worsened by inadequate forestry management,' said Ricardo Trigo, a professor at the University of Lisbon's geophysics, geographical engineering and energy department.
On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez proposed a 10-point plan to better prepare the country for natural disasters made worse by climate change. It included coordinating with neighboring Portugal and France.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

A new study says climate change has made extreme weather conditions, like those fueling wildfires in the Iberian Peninsula, 40 times more likely. Released Thursday, the analysis by World Weather…

Over 85 top climate scientists on Tuesday said that the Trump Energy Department's recent climate assessment used to justify an unwinding of federal greenhouse gas rules does not meet standards for scientific integrity.
The group of scientists, led by professors Andrew Dessler from Texas A&M University and Robert Kopp from Rutgers University, submitted a more-than 400 page review of the assessment written by five scientists handpicked by Energy Secretary Chris Wright who have a contrarian view of mainstream climate science in time for the Sept. 2 deadline for public comment.
They said the report by Wright's Climate Working Group 'fails to adequately represent the current scientific understanding of climate change.'
'No attempt appears to have been made to balance the points of view represented on the [Climate Working Group]; rather, this group appears to have been personally recruited by the Secretary of Energy to advance a particular viewpoint favored by DOE leadership,' they wrote.
When the report was released in July, Wright said he believes climate change is real but felt it was necessary to bring more debate to the public on the subject.
'I've reviewed the report carefully, and I believe it faithfully represents the state of climate science today,' he said. 'Still, many readers may be surprised by its conclusions—which differ in important ways from the mainstream narrative. That's a sign of how far the public conversation has drifted from the science itself.'
The group of 85 scientists said the Energy Department relied too heavily on debunked research, misinterpreted other research and failed to undertake a peer-review process to ensure the assessment was credible.
In contrast, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and U.S. National Climate Assessment reports have had thousands of authors and contributors and time-consuming independent review. Those reports reflect that climate change is worsening with impacts seen throughout the globe.
'The report privileges the outdated views of individual dissenters rather than the consensus of scientists,' said Andra Garner, a climate scientist who participated in the review. 'The report is intended to support a specific policy decision and is not an unbiased synthesis of climate science.'

They say it 'fails to adequately represent the current scientific understanding of climate change.'

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