Amazon nations to tackle rainforest crime together in donor-funded new office
The $1.8 million Centre for International Police Cooperation will be built in the Brazilian Amazon city of Manaus and funded by the Norwegian-backed Amazon Fund
Governments fail to agree timeline for climate science reports in fraught IPCC talks
Saudi, India and China led opposition against a proposal to link the IPCC’s assessment cycle with the global stocktake, sources told Climate Home.
Azerbaijan appoints fossil fuel execs and scandal-hit officials to all-male Cop29 committee
The all-male group in charge of the climate summit organisation includes oil and gas executives and controversial government officials
Poland’s green tide arrives in Brussels
While the previous Polish government tried to water down the EU’s climate action, the new one is supporting ambition
Veteran US and Chinese climate envoys step down
Xie Zhenhua has stepped down and John Kerry has announced he will do the same in a few months time
Witness bribing minister’s family own Congolese carbon credit company
The minister Jean-Pierre Bemba bribed witnesses in his war crimes trial and holds power over the environment minister Eve Bazaiba
Germany and US warn Brazil against using Amazon Fund to pave rainforest road
The Brazilian government wants to tap forest protection funds to pave a major highway. Western donors say that goes against the fund’s rules.
“A la carte menu”: Saudi minister claims Cop28 fossil fuel agreement is only optional
Abdulaziz bin Salman’s interpretation of the agreement was slammed as “incredibly misleading” as the text “calls on” all governments to transition from fossil fuels
First ever Paris Agreement offsets face integrity questions
As Switzerland buys the first ever bilateral offsets, civil society’s analysis suggests the claimed emissions reductions from Thai buses would have happened anyway
South African ministry uses opaque modelling to argue for weakening climate ambition
Gwede Mantashe’s ministry argues for cutting ambition on renewables and investing more in gas. also plugging so-called “clean coal”
Azerbaijan appoint state oil company veteran as Cop29 president
Mukhtar Babayev spent 26 years at Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company Socar, where he tried to limit the company’s environmental damage.
China announces plans to manage electric vehicles power demand
The government will consider incentives to charge electric vehicles at off-peak hours and to let vehicles sell their electricity to the grid
Brazil cracks down on illegal gold miners
“Things are going downhill with the new government”, said one gold miner when detained by Brazil’s federal police
Indonesia promises to fine palm oil companies operating in forests
An Indonesian official said it would levy $310 million in fines on growers of palm oil on land which should be forest
The Climate Home News 2023 Quiz
Test your international climate news knowledge with our quiz!
Sudan’s Cop28 delegates “really hurt” by silence on their civil war
While Israel’s attack on Gaza featured prominently, Sudan’s civil war and its climate links were largely ignored at Cop28
Brazil lawmakers approve using green fund to pave road through Amazon rainforest
Donations meant to preserve the Amazon rainforest may be spent paving the road, which critics say will worsen the forest’s destruction
Countries go ahead with carbon deals despite Cop28 standoff
The US and EU couldn’t agree on common rules for bilateral carbon trades in Dubai, leaving a vacuum for voluntary certifiers
How Russia won a ‘dangerous loophole’ for fossil gas at Cop28
With the EU ambivalent and small island states absent, Russia’s call for “transitional fuels” – read gas – made it into the Cop28 agreement
‘Car without wheels’: Adaptation playbook lacks finance target
Developing nations got agreement to set targets for food and water security, but rich nations were unwilling to plug a huge funding gap