Scotland announced it would introduce a new legislative package of climate action measures in line with its net-zero by 2045 target.

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Scotland has scrapped a climate target its former first minister branded as “ambitious” and “world-leading”, a move that environmental activists described as “humiliating” and “reprehensible.”

Scottish net zero and energy minister Màiri McAllan, who announced the decision on Thursday, said the move was heavily influenced by the UK Climate Change Committee (CCC), which last month said the goal to cut emissions by 75% by 2030 was “no longer credible.” According to the UK CCC, Scotland missed eight of the past 12 annual targets for cutting planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions and lacked a comprehensive decarbonisation strategy.

“Scotland has laudable ambitions to decarbonise, but it isn’t enough to set a target; the Government must act. There are risks in all reviewed areas, including those with significant policy powers devolved to the Scottish Government,” said Piers Forster, CCC’s interim Chair.

Last month, the CCC also said the UK’s climate adaptation plan “lacks pace and ambition.”

More on the topic: UK Climate Adaptation Plan ‘Lacks Pace and Ambition’, Independent Assessment Reveals

“In this challenging context of cuts and UK backtracking, we accept the CCC’s recent rearticulation that this parliament’s interim 2030 target is out of reach,” McAllan said.

Speaking to MSPs on Thursday, McAllan said the government would introduce a new legislative package of climate action measures in line with its net-zero by 2045 target, including quadrupling electric vehicles charging points by 2030 and introducing an integrated ticketing system for public transport in line with the goal to cut car use by 20% by decade’s end from a 2019 baseline. 

Ahead of Thursday’s announcement, the minister said Scotland was “trying to deliver the societal and economic transformation demanded by the climate emergency with one hand tied behind our back.”

Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, who introduced the climate targets, previously dismissed claims of having “overcooked” the ambitions. During her eight years in office, Sturgeon, who unexpectedly stepped down from the country’s highest post in March 2023, put tackling the climate crisis high on the list of the government’s priorities, pushing forward ambitious measures and targets. In 2019, she scored a key win for the climate movement by declaring a “climate emergency” and securing the passing of the Climate Act, which introduced the carbon neutrality by 2045 goal and strengthened interim targets to achieve it.

Campaign organisation Friends of the Earth Scotland described Thursday’s move as “the worst environmental decision in the history of the Scottish parliament”.

“Instead of using the past decade to deliver warm homes, reliable public transport and a fair transition away from fossil fuels, inept, short-termist politicians have kept millions of people trapped in the broken status quo that only benefits big polluters,” said Imogen Down, the group’s head of campaigns.

“I am angry and disappointed that we are in this position, everyone who cares about our planet should be,” said Scottish Green minister for active travel and tenants rights Patrick Harvie, adding that Thursday’s decision “must be a turning point.”

CCC’s Forster described Scotland’s removal of the 2030 target as “deeply disappointing.”

“Long term planning is vital for businesses, citizens, and future Parliaments. Today that has been undermined, he said on X (formerly Twitter). The CCC urges the Scottish Government to lay out and deliver against new commitments as soon as possible.”

Featured image: Scottish net zero and energy secretary Màiri McAllan. Photo: ScotGov Rural/Flickr.

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The heavy rain has brought parts of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman to a standstill, flooding highways, inundating houses and businesses, and trapping people in their homes.

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At least 20 people have died in Oman and one in the United Arab Emirates following a powerful storm that brought torrential rain, the heaviest in at least 75 years, to the drought-stricken region.

The storm initially hit Oman on Sunday before moving to the UAE on Tuesday, knocking out power lines, flooding roads and houses, and disrupting air traffic. 

Al Ain, a city bordering Oman, was hit by a record 254 millimeters (around 10 inches) of rainfall in just 24 hours, the largest amount since records began in 1949. Videos circulating on social media show collapsed roads and streets turned into rivers, with cars being swept away. 

The heavy downpour also brought Dubai, the largest city in the UAE and a popular tourist destination, to a standstill, with road and air traffic halted and schools closed. The city of 3.3 million received 100 millimeters (around 4 inches) of rain in just 12 hours, around the same amount it typically sees in an entire year.

On Wednesday, Dubai International Airport, the busiest airport in the world, reported “operational challenges” and advised passengers not to travel, adding they were “working hard to recover operations as quickly as possible in very challenging conditions.” Inbound flights resumed on Thursday, though the airport authority warned passengers of continued delays and disruptions.

What Caused it?

Experts are divided on what’s behind the historic downpour. 

Both Oman and the United Arab Emirates are among the world’s most water-stressed countries, with the World Resources Institute ranking its baseline water stress as extremely high risk across the agricultural, domestic, and industrial sectors.

In a bid to fight the severe drought conditions, both countries rely on a weather modification method known as cloud seeding. At its essence, cloud seeding ambitiously attempts to assist Mother Nature by introducing into the clouds additional “nuclei” around which water condenses, stimulating precipitation. This can be done using ground-based generators, rockets, and aircraft. The cloud seeding industry has always been a topic of debate. Advocates highlight its efficacy, with studies indicating a 10-15% increase in rainfall. Conversely, skeptics raise cautionary flags, emphasizing potential hazards to public safety and the environment. Decades of research have yielded static and dynamic seeding techniques, showing indications of effectiveness by the late 1990s. 

More on the topic: Unleashing the Power of Cloud Seeding: Navigating Potentials and Pitfalls

As governments and private companies weigh benefits against risks, cloud seeding remains a polarizing subject. While some countries – like the UAE – embrace it for agricultural purposes and to battle extreme heat, others proceed cautiously, aware of the potential consequences. 

Early media reports on Tuesday suggested this week’s downpour may have been worsened by cloud seeding. However, in a statement to multiple outlets, the National Center of Meteorology (NCM), which oversees cloud-seeding missions in the country, said that no seeding operation had been conducted before or during the storm. 

“We did not engage in any seeding operations during this particular weather event. The essence of cloud seeding lies in targeting clouds at an earlier stage, prior to precipitation. Engaging in seeding activities during a severe thunderstorm scenario would prove futile,” said NCM deputy director general Omar Al Yazeedi.

Meanwhile, other experts have also debunked the theory, saying it was misleading to attribute heavy rain to cloud seeding and instead blaming warmer weather, which can hold more moisture in the atmosphere, leading to sometimes severe downpours.

“Cloud seeding can’t create clouds from nothing. It encourages water that is already in the sky to condense faster and drop water in certain places. So first, you need moisture. Without it, there’d be no clouds,” Friederike Otto, a senior lecturer in climate science at Imperial College London, told Reuters.

2023 was the hottest year on record, supercharged by the return of El Niño, a weather phenomenon that has pushed temperatures off the charts around the world and that is expected to last well into 2024. As expected, the trend continued in the first few months of the new year, with March 2024 becoming the 10th consecutive month to break records, with temperatures at 1.77C above an estimate of the February average for 1850-1900.

From the Mediterranean to California, global warming is making heavy precipitation and flooding more likely to occur. For countries that are already prone to rainy seasons, particularly in Asia, climate models predict climate change will lead to more intense flooding and prolong existing monsoon seasons, disrupting agricultural and crop production and increasing extreme precipitation over the region as more greenhouse gasses are released into the atmosphere.

Last September, Hong Kong recorded 158.1 mm of rain, the highest hourly rainfall since records began in 1884. It came after local scientists warned that climate change would bring more frequent and intense extreme weather events to the city, including supercharged typhoons and prolonged drought as the climate crisis intensifies.

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At least 487 river barriers were removed across 15 European countries last year, with France leading the way.

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European countries removed a record number of river barriers last year, contributing to restoring the free-flowing state of rivers and streams across the continent, a new report has found.

According to data collected by Dam Removal Europe (DRE), a coalition of seven organisations, including the World Wildlife Fund, The Rivers Trust, and The Nature Conservancy, at least 487 barriers were removed in 15 European countries, with France leading the way, followed by Spain, Sweden, and Denmark. The interventions led to the reconnection of more than 4,300 kilometres of rivers.

“It is amazing to witness another record-breaking year for dam removals in European rivers. Almost 500 barriers – a 50% increase from the report published last year. It shows the movement is growing fast and brings new hope for the thriving of free-flowing rivers and people”, said Herman Wanningen, founder of the World Fish Migration Foundation and c-founder of DRE.

River barriers – including weirs, culverts, dams, ramps, and ford – are linked to habitat degradation and biodiversity loss, and they alter the natural nutrient flow, changing the movement of sediment and nutrients and water levels, and leading to pollution. Exposure to extreme weather can also affect the structure, rendering them obsolete and heightening the risk of structural damage and failure.

Impacts of Dams

Several studies have focused on the environmental impacts of dams, massive structures that retain water for domestic use, irrigation, hydroelectricity generation, and for use in industrial processes. When dams block the flow of water across a river, they trap enormous amounts of lake sediments in their reservoirs. Underwater microbes feed on the organic matter that gets accumulated in these sediments and produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas that significantly contributes to global warming. Additionally, dams lead to the fragmentation of rivers and the destruction of surrounding forests, inevitably eliminating valuable carbon sinks. 

Vincent St. Louis, a biogeochemist at the University of Alberta, Canada, was the first to calculate the total contribution of reservoirs around the world to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, finding that they collectively contribute roughly 1.3% of the world’s annual GHG emissions, as much as the entire nation of Canada. 

The impact on riverine biodiversity cannot be understated either. Dams alter the natural flow of the river, thereby fracturing the migratory routes of most fish. As fish are unable to spawn, predators like the dolphin cannot eat. As dams impede the flow of rivers, they also deter the flow of vital nutrients like carbon, nitrogen, silicon, and phosphorus along the nexus of the river and its tributaries. Sedimentation in the reservoir leads to increased nutrient retention upstream, depriving the downstream areas of nutrient-rich sediment altogether. 

More on the topic: Dams: Economic Assets or Ecological Liabilities?

Barrier Removal as Restoration Tool

With evidence of the real impacts of barriers growing, many European countries – particularly in western and northern Europe, where barrier density is highest – are slowly beginning to view barrier removal as an effective river restoration tool, DRE said in its report. 

“We are delighted that the idea of free-flowing rivers is gaining ground in other European countries. Restoring free-flowing rivers is a truly effective solution for restoring the functionality and life of rivers,” said Roberto Epple, president of the European Rivers Network and co-founder of DRE. “The policy for restoring rivers in France is an example elsewhere in Europe and remains inspiring. The Water Agencies have an essential role that must be supported and strengthened to meet the many challenges ahead.”

The coalition expects barrier removals to pick up further following the Parliament’s approval of the Nature Restoration Law last February. 

The law, a crucial part of the bloc’s green agenda, is one of the biggest environmental policies the EU has ever put forward. It requires member states to restore at least 30% of their land and sea habitats by 2030 – including forests, grasslands, and wetlands but also rivers, lakes, and coral beds – increasing to 60% by 2040, and 90% by mid-century. Aside from other interventions, Article 7 of the law sets obligations to remove man-made river barriers to reach the EU’s objective to restore the free-flowing condition of at least 25,000 km of rivers in Europe by decade’s end.

Nevertheless, the law is currently in limbo, with at least six member states withdrawing their support ahead of the European Council vote, the last step to pass it.

The mass coral bleaching event, the second in the past decade, comes amid relentlessly rising global sea temperatures.

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At least 53 countries have been experiencing mass bleaching of coral reefs since early 2023 in response to rising ocean temperatures, scientists have confirmed. 

In a joint press release on Monday, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) and the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) – a partnership of 101 international nations and countries to perverse reefs around the world – confirmed that the world is undergoing its fourth global coral bleaching event, the second in the past ten years.

“From February 2023 to April 2024, significant coral bleaching has been documented in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres of each major ocean basin,” said Derek Manzello, coordinator of NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch (CRW). Among the 53 regions where coral bleaching has been confirmed so far are Florida, Eastern Tropical Pacific nations including Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia, and Australia. 

Rising Temperatures

The event is directly related to rising sea surface temperatures, which last month reached a new record high of 21.07C, the highest monthly value since records began.

Seas warmed last year in response to the return of El Niño, a weather pattern associated with the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. However, the trend has continued well into 2024, despite signs that El Niño is gradually weakening.

“We had seen El Niño conditions before, so we expected higher surface temperatures because the Pacific ocean releases heat. But what happened in 2023 was nothing close to 2016, the second-warmest year on record. It was beyond anything we expected and no climate models can reproduce what happened. And then 2024 starts, and it gets even warmer. We cannot explain these [trends] yet and it makes scientists that work on Earth resilience like myself very nervous,” Professor Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told Earth.Org in a recent interview.

Disappearing Ecosystems

Coral reefs are extremely important ecosystems that exist in more than 100 countries and territories and support at least 25% of marine species; they are integral to sustaining Earth’s vast and interconnected web of marine biodiversity and provide ecosystem services valued up to $9.9 trillion annually. They are sometimes referred to as “rainforests of the sea” for their ability to act as carbon sinks by absorbing the excess carbon dioxide in the water. 

Unfortunately, reefs are disappearing at an alarming pace. According to the most recent report by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN), the world has lost approximately 14% of corals since 2009. 

While coral bleaching can be a natural process that occurs due to rising oceans temperatures in the summer months or during natural weather phenomena such as El Niño, a rise in marine heatwaves linked to human activities has led to more frequent and larger bleaching events globally.

One of the best examples of coral bleaching is the Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest and longest reef system located off the coast of Queensland, Australia; it covers about 350,000 square kilometres – an area that is larger than the UK and Ireland combined. The stunning coral reef system has already suffered six mass bleaching events in 1998, 2002, 2016, 2017, 2020, and 2024. The events in 2016 and 2017 were so severe that they led to the death of 50% of the iconic reef.

Aside from Australia, coral death has been particularly pronounced in regions such as South Asia, the Pacific, East Asia, the Western Indian Ocean, The Gulf, and Gulf of Oman.

More on the topic: Australia Confirms ‘Widespread’ Bleaching Event Across Great Barrier Reef, Blames Rising Ocean Temperatures

While a coral bleaching event does not automatically result in corals’ death, they increase these ecosystems’ vulnerability to marine disease and starvation, which could eventually lead to mortality. The longer corals are bleached under various stresses, the more difficult it will be for algae to return.

“As the world’s oceans continue to warm, coral bleaching is becoming more frequent and severe,” Manzello said. “When these events are sufficiently severe or prolonged, they can cause coral mortality, which can negatively impact the goods and services coral reefs provide that people depend on for their livelihoods.”

The latest data should be a wake-up call for countries and requires an immediate response on a global, regional, and local level, NOAA and ICRI said in Monday’s press release.

“We are on the frontlines of coral reef research, management, and restoration, and are actively and aggressively implementing the recommendations of the 2019 Interventions Report,” said Jennifer Koss, director of NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP).

Featured image: Underwater Earth / XL Catlin Seaview Survey / Christophe Bailhache..

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Speaking in London on Wednesday, Simon Stiell appealed to big finance players to boost climate investments and on governments to put forward bolder national climate plans.

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In a pivotal year for democracy, where roughly half of the human population is called to the polls, the United Nations climate chief called on citizens to “raise their voices” to demand bolder climate action.

With the relentless rise in air and sea temperatures globally, time is running out to avert the worst consequences of climate change. 

Extreme weather events are costing millions of lives and billions of dollars to the world’s economies, with no country spared. A recent analysis by Zurich-based reinsurance company Swiss Re’s found that climate-change triggered natural disasters, excluding heatwaves, cost the global economy US$200 billion every year, with the US and the Philippines paying the highest annual price in relation to their gross domestic product (GDP).

Speaking at London’s Chatham House on Wednesday, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell laid out key interventions needed ahead of the next COP summit and their long-term significance.

“The next two years are essential to save the planet,” Stiell said, stressing that cutting fossil fuel pollution and investing in climate mitigation and adaptation will determine which countries will “rise up the ladder [of living standards] or fall.”

Cutting greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels has proven challenging and progress has been slow. NOAA’ latest data, published earlier this week, confirmed that levels of all three main planet-warming, human-caused greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide – reached record highs in 2023, albeit growing at a slower pace than previous years.

Current national climate plans will “barely cut emissions at all by 2030,” Stiell said, stressing that a “new generation of national climate plans” ahead of the next round of UN climate talks scheduled for November is needed for a “chance to make greenhouse gas emissions tumble.”

Historically, G20 countries have been the main source of global emissions – accounting for around 80% of the total – and it is their responsibility, Stiell said, to “be at core of the solution” and work towards speeding up the phase-out of fossil fuels.

The Unequivocal Role of Climate Finance

For a chance to bring global temperatures down, cutting fossil fuels must happen concurrently with the rollout of clean energy technologies and resilient infrastructure, Stiell said, something that only a “quantum leap in climate finance” – which is “both essential and entirely achievable” –  will help developing countries achieve.

“It’s time to shift those dollars from the energy and infrastructure of the past, towards that of a cleaner, more resilient future…And to ensure that the poorest and most vulnerable countries benefit.”

Despite poor and vulnerable countries raising their voices for decades to demand financial support to deal with the climate crisis, many believe that wealthy nations are not doing enough, with finance flowing still far from what is needed. The establishment of a Loss and Damage Fund in 2022 and its operationalization, hailed “historic,” at COP28 last year marked a significant step forward in the fight for climate justice. However, contributions to the fund still fall significantly short of what is needed to cover the real needs of developing countries, estimated at at least $400 billion per year and expected to grow as the crisis intensifies.

You might also like: Climate Justice and Loss and Damage: A Look At What COP28 Meant for Historical Responsibility in Climate Action

In his speech, Stiell called on key finance players – including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as well as the G7 and G20 leadership – to push for a bolder climate finance deal at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, saying it would not only benefit developing countries but also help protect global supply chains all economies depend on. 

The deal, Stiell said, will have to satisfy four key requirements: more concessional finance, especially for vulnerable economies, new sources of international climate finance, a reform of development banks to make them work better for developing countries and take climate into consideration in their decision-making process, as well as debt relief for the countries in need to “give them the fiscal space for climate investment.”

A Pivotal Year

Recent polls have demonstrated that voters increasingly want to see their governments take bolder climate action. 

Addressing the billions of people eligible to vote around the world this year, Stiell said their voice mattered like never before, stressing that only addressing the climate crisis will allow us to end poverty, hunger, and other pressing social and humanitarian problems affecting our societies.

“Business-as-usual will further entrench the gross inequalities between the world’s richest and poorest countries and communities that unchecked climate impacts are making much worse…  If you want bolder climate action, now is the time to make yours count,” he said.

Featured image: UNclimatechange/Flickr

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The average global surface temperature last month was 14.14C, 0.10C higher than 2016, the previous hottest March on record. Recent trends in global surface air and sea temperatures last month are becoming harder to predict and explain, leaving climate scientists worried.

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Atmospheric and ocean surface temperatures continued to rise in March, reaching unprecedented levels and marking the tenth consecutive month to break records, scientists have confirmed.

The average global surface temperature last month was 14.14C, 0.10C higher than 2016, the previous hottest March on record.

In a press release on Tuesday, the EU Earth observation agency Copernicus said the global average temperature for the past twelve months is the highest on record, 1.58C above pre-industrial levels and 0.7C above the 1991-2020 average. 

Despite the gradual weakening of El Niño, a weather pattern associated with the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean that last year brought unprecedented heat across the world, marine air temperatures remained “at an unusually high level,” the agency said. The average global sea surface temperature was 21.07C, the highest monthly value since records began.

In an exclusive interview with Earth.Org, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research Johan Rockström said recent trends in global temperatures are worrying climate scientists. 

“We had seen El Niño conditions before, so we expected higher surface temperatures because the Pacific ocean releases heat. But what happened in 2023 was nothing close to 2016, the second-warmest year on record. It was beyond anything we expected and no climate models can reproduce what happened. And then 2024 starts, and it gets even warmer. We cannot explain these [trends] yet and it makes scientists that work on Earth resilience like myself very nervous.”

Wednesday also marked the 400th consecutive day of record temperatures in the North Atlantic.

“There has always been the assumption that the ocean can cope with this, that the ocean is able to absorb this heat in a predictable, linear way, without causing surprise or any sudden abrupt changes. Up until 2023. Because suddenly, temperatures [went] off the charts, and that’s what is so shocking,” Rockström told Earth.Org.

Commenting on the data, Copernicus Climate Service (C3S) deputy director Samantha Burgess stressed once again that only “rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions” will stop further global warming.

However, last week the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirmed that levels of all three main planet-warming, human-caused greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide – reached record highs in 2023, albeit growing at a slower pace than previous years.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, Climatologist Zeke Hausfather said “the ship has largely sailed on limiting warming to 1.5C at this point.” The comment refers to the most recent data on the planet’s remaining carbon budget, the net amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) we have left to emit before we exceed our desired global temperature increases. In 2015, 195 governments signed the Paris Agreement, setting the threshold for global average temperature rise to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. But recent developments indicate that, for a 66% chance of meeting the Paris target, we would need to slash emissions from current levels to zero by 2030 or by 2035 for a 50% chance.

“It’s possible to expand the remaining carbon budget by removing more CO2 from the atmosphere than we emit, but even then it’s hard to come up with a plausible 1.5C scenario without overshoot and decline,” Hausfather said.

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Tuesday’s ruling established a binding legal precedent for all signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights and could set an important precedent for future climate litigation cases.

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Europe’s top human rights court on Tuesday ruled in favour of a group of elderly Swiss women, who accused their government of violating fundamental rights by failing to adequately tackle the climate crisis, a win hailed as “historic” and a “huge success.”

KlimaSeniorinnen (Senior Women for Climate Protection) – a group of more than 2,000 women aged 64 and over – argued before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that their government’s failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions had violated their human rights. The women contend that more frequent and intense heatwaves – a result of climate change – are infringing on their rights to life and health. 

Based on the absence of a binding national greenhouse gas budget post 2024 and previous failure to meet emissions reduction targets, the court found a violation of the right to privacy and family life protected under Article 8 of the Convention, which it interpreted as freedom from environmental threats to one’s personal life.

In its ruling, the judges also found a violation to the right to access to a court after Klimaseniorinnen’s case was rejected by three levels of judicial bodies in Switzerland. The court argued that previous rulings were “not based on sufficient examination of the scientific evidence concerning climate change,” thus emphasising the role domestic courts will play in future climate litigation cases.

The Swiss state was ordered to put in place measures to address those shortcomings and cover the group’s legal costs, around €80,000 (US$87,000), within three months. 

More on the topic: The Most Important Climate Litigation Cases of 2024 and Why They Matter

Reactions

Speaking outside the court after the ruling, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg described Switzerland’s climate inaction as “a betrayal beyond words,” saying the ECHR ruling “makes it very clear that European states have a legal responsibility to take real climate action” to protect their citizens.

“It cannot be a political choice whether to respect human rights or not,” the 21-year-old activist said, adding that this “is only the beginning.”

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Right Volker Türk said the ruling “provides a basis for determined action and justice globally.”

“Today’s ruling… leaves no doubt: the climate crisis is a human rights crisis, and States have human rights obligations to act urgently and effectively and in line with the best available science to prevent further devastation and harm to people and the environment,” Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) senior attorney Joie Chowdhury said in a statement.

Setting a Precedent

While this is not the first climate litigation case brought against a government, it marked the first opportunity for the ECHR to consider the scope of governments’ existing obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights in the context of climate change, with the ruling setting an important, legally binding precedent for all its 46 signatories and future climate litigation cases. 

Two similar cases, including one initiated in September 2020 by four Portuguese children and two young adults against 32 European governments for allegedly breaching human rights through climate inaction – the largest climate case ever to be brought before the ECHR in Strasbourg, were dismissed on Tuesday on the grounds that the plaintiffs had not had their case tried at the national level.

Gerry Liston, senior lawyer at the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), the non-profit behind the Portuguese children’s case, called the Swiss ruling “a massive win for all generations.” 

“No European government’s climate policies are aligned with anything near 1.5C, so it will be clear to those working on climate litigation in those countries that there is now a clear basis to bring a case in their national courts.”

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Last month, a group of EU member states asked Brussels to delay the highly-contested anti-deforestation law amid months-long farmers protests across Europe.

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The controversial European Union’s anti-deforestation law will come into force at the end of 2024 as initially planned, its environment commissioner said during a visit to a cocoa-producing cooperative in Ivory Coast on Sunday.

Last month, an Austria-led coalition of 20 of the 27 EU member states called for a revision of the law proposed by the European Commission in 2021 and formally adopted last year, which aims to crack down on commodities linked to deforestation and forest degradation for agricultural expansion, targeting beef, soy, coffee, cocoa, rubber and other agricultural products sold within the EU. They argued that the legislation – the first of its kind in the world – would hurt European farmers, who are also subject to the new rules.

More on the topic: Explainer: Why Are European Farmers Protesting?

In an exclusive, upcoming interview with Earth.Org, European Greens leader Bas Eickhout called the recent U-turn on the policy of some European countries “ridiculous,” and a “failure of the Commission.” 

“This is what you get when you don’t have a long-term vision. The credibility of Europe is at stake. What we have been trying to do with this deforestation law is to make clear that these European industries should not only do green policies within Europe but they also have a global responsibility… they need to be credible in the rest of the world,” he said.

Nations producing these commodities and importing them into the EU – including Colombia, Indonesia, and Brazil – also criticised the new rules, saying they are burdensome and costly and arguing that products are often hard to trace given that supply chains often span multiple countries. 

A lot is at stake, especially for the cocoa production industry, most of which is located in Ivory Coast and Ghana, which together contribute 60% to the global output. The industry is already struggling from price volatility, with cocoa prices surging to an all-time high of $10,080 per metric ton last month.

Speaking with Reuters on Sunday, European Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius said Ivory Coast – which in March 2023 launched a national sustainable cocoa strategy (SNCD), setting a target to increase forest cover rate from 11% in 2015 to 20% by 2030 – is now “well prepared” to align with the new EU requirements.

Sinkevicius also explained that the costs of bringing production systems into compliance will be only partially covered by the EU – which has already allocated a budget support scheme worth €50 million (US$54 million) to Ivory Coast and is finalising a €150 million reforestation loan for the nation – with operators importing into the bloc expected to cover the rest.

Featured image: Marcelo Perez del Carpio/Climate Visuals Countdown

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Atmospheric concentrations of three main greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide – climbed to unprecedented levels in 2023, spurring a rise in global temperatures and widespread extreme weather events.

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Record highs levels of atmospheric concentrations of the three most potent greenhouse gases in 2023 show that the world still has “a lot of work to do” to avert the catastrophic consequences of climate change, scientists said on Friday.

According to US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) latest data, levels of all three main planet-warming, human-caused greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide – reached record highs in 2023, albeit growing at a slower pace than previous years.

Global concentrations of CO2, Earth’s most important heat-trapping gas generated from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels and by far the most important contributor to climate change, reached a significant milestone, averaging at 419.3 parts per million (ppm) throughout 2023. This represented a 2.8 ppm increase from the year prior – the third-largest in the past decade. Notably, atmospheric CO2 now exceeds pre-industrial levels by over 50%.

A paper published in December 2023 had already confirmed last year’s record levels of fossil CO2, with lead author Professor Pierre Friedlingstein of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute arguing that progress remains “painfully slow” and is currently not widespread enough to put the world on the right path to reach net zero emissions.

Recent findings suggested that, at current CO2 emissions levels, the remaining carbon budget for a 50% chance to limit global warming to 1.5C could be exceeded in seven years. Carbon budget refers to the net amount of CO2 we have left to emit before we exceed our desired global temperature increases.

More on the topic: Drought-Driven Shortfall in Hydropower Generation Partly to Blame for Record-High Global CO2 Emissions in 2023, IEA Says

According to NOAA, methane levels also rose to an average of 1,922.6 parts per billion (ppb) in 2023, a 10.9 ppb increase from 2022 – the 5th highest since renewed methane growth began in 2007. Atmospheric methane levels are now 162% higher than pre-industrial levels, alarming the scientific community. 

Methane, a major contributor to the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, second only to carbon dioxide (CO2), is responsible for about 30% of global warming. Anthropogenic methane accounts for 60% of the total methane emission, with 90% coming from three main sources: agriculture (40%), fossil fuel (35%), and waste (20%).   

Last month, a new satellite that will track and measure methane emissions at a global scale, was launched. MethaneSAT – the result of a partnership between Google and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) – will orbit the Earth 15 times per day, surveying methane levels over the world’s largest oil and gas regions. The information collected will be processed through algorithms powered by Google Cloud and by the end of the year, the company expects to have data mapped for the whole world to see.

Nitrous oxide levels, the third-largest human-caused greenhouse gas, reached 336.7 ppb in 2023, a 1 ppb jump from the year prior. The surge in atmospheric nitrous oxide is primarily attributed to the expansion and intensification of agriculture, specifically due to the use of nitrogen fertilizer and manure. As a result, nitrous oxide concentrations now stand at 25% higher than the pre-industrial level of 270 ppb.

“As these numbers show, we still have a lot of work to do to make meaningful progress in reducing the amount of greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere,” said Vanda Grubišić, director of NOAA’s global monitoring laboratory. Greenhouse gases are contributing to a significant increase in global temperatures and associated impacts from extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent and intense worldwide. 

You might also like: Extreme Weather Events Cause $200bn in Economic Losses Globally, Philippines and US Hit the Hardest, Report Finds 

2023 was the hottest year on record, supercharged by the return of El Niño, a weather phenomenon that has pushed temperatures off the charts around the world and that is expected to last well into 2024. As expected, the trend continued in the first few months of the new year, with March 2024 becoming the 10th consecutive month to break records, with temperatures at 1.77C above an estimate of the February average for 1850-1900.

The EU weather service Copernicus recently confirmed that as of January 2024, the critical 1.5C global warming threshold set in the Paris Agreement was breached over a twelve-month period for the first time in history, with global temperatures at 1.58C above the 19th century benchmark. While this does not signal a permanent breach of the limit, which scientists say is measured over decades, it sends a clear warning to humanity that we are approaching the point of no return much faster than expected.

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The money will be spread over the next four years to protect the Amazon rainforest.

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The Brazilian and French presidents on Tuesday announced a conservation investment plan involving €1 billion (US$1.1 billion) to protect the Amazon rainforest over the next four years.

The announcement came as part of a trip by French President Emmanuel Macron to Brazil to meet his counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. It was the first visit by a French president in 11 years as the two countries seek to “intensify cooperation” and “strengthen trade agreements” after spats with former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

During a meeting in the Brazilian city of Belém – host of the UN climate summit COP30 – the presidents said the investment program, a collaboration of state-run Brazilian banks and the French Development Agency, will cover the bioeconomy of the Brazilian Amazon and French Guiana. The French overseas territory bordering the Brazilian state of Amapá is home to 1.4% of the Amazon rainforest.

The Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest – spanning 6.9 million square kilometres (2.72 million square miles) and covering around 40% of the South American continent – is also one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems, home to about three million species of plants and animals as well as one million Indigenous people. Unfortunately, rampant deforestation in the region has resulted in the loss of huge swathes of land and biodiversity. 2022 data suggests that about 20% of the Amazon rainforest has already been deforested and a further 6% was “highly degraded.”

Under Lula’s predecessor, climate denialist Jair Bolsonaro, deforestation rates soared to record high levels. According to data from both the Brazilian government and Imazon, an NGO that independently tracks forest destruction, deforestation was distinctly higher under the Bolsonaro administration than at any time during Brazil’s two previous presidencies.

Following its re-election in 2022, Lula pledged to reach zero deforestation by 2030, and recent developments have already shown significant progress. According to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (ISPE) figures, the area under deforestation alerts in the Amazon fell 50% in 2023 compared to 2022.

But while Amazon deforestation has seen a sharp decrease since Lula’s re-election, thanks to a series of interventions such as the crackdown on illegal miners and a pledge to end deforestation in the Amazon by 2030, a study published February 2024 suggested that “unprecedented stress” from a combination of climate change-related drivers are bringing it closer to reaching a tipping point by mid-century.

“Once we cross this tipping point, we will lose control of how the system will behave,” said ecologist Bernardo Flores of the University of Santa Catarina in Brazil, lead author of the report. “The forest will die by itself.”

More on the topic: Up to 47% of Amazon Rainforest At Risk of Collapse by Mid-Century Due to ‘Unprecedented Stress’ From Global Warming and Deforestation

“We have a commitment to achieve zero deforestation in the Amazon by 2030. It wasn’t anyone who asked for it, no convention. It was we who decided that we will take the fight against deforestation as a profession of faith,” Lula said on Tuesday, renewing his pledge to continue with the demarcation of Indigenous lands and the creation of forest reserves. 

In a joint statement, Brazil and France expressed a shared commitment to a comprehensive agenda, which encompasses the creation of a Franco-Brazilian roadmap for the bioeconomy and protection of tropical forests. This collaborative approach aims to develop innovative financial instruments, market mechanisms, and payments for environmental services to effectively halt deforestation by decade’s end.

During a meeting with Indigenous leaders on Combu Island – where Indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire was decorated with the prestigious Legion of Honor medal for efforts at conserving the rainforest – Macron said the two countries will join forces to fight against illegal mining and “all short-term financial interests that come here to threaten the forest.”

“What we want to do is to preserve, to know better, to multiply scientific cooperation, to build strategies to support indigenous peoples and, together, to carry out actions of investments in bioeconomy so that this increases,” he said. 

Featured image: Ricardo Stuckert/Government of Brazil

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