🚗 Bringing all the governments of the world — bar the United States — to Brazil for a UN climate conference showed the doom and gloom over the cost of doing something to stop climate change is a peculiarly Western pathology. Dispatch from Belém. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

NEW: A billionaire-backed global cooling startup is a few years away from potentially seeding the stratosphere with sunlight-reflecting particles. This is the inside story of how Stardust is developing planet-altering tech that it hopes to sell to the US government. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

"key threshold had already been crossed. Humanity had gained the power to turn down the sun, and barely anyone on the planet even knew. What’s more, that untested power was now effectively for sale." politico.com/news/magazin... Amazing story by @karlmathiesen.bsky.social & @corbinhiar.bsky.social

Stardust. The Israeli-U.S. company with a strange and totally real plan to block out the sun and reverse global warming. Reporting this story involved a complete relearning of what I thought I knew about the climate future. w/@corbinhiar.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/magazin...

NEW: Climate summit proposal dodges call to accelerate move from fossil fuels www.politico.com/news/2025/11...

NEW: The sad, sorry state of COP www.politico.com/newsletters/...

🚨'The worst environmental setback in Brazil's history.' Just a week after COP30 ends, it looks almost certain that Brazil's agribusiness dominated Congress will strip almost all oversight of damaging projects. My report from Brasília. www.politico.eu/article/braz...

NEW: Geoengineering startup Stardust Solutions has been secretly lobbying Congress for months w/ @corbinhiar.bsky.social subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...

Stardust's new investors include the billionaire Chris Sacca and the Agnelli family, an Italian industrial dynasty. The startup plans to spend the cash on "controlled outdoor experiments," the CEO says. But critics remain skeptical of its business plan: "I don't think that is, at all, reasonable."

A once-outlandish idea for reversing global warming takes a major step toward reality. w/ @corbinhiar.bsky.social www.politico.eu/article/glob...

"Some were left wondering what Hoekstra hoped to achieve when he attacked Beijing for a “clearly disappointing” climate plan — especially after the EU had failed to present its own strategy." w. @l-guillot.bsky.social and @marieccles.bsky.social www.politico.eu/article/wopk...

A question I thought it would be easier to find the answer to than it is. Can any climate scientists on here tell me how to calculate how much excess CO2 there is in the atmosphere now as opposed to pre-industrial levels? ie 280ppm vs 425ppm expressed as tons?

After Environment Commissioner Roswall delays EU forest law blaming IT issues, the Commission's VP Teresa Ribera tells us she's really not convinced. “There may be [IT problems] — I don't know." "I think that it is very controversial to give it up." www.politico.eu/article/euro...

“Many in China now characterize the EU as a middle power." How Europe sabotaged it's place at the head of the climate pack. With @ziaweise.bsky.social and @saraschonhardt.bsky.social www.politico.eu/article/euro...

“If policymakers fail to act, they risk fueling the very populism they claim to fear.” @thisisbartosz.bsky.social‬ scoops an unvarnished view of the EU's climate backtracking from Connie Hedegaard. www.politico.eu/article/gree...

NEW: Saudi Aramco employee named lead author of global climate report www.politico.eu/article/saud...

Big job leading one of the best teams in the business... #journojobs jobs.mpleo.net/en/politico/...

NEW: Backroom deals, embassy contacts and brown liquor built a booming trade of American LNG to Europe. Now, the lobbyist who saw it all says the U.S. president’s dalliances with Vladimir Putin are an incoming “asteroid” for the industry. www.politico.eu/article/euro...

‘She’s pretty much alone’: The EU’s greenest leader fights the tide Teresa Ribera, the EU's 2nd in charge, has won significant victories in secret against a combination of attacks and disinterest. w/ @ziaweise.bsky.social www.politico.eu/article/tere...

NEW: Sudanese economist Mustafa Babiker — a long-term employee of the Saudi Aramco oil company — has been proposed as coordinating lead author of a crucial chapter of the next UN climate science report, a leaked document shows. www.politico.eu/article/saud...

NEW: EU climate chief lobbied Germany to back weakened 2040 goal www.politico.eu/article/eu-c...

🇪🇺 I'm writing POLITICO's Brussels Playbook today – tell me what's happening in your world ... [email protected]

NEW: Trump is perfectly OK with ceding the clean energy economy to China. Some green tech advocates thought they could convince Trump to compete. Trump 2.0 sees putting money into it as enriching China and legitimizing clean energy. w/ @karlmathiesen.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/05...

NEW: One camp wants the United States to compete with Beijing on clean energy. The other says playing in that game would make the United States the loser. With @zcolman.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/05...

NEW: Lessons for Australia? Unreported details of how UK paid off Turkey for COP26. Inward investment conference in London Votes for Turkish UN candidates Backing for UN positions + 😬 according to 1 diplo a broken promise to back Turkey over Australia for COP31 www.politico.eu/article/aust...

NEW: Confidential EU report warns UK plans to strip nature protections in planning reforms could breach of the Brexit trade deal. Also notes senior UK politicians "ridiculing" of green laws and Rachel Reeves banging on about newts and bats. www.politico.eu/article/newt...

NEW: Trump officials arrived in the UK last week with a simple message: China is a malign actor, benefiting from misguided climate policies, and the world is better off copying America's newfound embrace of fossil fuels. It was met with a shrug. www.politico.eu/article/trum...

NEW: The IEA's research has shown increasingly optimistic outlooks for clean power and gloomy forecasts for oil. The Trump administration wants that to change. w/ @saraschonhardt.bsky.social , @charliecooper8.bsky.social and @nicolascamut.bsky.social www.politico.eu/article/dona...

“There can be no renewal of our relationship with nature without a renewal of humanity itself.” On the loss of a mighty moral voice on climate change. www.politico.eu/article/pope...

You know how you know the European Commission doesn't take FOI requests seriously? It emails its responses in Comic Sans...

My POLITICO colleagues are covering the hell out of Trump's move to burn down the apparatus of state governance, science and industry that was supposed to be the bulwark against his fossil fuel agenda. politico.com

Will the Trump 2.0 admin blithely ignore climate talks or try to derail them? Strong evidence for the latter here with @FonieMits scoop. www.politico.eu/article/dona...

Breaking: EU has delayed its 2040 climate target until "before summer" next.politico.eu/news/196645

"The president remains pleased with Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency initiative but both men have decided in recent days that it will soon be time for Musk to return to his businesses and take on a supporting role." www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Good story by @karlmathiesen.bsky.social et al: "Can Keir Starmer bring down bills before bills bring him down?" The obv & most progressive option, flagged in the piece, still seems to be shifting eco/social levies off elec bills & onto taxation, paid with tax rise www.politico.eu/article/can-...

"It's vital that stammered voices are featured in the media ... It reminds everyone that some people in our community stammer and have as much right to have their voices listened to as anyone." Lovely piece from top climate scientist @piersforster.bsky.social stamma.org/your-voice/i...

Oof. UK energy bills up £111 this morn — Starmer feels vulnerable. POLITICO spoke to 27 energy analysts, officials, pollsters and politicians about how the gvmt can bring bills down. Many lamented a public debate marked by a lack of honesty on all sides... www.politico.eu/article/can-...

NEW: "To allay political concerns about the effort’s cost to heavy industry and agriculture, Hoekstra is weighing “flexibilities” for reaching the goal." NGOs: These are “very dangerous proposals.” www.politico.eu/article/eu-e...

NEW: A minor win for Just Stop Oil. A bigger loss for protest rights in the UK. www.politico.eu/article/uk-j...

NEW: Keir Starmer's Best Week In Office™ started with a defense spending pledge that came at the expense of foreign aid. But did it also hobble his promise to lead the world on climate? /w @abbywallace7.bsky.social www.politico.eu/article/keir...

Europeans are about to plough €100s of bns into military build up. That means a LOT of steel. What if some of that was used to build a homegrown, green steel industry and leapfrog EU steelmakers to the fore of the clean economy? www.politico.eu/article/euro...

NEW: To save European industry and halt climate change, the EU has landed on an elegantly simple idea that could tap into a €2 trillion pool of annual spending. Governments, the EU executive said last week, should buy greener stuff. Can it work? www.politico.eu/article/euro...

I receive numerous requests from journalists regarding the current situation with the Intergovernemental Panel on Climate Change. I am not involved in the work of the IPCC for the 7th Assessment Cycle (AR7). 1/...

🚨🚨🚨 SCOOP: There's a brutal game playing out in Brussels in real time as the EU Commission fights over whether to maintain rules that require companies to consider the damage they are doing to the planet. @ziaweise.bsky.social has story. www.politico.eu/article/eu-b...

NEW: Whatever happens in Germany’s election, one of the world’s most climate-ambitious governments will fall In its place will likely rise a successor less focused on the fate of the world than on the fate of the Ruhr. Though that may not be all bad for the climate www.politico.eu/article/the-...

Nice to be named alongside pals and colleagues @dpcarrington.bsky.social, @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org, @stephspyro.bsky.social, Helena Horton, @luciemheath.bsky.social and Laura Hughes in the shortlist for UK Environment Journalist of the Year. www.thepressawards.com/finalists/ka...

"If everything the administration is pushing for materializes, we are likely to lose a generation of American scientists or more, depending how long this goes on." thebulletin.org/2025/02/how-...

I spoke to the BBC Today Programme about Germany's election and why some European voters are hearkening to anti-green voices. (From 53:40) www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

NEW: The fate of Europe’s historic climate mission and its political firewall against the far right are now intertwined. w/ @mariannegros.bsky.social, @ziaweise.bsky.social, @leonieacater.bsky.social, @l-guillot.bsky.social www.politico.eu/article/insi...

EXCL: Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio has rescinded $4B in US pledges to a UN climate fund, according to a letter seen by POLITICO. www.politico.eu/article/dona...