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Food Tank’s Weekly News Roundup: India Acts to Empower Women Farmers, $127 Million in USDA Grants Restored, Nigeria’s Hunger Crisis Worsens
Each week, Food Tank is rounding up a few news stories that inspire excitement, infuriation, or curiosity.
USDA Reinstates $127 Million in Land Access Grants
Following a federal court order, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reinstated 24 grants totaling US$127 million under the agency’s Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program.
The program was designed to support underserved producers across the U.S. Amanda Koehler, who manages an informal network of the grantees, calls it “the largest public investment in land access in our nation’s history.”
The Trump-Vance Administration undermined the program for months before officially terminating funds for 49 of the 50 projects this past spring. But organizations fought back. Over two dozen joined a lawsuit last year to argue that the awards were canceled illegally.
This past week, Judge Beryl Howell granted a preliminary injunction and wrote that the plaintiffs, represented by Earthjustice, Farmers Justice Center, and FarmSTAND, demonstrated that they will suffer “irreparable harm in the absence of relief.”
Litigation will continue, but in the meantime, the 24 organizations can expect to hear from Farm Service Agency staff about their restored awards, which will support land access, farmer training, and infrastructure and market development projects.
Indian State Passes Bill to Empower Women Farmers
In India, the Maharashtra state Assembly voted unanimously last week to pass the Women Farmers’ Empowerment Bill.
The first of its kind in the country, the legislation aims to broaden the formal recognition of all women farmers, not just those who own land. This will make it easier for women in agriculture to access bank loans, crop insurance, government subsidies, training programs, farming technology, and more.
As a next step, the Bill will be taken up in the Maharashtra Legislative Council. Agriculture Minister Dattatray Bharane is confident that they will adopt it.
Plant-Forward Procurement Can Unlock €11.6 billion in the EU
Plant-forward public procurement practices in the European Union could generate over €11 billion annually, according to a new study commissioned by ProVeg International.
The study looked at the potential impact for three procurement strategies across all 27 EU Member States. Under the most ambitious plan, the total combined returns includes €3 billion in food budget savings, €4.7 billion in avoided environmental costs, and €4 billion in avoided societal health costs.
To unlock the full benefits, the researchers recommend reforming public procurement rules, updating the EU School Scheme to include more legumes and plant-based drinks, investing in skills and training for public catering teams, supporting farmer diversification, and using behavioral insights to make healthier and sustainable choices easier.
ProVeg calls public procurement “a strategic policy lever hiding in plain sight,” which can shape outcomes across public spending, health systems, food security, and climate.
Nigeria’s Hunger Crisis Deepens
The World Food Programme warns that Nigeria’s food security crisis is worsening faster than previously thought.
In the northern region, hunger levels driven by conflict are rising to levels not seen in nearly a decade. Kinday Samba, WFP’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa is particularly concerned by how the crisis is expanding, stating that “insurgent attacks and violence…are spreading across a much wider area and forcing people from farmland.”
Displacement and restrict, WFP can only reach around 740,000 of the 6.2 million people facing food insecurity in the northeastern states. Samba says “resources are at their lowest at the time they are needed most.”
Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
The post Food Tank’s Weekly News Roundup: India Acts to Empower Women Farmers, $127 Million in USDA Grants Restored, Nigeria’s Hunger Crisis Worsens appeared first on Food Tank.
C&BP offers to brief legislator, attorneys go unanswered
Checks & Balances Project’s (C&BP) offers to brief state Sen. Lashrecse Aird, Sussex County Commonwealth Attorney Regina Sykes and Sussex County Attorney Danielle Powell on the apparent corruption in Sussex County government have gone unanswered.
In the last three weeks, C&BP has revealed that the county has no policy governing when elected officials should recuse themselves, the Stony Creek Volunteer Rescue Squad (SCVRS) run by Board Chairman Steve White lost its nonprofit status and that White routinely votes to send taxpayer money to SCVRS.
C&BP has also shown that White forced the departures of Fire Chief Nick Sheffield and Deputy Fire Chief Chris Bailey after both raised questions about SCVRS and its relationship to the county. White led the supervisors to remove the funding for Sheffield and Bailey’s positions in a September 2025 special retreat.
Despite these issues, Aird, Sykes and Powell have not responded to offers to learn more about the corruption wracking Sussex County.
Ray Locker is the executive director for Checks & Balances Project, an investigative watchdog blog holding government officials, lobbyists, and corporate management accountable to the public. Funding for C&BP is provided by Renew American Prosperity and individual donors.
You may also want to read:
Sussex supervisor says White drove surprise firing of county administrator
Sussex County Sheriff Ernest Giles Sr. refers C&BP complaint to local prosecutor and state police
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Sink the Superyachts!
Tejido Global de Alternativas: Declaración Popular de Bandung - [Tejido Global de Alternativas: Declaración Popular de Bandung]
Global Tapestry of Alternatives: People’s Bandung Declaration - [Global Tapestry of Alternatives: People’s Bandung Declaration]
Op-Ed | The Food System Is Driving Two Crises at Once—and Could Help Solve Both
Climate change and chronic disease are often treated as separate challenges.
One belongs to environmental policy. The other belongs to healthcare. Different experts study them. Different institutions address them. Different budgets support solutions. But increasingly, both are being shaped by the same system: Food.
Food production contributes substantially to greenhouse-gas emissions (GHGs), land-use change, freshwater use, and biodiversity loss. At the same time, unhealthy dietary patterns are helping drive rising rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic illnesses around the world.
These trends are usually discussed separately. They shouldn’t be.
As a physician and clinical researcher, I spend most of my time studying nutrition and metabolic health rather than climate policy. Recently, my colleagues and I conducted a randomized clinical trial involving people with type 1 diabetes. Participants who adopted a low-fat plant-based diet improved insulin sensitivity, reduced insulin requirements, lost weight, and improved several cardiometabolic measures.
The health benefits were encouraging. But what interested us afterward was a different question. What happened to the environmental footprint of participants’ diets? When we analyzed their dietary records, food-related greenhouse-gas emissions had fallen by more than 50 percent within just 12 weeks.
These findings were not theoretical projections or computer simulations. They reflected the choices of real people living their everyday lives.
One study does not solve the climate crisis. And dietary change alone cannot replace the need for clean energy, transportation reform, or industrial innovation.
But it highlights something important. Food occupies a unique position among climate solutions because it influences both human health and environmental sustainability simultaneously.
The same dietary patterns associated with lower greenhouse-gas emissions are also associated with lower risks of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and premature mortality.
Unlike many climate interventions, food can generate benefits that people experience personally and relatively quickly. Weight may decrease. Blood pressure may improve. Insulin sensitivity can increase. And environmental impacts decline at the same time. That alignment matters.
Many sustainability policies ask people to accept short-term sacrifices for long-term societal gains. Food often works differently. Personal and collective benefits can occur together.
This creates a rare opportunity. But food remains surprisingly underrepresented in many climate conversations. Climate discussions understandably focus on energy, transportation, and industry. Food systems deserve a larger place at the table.
Not because food can solve climate change by itself. It cannot. But because meaningful progress on both climate and public health will require addressing some of the same upstream drivers.
Agricultural policy, food marketing, pricing structures, supply chains, and food access influence what people eat. And what people eat affects not only human health, but the health of ecosystems as well.
Food systems are health systems. For decades, policymakers have treated climate change and chronic disease as separate crises. Increasingly, they appear to be two expressions of the same underlying problem.
That should give us hope. Because solutions that improve both human and planetary health are rare. And in an era of growing urgency, we cannot afford to overlook them.
Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.
Photo courtesy of Ella Olsson, Unsplash
The post Op-Ed | The Food System Is Driving Two Crises at Once—and Could Help Solve Both appeared first on Food Tank.
Unmasking Hate: Whose Country, Our Country
What better way to mark the 250th anniversary of a nation founded on lofty ideals now plunged into ugly discrepancies than to double down on hate-and-fear-mongering? Cue a Racist-In-Chief who stays silent when 400 masked Nazis march in D.C. but goes online to assail graduating kindergarteners in Minnesota for wearing hijabs - goading his followers in vicious lockstep to dutifully screech, "Deport them, big and small!" Stay classy, MAGA.
Somehow, we still manage to be shocked at how ludicrously low the bar's sunk. Never mind the unhinged May hearing where House Repubs attacked the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), following up on equally unhinged fraud charges, by directly quoting a letter from the same hate groups unhappy they'd been named hate groups. In a blistering response, a Dem rep called out their "embrace of white nationalist rhetoric" with the melted clock from the KKK’s 1983 firebombing of the SPLC, charging, "They’re trying to turn back the clock (on) some of the darkest days of our past.”
Then there's the Kentucky pastor of a Baptist church "befuddled" by this year's backlash against a 30-year-old ritual of their vacation Bible school wherein men in military garb march down their church aisle, pull "sinners" outside to a mock firing squad and pretend to open fire. Pastor Dewayne Walker blamed "misinformation" - "part of what this generation has become" - for outrage at “nothing more than a small part" of their school helpfully aimed at identifying good and evil. Others called the ritual "depraved" and "appalling abuse," noting, "There’s not enough context in the world to make this okay."
Same, alas, for much of what passes these dark days for political discourse. On America's 250th birthday, it was reported, about 400 neo-Nazis from the white nationalist Patriot Front joined the day's tawdry mayhem in D.C. by marching in masks and uniforms - seeking "the menace of a mob with none of the accountability" - chanting "Reclaim America." They looked unsettling enough that many on the right uneasily dismissed them as bad actors or imaginary Antifa; Laura Ingraham sneered, "I call fake," then righteously, nonsensically added, "No one should be allowed to cover their faces."
One image of the day went viral: A lone, young, tense Black woman, sitting on the Metro, surrounded by Nazis. "I have taught this photograph before," wrote a longtime teacher on I Fucking Love Australia, describing the September day in 1957 in Little Rock, AR. when 15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford, trying to integrate Central High School, was stopped by the National Guard. In the image, she walks alone in the white dress her mother had sewn for her first day through a screaming, snarling white mob. Asked for their response, one of today's students inevitably offers, "Look at their faces. They wanted to be seen."
"They believed history would agree with them," notes the teacher. "The men on that Metro" - in their masks and khakis - "did not." In the 1940s and '50s, states in the Jim Crow South passed laws banning masks in public, their nod to the brutal presence of the KKK; even they understood that a man who covers his face is not expressing an opinion - he is issuing a threat. "In 1957, the mob showed their faces because they thought history was on their side. In 2026 they hide their faces because they know it is not," the teacher wrote. "That is not nothing. That is 69 years of progress, measured in cowardice."
There was another, less widely viewed photo from that day on the train. Roswell Encina, a gay Filipino American, came to the US as an infant; his father served in the U.S. Navy. Roswell is head of the non-partisan U.S.Capitol Historical Society; as part of his job, he places replicas of the Declaration of Independence in embassies, stadiums, public places so ordinary people can read it and see it as their own story. The train on the 4th had been full of red, white and blue families heading to the fireworks; when they got off and the Nazis got on, he said the mood felt "unnerving" and he had to "summon my better angels" to stay put.
The group was civil and chatting; he tried not to make eye contact, looked up their patches on his phone, texted friends in a familiar safety ritual to say where he was. Later, neither wearing nor needing a mask, he spoke to reporters, in part to protect the young Black woman whose name was unknown. As a historian, he said he felt reassured unnerving" reassured a photographer was documenting the moment. "Democracy is very fragile," he said. "We need to stay engaged with history, civics, education. History is a conversation, and this is part of it." Then he cited another name and image from that earlier era: Ruby Bridges.
Ruby Bridges was six years old in November 1960 when she walked between federal marshals into her New Orleans school as its first Black student after a federal court ordered schools to integrate; white parents were so outraged they kept their kids home, and Ruby spent the year alone in her classroom. To memorialize the historic day, Norman Rockwell painted her, small and again set between marshals, walking along a stone wall where a member of another mob had scrawled "NIGGER" and thrown a tomato, which oozed down. Rockwell titled the 1964 painting, "The Problem We All Live With."
Ruby was 6. The 20 or so kids who proudly stood and joyfully sang on a stage in St. Paul, Minnesota last month were all five and six. A brief video clip from Somali TV of Minnesota shows them celebrating their kindergarten graduation at Gateway STEM Academy, a public charter school serving about 180 students, many Somali, most with legal immigration status, not that it should matter. They wore small sweet blue robes and caps, with hijabs under their mortarboards and white stoles around their shoulders whose rainbow letters, under a teddy bear, read, "Kindergarten Graduate."
Theirs was one of several school graduations celebrated around the state, and the country. It was the only one spotlighted online by a right-wing account named “End Wokeness,” which in 2024 went viral with the claim Haitian immigrants in Ohio were stealing and eating people’s pets.This time, it posted a photo of the small celebrants with an enraged, "Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab…in kindergarten.” When 400 masked Nazis marched through the nation's capitol on the nation's birthday, the President of the United States said nothing. But hijabs: "He found his voice."
This week, months after he called Minnesota's Somali community "garbage," after vandalism at mosques, women harassed for wearing hijabs, a fire on a school bus at another largely Somali charter school, the ongoing terror of ICE's Metro Surge, he shared the "End Wokeness" post - twice - in hopes of siccing maybe just a modest mob of his 13 million followers, though not the sharpest tools in the shed, on the tiny perps in gowns and terrorist caps. And, oops, when he "pointed at babies," he did not blur their faces, which only takes seconds, and which normal people unthinkingly do to protect babies.
The “anti-human” rhetoric found its mark. From Truth Social, "There are just some cultures that don't belong and for good reason," "I think they have stolen enough money from the US that they can buy their own ticket. I could help them out with a size 13 boot," and "This is the case for literally every single immigrant we unfortunately let in our country. They’re here to take advantage of our system and tell us how great their country is because they can rape their way through the population without consequence," which for damn sure wouldn't happen here in Epstein land, right?
Parents and advocates expressed "shock and horror" at the reckless cruelty of targeting kids in kindergarten. CAIR: Trump "is putting lives at risk (in a) dangerous escalation of religious hatred. Children deserve to feel safe in their schools and communities...to recognize this is their country.” Tim Walz: "The President (is) attacking a group of kindergarteners because of the clothes they wore to school.” A local Imam: "Our children (are) fully part of this state and country. That is the Minnesota we believe in. That is the America we hope for." Educator Ms. Rachel: “Hijabs are beautiful...No matter what we wear, we all belong.”
Online commentators offered, "At least he is attacking his intellectual peers." Outraged parents of kindergarteners protested the insult by noting their kids can "run intellectual circles around that fool," read at higher grade levels, learn new things daily, nicely share without being asked, and are potty-trained. Despite his vast resources, added the teacher at I Fucking Love Australia, he did not find the 60 seconds to at least blur their faces, "Because he was never trying to show you a graduation. He was showing his people where to aim. That is the whole story. Everything else is commentary."
C&BP files Freedom of Information Act request seeking documents related to White serving as acting Sussex County administrator
Checks & Balances Project (C&BP) has filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking all records, texts, and other communications related to Sussex County Board of Supervisors Chairman Steve White assuming the role of acting county administrator after he apparently engineered the firing of then-County Administrator Richard Douglas.
According to another supervisor, Douglas’ firing was engineered by White after a surprise closed session during the April 16 board of supervisors meeting, Supervisor Thomas Baicy told C&BP.
By serving as acting county administrator, White is in apparent violation of Virginia law that prohibits elected officials from serving in administrative jobs. And, county administrator positions are typically full-time. White has been employed full-time with the state of Virginia’s Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services.
This apparent violation of state law is in C&BP complaints filed with Sussex County Commonwealth Attorney Regina Sykes, Sheriff Ernest Giles Sr., the Virginia State Police and Attorney General Jay Jones.
C&BP has filed four Freedom of Information Act requests for the county’s recusal policy, whether any supervisors have recused themselves in the last 25 years, and any records related to Douglas’ firing.
The county has not provided any records sought in those requests as of July 10. An AI-assisted online search suggests that County has no such policy, undercutting the rationale for a delay in providing the policy.
Ray Locker is the executive director for Checks & Balances Project, an investigative watchdog blog holding government officials, lobbyists, and corporate management accountable to the public. Funding for C&BP is provided by Renew American Prosperity and individual donors.
You may also want to read:
Sussex supervisor says White drove surprise firing of county administrator
Sussex County Sheriff Ernest Giles Sr. refers C&BP complaint to local prosecutor and state police
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Hemet nurses ratify new contract with strong measures to improve patient safety and nurse retention
Pennsylvania 2025 Oil & Gas Production Report: Record Gas, Low-Producing Wells, and Long-Term Liabilities
Pennsylvania produced more than 7.8 trillion cubic feet of gas in 2025, with unconventional wells accounting for over 99% of the total. This analysis examines statewide production trends, declining well output, regional differences, and the large number of conventional wells reporting little or no production.
The post Pennsylvania 2025 Oil & Gas Production Report: Record Gas, Low-Producing Wells, and Long-Term Liabilities appeared first on FracTracker Alliance.
Sussex supervisor says White drove surprise firing of county administrator
Sussex County Board of Supervisors Chairman Steve White proposed firing then-County Administrator Richard Douglas in a surprise closed session during the April 16 board meeting, Supervisor Thomas Baicy told Checks & Balances Project (C&BP).
The move surprised Baicy and others, because the issue wasn’t included on the agenda for the meeting.
Baicy’s comments came in response to a C&BP Freedom of Information Act request for all communications and documents related to Douglas’ dismissal.
In an email to C&BP, Baicy stated:
“To my knowledge, I do not have anything to share per Douglas firing and Conmy leaving since the topic was not disclosed to me until we went into closed session and the removal of Douglas was brought up by Chair White. [Deputy County Administrator David] Conmy said if Richard is gone, he was leaving within a couple weeks of same.”
After the supervisors left their closed session, Baicy said, “that is when the removal of Douglas occurred and Conmy advised he was leaving as well. Closed session we went closed to discuss personnel…..”
Supervisors C. Eric Fly, Alfred Futrell, Phyllis Tolliver, Rufus Tyler and White voted to fire Douglas, while Baicy and Supervisor Wayne Jones voted no.
White then assumed the full-time role of acting county administrator, despite having a full-time job with the state of Virginia.
Douglas’ firing came seven months after the board eliminated the funding for the jobs of Fire Chief Nick Sheffield and his deputy, Chris Bailey, in a September 2025 meeting. According to sources familiar with the matter, Douglas had resisted calls to fire Sheffield after Sheffield raised questions about the finances of the Stony Creek Volunteer Rescue Squad (SCVRS), which White runs.
County has failed to supply documents
C&BP has also filed FOIA requests seeking the county’s recusal policy for elected officials, the number of times officials have recused themselves in the last 25 years and for all records related to the county’s EMS services and SCVRS.
As of July 10, the county has not provided any of the records, despite an AI-assisted online search suggesting that no such policy exists. State law makes it illegal for county commissioners to vote on matters that affect their self-interest.
C&BP reported on June 30 that the IRS suspended SCVRS’ nonprofit status in 2023 because it had failed to file tax returns for three years. The nonprofit status was restored in 2025, but the latest publicly available SCVRS tax return is from 2019.
SCVRS reported a $304,000 surplus in the five years of tax returns from 2015 to 2019 that are on the IRS website.
Ray Locker is the executive director for Checks & Balances Project, an investigative watchdog blog holding government officials, lobbyists, and corporate management accountable to the public. Funding for C&BP is provided by Renew American Prosperity and individual donors.
You may also want to read:
Checks & Balances Project files FOIA request seeking Sussex County EMS records
Checks & Balances Project seeks Sussex County’s recusal policy
Checks & Balances Project seeks more tips from Sussex County residents
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The Thrill Of A Good Food System Literary Deep Dive
A version of this piece was featured in Food Tank’s newsletter, released weekly on Thursdays. To make sure it lands straight in your inbox and to be among the first to receive it, subscribe now by clicking here.
Part of the reason food and agriculture systems are so intriguing—why so many of us devote our lives to the questions of what’s on our plates and how it gets there—is that there’s both breadth and depth.
Food intersects with so many other social and cultural and economic systems; as we like to spotlight here at Food Tank, food and agriculture are the solution to an incredibly wide-ranging set of challenges. At the same time, food systems are full of fascinating pathways to explore, rabbit holes to dive into.
Pick any specific topic you’re interested in, or maybe one you’ve never even considered before: I can assure you that very smart and passionate people around the globe are pouring time and energy into helping us understand more. I don’t know about you—I’m a nerd, after all!—but I think that’s so exciting.
The thrill of a good deep dive, across disciplines and cuisines and continents, is what animates our summer reading list.
In “Consider the Anchovy,” food journalist Sudi Pigott asks us to do just that, arguing that the sometimes-maligned little fish plays a critical role not only in many global food cultures but also in protecting marine ecosystems. In “The Book of Coffee,” philosopher Julian Baggini explores why the beverage is so much more than just a wake-up jolt. In “Bitter Honey,” researcher Jennie Durant zooms in specifically on the bees pollinating California almond orchards to be able to more broadly explore the threats facing pollinators in an age of industrial agriculture, and in “Cheese Trekking,” cheesemaker Trevor Warmedahl takes us on a worldwide journey into the people and microbes keeping small, non-industrial food traditions alive.
And why stop there? We’ve got 23 books on this summer’s list, and each one is a telescope deep into a cultural cuisine, a specific food ingredient, a food justice movement, a challenge we need to address, or a social phenomenon shaping the way we eat.
Here are the books we’re reading this season:
Abiding Hunger: An American Paradox by Roger Thurow (forthcoming September 2026)
Bitter Honey: Big Ag’s Threat to Bees and the Fight to Save Them by Jennie Durant
Black Farmers in America: Fighting for an Equitable Food System by Mya O. Price (forthcoming August 2026)
Building a Sustainable Kitchen: A Practical Guide to Prioritizing the Planet from the Heart of Your Home by Naomi Hansen
Cheese Trekking: How Microbes, Landscapes, Livestock, and Human Cultures Shape Terroir by Trevor Warmedahl
Climate Change and Civic Engagement: The Origins and Future of the Climate Justice Movement by Paul Almeida (Forthcoming July 2026)
Consider the Anchovy: A Journey in Pursuit of the Little Fish with the Big Flavour by Sudi Pigott
Cooking the Borderlands: Spice and Smoke Between Mexico and the States by Claudette Zepeda
Eating on a Mountain at the End of the World: How I Found Love, Humor, and Beauty in My Quest for Ethical Food by Zackary Vernon
Eat to Hustle: 75 High-Protein Plant-Based Recipes by Robin Arzón
Fermenting for the Future: Japanese Pickles and Microbial Foodways by Aya Hirata Kimura
First Helpings: A History of Children and Food by Deborah Albon and Amy Palmer (forthcoming July 2026)
Food Policy Councils: Building Civic Engagement and Community Well-Being by Nessa J. Richman (forthcoming July 2026)
Ice Cream Queen: Flavors from Black America’s Past, Present, & Future by Lokelani Alabanza
It’s on You: How Corporations and Behavioral Scientists Have Convinced Us That We’re to Blame for Society’s Deepest Problems by Nick Chater and George Loewenstein
Our Knives Will Save Us: Dispatches from a White Mountain Apache Chef by Nephi Craig (forthcoming July 2026)
Plots and Deeds: Agrarian Annihilation and the Fight for Land Justice in Palestine by Paul Kohlbry
Soomaaliya: Food, Memory, and Migration: A Cookbook by Ifrah F. Ahmed
Spain My Way: Eat, Drink, and Cook Like a Spaniard by José Andrés and Sam Chapple-Sokol
The Book of Coffee: A Philosophy by Julian Baggini
The Farm Is Here by Jeff Tkach
Tin Can Coast: A History of Industry, Greed, and Fishing in the Golden State by Joseph Ogilvy (forthcoming July 2026)
Tiny Gardens Everywhere: A History of Urban Resilience by Kate Brown
You can learn more about all these books and how to add them to your shelf by CLICKING HERE.
Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
The post The Thrill Of A Good Food System Literary Deep Dive appeared first on Food Tank.
National Nurses United condemns ICE murder of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
Interview: COP31 president says electrification is ‘surest way to protect citizens’
Last month, COP31 president-designate Murat Kurum launched a target for 35% of the world’s final energy to come from electricity by 2035.
In an interview with Carbon Brief, Kurum says that the target was not a political choice, but instead reflects the latest evidence on “what is needed to keep 1.5C within reach”.
The ongoing Hormuz crisis means there is an “urgent” need for renewables and electrification, which are the “surest and cleanest way to protect citizens” from high energy prices.
Kurum says that the Brazilian and Ethiopian presidencies of COP30 and COP32, as well as the EU, UK and Canada, have welcomed the target.
He adds that “all have confirmed it will be central to discussions at COP31”.
In the interview, Kurum – who is also Turkey’s minister of environment, urbanisation and climate change – tells Carbon Brief where the target came from and what he expects to happen next.
Carbon Brief: You recently launched a target for 35% of the world’s final energy to come from electricity by 2035. Where did this idea come from?
Murat Kurum: The “35 by 35” target is grounded in technical data and based on the IEA [International Energy Agency] and IRENA [International Renewable Energy Agency] analysis of what is needed to keep [the 1.5C Paris Agreement target] within reach. The level was not chosen politically. Rather, it reflects what the science and the energy modelling tell us is required.
CB: Why do you think an electrification target is important right now?
MK: The case for the target is urgent right now. The latest war in the Gulf has made energy diversification – and, in particular, renewable energy transition and electrification – a top global priority, because it is the surest and cleanest way to protect citizens around the world from high and volatile energy prices.
At a time of real fragmentation in international relations, a single, shared target is needed to focus global efforts by aligning governments, businesses and investors behind a common benchmark and to send a clear market signal.
CB: Which countries are supporting this target so far?
MK: The reaction so far has been extremely positive and, while we presented our target at the UN June climate meetings in Bonn, our earlier conversations with parties at both the Petersberg and Copenhagen climate dialogues paved the way for this launch.
For example, the EU, UK, and Canada have welcomed the target, as have the Brazilian COP30 and Ethiopian COP32 presidencies. All have confirmed it will be central to discussions at COP31.
This support has been reflected in the business community as well, with polling by the We Mean Business Coalition showing that 90% of businesses expect to have largely electrified their operations by 2035 and that 88% expect electrification will make their business more competitive.
CB: How do you hope and expect to see this taken forward at the COP? Could it be in the formal COP outcomes, or part of the second global stocktake?
MK: We are now taking electrification forward as an “action agenda” initiative to bring actors together and drive progress. The action agenda and the [formal COP] negotiations are separate, but complementary, with different processes and thresholds, and it is too early to say what all countries might be able to agree in the negotiations. That is for parties to determine as the year progresses.
We are focused and determined to use COP31 as a moment to spark a global conversation about electrification.
CB: What are the key priorities for reaching the target?
MK: The critical sectors for reaching the target are buildings, transport and industry, which together account for around 45% of global emissions. Financial support for the developing world and investment in grids and infrastructure is also crucial.
The target also builds on COP28’s target to triple renewable energy capacity and seeks to take advantage of the tumbling cost of renewable power and other technologies critical to the energy transition. This is a journey that Turkey itself is taking ambitious steps on, including our plan to reach 120GW [gigawatts] of renewable capacity by 2035.
This interview was first published in the 10 July 2026 edition of Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed weekly newsletter. Sign up for free.
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DeBriefed 10 July 2026: Deadly Europe heat | EU electrification leak | COP31 president interview
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
RECORD HEAT: Western Europe experienced its hottest June on record – some 3C above average – according to analysis covered by the Guardian. It said the finding came “as the UK enters its third heatwave of the year and wildfires ravage France and Spain”. Le Monde said 10,000 people had been evacuated due to wildfires in southern France.
‘EXCESS DEATHS’: The June heatwave killed more than 2,700 people in France, according to a guest post analysis for Carbon Brief. Similar analysis for Germany said there had been more than 5,000 “excess deaths”, reported Bloomberg. Meanwhile, an ongoing heatwave in the US has killed at least 30 people, said USA Today.
STORM TEST: Floods have killed 39 people in Guangxi province in southern China, said state-run newspaper China Daily. Scientists warned that climate change and the weather phenomenon El Niño are exposing China to “catastrophic storms” that will test its resilience in 2026, reported Reuters. The nation’s latest official climate report found that “extreme weather and climate events…have become more frequent and severe”, said China National Radio.
Around the world- EU ELECTRIFICATION: The European Commission is set to unveil a 2040 target for EU electrification on 17 July, reported Bloomberg. Citing a leaked draft, it said the plan would aim to cut oil use in half and gas use by two-thirds.
- PEAKING PLAN: China has published an “action plan” for peaking emissions during the 15th five-year plan period to 2030, reported Xinhua. It lists targets including “new energy vehicles” making up 30% of cars on the road by 2030, said Reuters.
- CLIMATE ‘FLAT EARTHER’: The Trump administration has appointed Matthew Wielicki, described by Politico as a “climate critic”, to lead the office in charge of the US national climate assessment. Common Dreams quoted a scientist describing the move as “like putting a flat-earther in charge of NASA”.
- UGANDAN SUIT: A group of farmers from Uganda have launched a legal suit in London against the East African oil pipeline, according to Climate Home News.
The share of Irish electricity used by data centres in 2025, reported the Irish Times.
2%The share of global electricity used by data centres in the same year, according to Carbon Brief analysis of the Energy Institute statistical review.
Latest climate research- Meltwater from the western Himalayan glaciers will peak at around 2C of warming, before declining at higher warming levels | Environmental Research Letters
- Current coral restoration efforts may be unsuitable for temperate reefs, including those in the Mediterranean | Nature Ecology & Evolution
- People tend to underestimate the level of “broad public support” for climate action | Nature Climate Change
(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
CapturedCarbon Brief explained – via eight facts – why air conditioning rates in some parts of Europe are relatively low, as the technology emerges as a new front in the global “culture war” over climate action. Analysis for the article illustrated that, in many parts of the world’s fastest-warming continent, air conditioning simply was not needed in the past.
Spotlight COP31 president speaks to Carbon Brief on electrificationThis week, Carbon Brief interviews Murat Kurum, president-designate of the COP31 UN climate talks in November and Turkey’s minister of environment, urbanisation and climate change, on his target to boost global electrification.
Carbon Brief: You recently launched a target for 35% of the world’s final energy to come from electricity by 2035. Where did this idea come from?
Murat Kurum: The “35 by 35” target is grounded in technical data and based on the IEA [International Energy Agency] and IRENA [International Renewable Energy Agency] analysis of what is needed to keep [the 1.5C Paris Agreement target] within reach. The level was not chosen politically. Rather, it reflects what the science and the energy modelling tell us is required.
CB: Why do you think an electrification target is important right now?
MK: The case for the target is urgent right now. The latest war in the Gulf has made energy diversification – and, in particular, renewable energy transition and electrification – a top global priority, because it is the surest and cleanest way to protect citizens around the world from high and volatile energy prices.
At a time of real fragmentation in international relations, a single, shared target is needed to focus global efforts by aligning governments, businesses and investors behind a common benchmark and to send a clear market signal.
COP31 president-designate Murat Kurum. Credit: Supplied by COP31 secretariatCB: Which countries are supporting this target so far?
MK: The reaction so far has been extremely positive and, while we presented our target at the UN June climate meetings in Bonn, our earlier conversations with parties at both the Petersberg and Copenhagen climate dialogues paved the way for this launch.
For example, the EU, UK, and Canada have welcomed the target, as have the Brazilian COP30 and Ethiopian COP32 presidencies. All have confirmed it will be central to discussions at COP31.
This support has been reflected in the business community as well, with polling by the We Mean Business Coalition showing that 90% of businesses expect to have largely electrified their operations by 2035 and that 88% expect electrification will make their business more competitive.
CB: How do you hope and expect to see this taken forward at the COP? Could it be in the formal COP outcomes, or part of the second global stocktake?
MK: We are now taking electrification forward as an “action agenda” initiative to bring actors together and drive progress. The action agenda and the [formal COP] negotiations are separate, but complementary, with different processes and thresholds, and it is too early to say what all countries might be able to agree in the negotiations. That is for parties to determine as the year progresses.
We are focused and determined to use COP31 as a moment to spark a global conversation about electrification.
CB: What are the key priorities for reaching the target?
MK: The critical sectors for reaching the target are buildings, transport and industry, which together account for around 45% of global emissions. Financial support for the developing world and investment in grids and infrastructure is also crucial.
The target also builds on COP28’s target to triple renewable energy capacity and seeks to take advantage of the tumbling cost of renewable power and other technologies critical to the energy transition. This is a journey that Turkey itself is taking ambitious steps on, including our plan to reach 120GW [gigawatts] of renewable capacity by 2035.
Watch, read, listenHEATED: A Financial Times long read asked if Europe – the world’s fastest-warming continent – is “prepared for a world of extreme heat”.
LITIGATED: The Outrage and Optimism podcast spoke to Prof Joana Setzer and Catherine Higham about the latest trends in climate litigation.
‘SHATTERED’: Confidence in fossil-fuel exports via the strait of Hormuz has been “shattered”, wrote IEA chief Fatih Birol for Foreign Policy.
Coming up- 13-17 July: Meeting of open-ended working group on the Montreal Protocol, Bangkok, Thailand
- 13-24 July: International Seabed Authority Council, Kingston, Jamaica
- 16 July: International Energy Agency critical minerals outlook 2026, online
- Wellcome Trust, head of policy – climate and health | Salary: £84,640-£105,800. Location: London
- Financial Times, senior reporter, Sustainable Views | Salary: Unknown. Location: London
- North Texas Public Broadcasting, climate, energy and environment reporter | Salary: $70,000-$78,000. Location: Fort Worth, Texas
- Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit, head of communications and engagement | Salary: £65,000-£70,000. Location: London
DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to debriefed@carbonbrief.org.
This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s weekly DeBriefed email newsletter. Subscribe for free here.
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Eight facts about air conditioning amid an overheated global debate
As successive heatwaves hit Europe, air-conditioning (AC) has emerged as a new front in the international “culture war” over climate action.
France, Germany and the UK have experienced record-breaking heat and thousands of heat-related deaths this summer, with June temperatures in many regions passing 40C.
This has drawn attention to the relatively low rates of AC use in these countries – and in Europe as a whole – especially when compared to its widespread adoption in the US.
Legacy newspapers, bloggers and even Elon Musk have all weighed in on “European hostility” to AC, criticising Europe’s “cultural conservatism” and “overbearing governments”.
Right-wing politicians, including National Rally in France and the UK Conservatives, have styled themselves as champions of AC, while opposing efforts to tackle climate change.
Missing from most of these interventions is the fact that human-caused climate change has made once-rare heat far more common, in what is the world’s fastest warming continent.
Carbon Brief analysis for this article shows that, until the 2020s, it was rare for many European cities to see days above 30C, making AC an unnecessary expense.
Here, Carbon Brief explains – via eight facts – why AC rates in some parts of Europe are relatively low, as well as clarifies and contextualises some of the misleading claims circulating about the technology.
- Much of Europe has not needed AC in the past
- AC is already widely used in hotter parts of Europe
- Some European nations have ‘resisted’ AC – but its popularity is growing
- AC emissions are growing, but its climate impact could be limited
- Heat from AC can contribute to directly warming cities
- More AC could help to reduce heat deaths in Europe
- ‘Net-zero rules’ are not blocking AC installation in the UK
- AC is not the only answer to overheating cities
AC installation rates in northern parts of Europe are very low. The best available estimates suggest that 6% of households in Germany and just 4% in England use AC.
However, these rates are largely explained by the historical climates in these nations.
Unlike the US, much of the housing stock and infrastructure in Europe was built at a time when AC did not exist and was not necessary.
Moreover, nations such as France, Germany and the UK have only started to regularly experience extreme heat in recent decades.
The chart below shows the average number of days per year, in each decade since the 1950s, when maximum temperatures have exceeded 30C in major European cities. Capitals such as London and Paris have seen a significant jump since around 2000.
Average number of days per year with a daily maximum temperature of at least 30C in a selection of major European cities, for each decade since the 1950s. Source: Copernicus ERA5, Carbon Brief analysis by Dr Zeke Hausfather.Prof Jan Rosenow, an energy and climate researcher at the University of Oxford, tells Carbon Brief:
“For most of the 20th century, northern Europe simply didn’t need cooling. Homes in Britain and Germany were built to keep heat in, not out, because winters were cold and summers rarely hot.”
Much of the commentary about the relatively low rates of European AC use focuses on cultural or “ideological” factors. (See: Some European nations have ‘resisted’ AC – but its popularity is growing.)
However, Rosenow says people’s views on AC in these countries likely stem from their historically colder climates. He adds:
“Attitudes formed around those facts, not the other way round…There is a cultural element, but it is the product of climate, not of some green ideological project.”
In the past, many in Europe relied on traditional methods to keep buildings cool. Richard Black, head of communications at Climate Analytics, made this point in a post on LinkedIn:
“Once, residents of cities such as Paris could cope with summer heatwaves by opening shutters and windows during the night, and closing them again in the morning to trap the cool air inside…We’ve reached a limit to this sort of adaptation.”
Now, with Europe around 2.5C warmer than pre-industrial levels, climate change is routinely driving record-breaking heatwaves, even in the north of the continent.
This is forcing a reappraisal of societies that were “built for a climate that no longer exists”, as the UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) put it in a recent report.
Experts broadly agree that much of Europe will indeed need more AC, particularly in spaces housing the most vulnerable populations, such as care homes, schools and hospitals.
At the same time, they also emphasise broader, “passive” efforts to make cities and homes cooler alongside increased AC use. (See: AC is not the only answer to overheating cities.)
AC is already widely used in hotter parts of EuropeDuring periods of extreme heat, articles criticising “European hostility” towards the technology frequently note that “only about 20%” of households in Europe have AC.
Often, this is contrasted with the US, where more than 90% of households have AC installed. (In fact, the US is something of a global outlier, matched only by Japan.)
However, the continent-wide figure for Europe obscures the reality. In southern Europe – where temperatures are and have always been higher – AC is relatively common.
The map below, based on official EU data, shows that southern European nations use far more household energy for “space cooling” than those in the north.
Percentage share of household energy consumption used for “space cooling”, including AC, in EU member states and the Balkans. Source: Eurostat.Government figures show that nearly 60% of Italian households have AC. Household-level data in many countries is patchy, but various analyses have placed that figure at 70-80% in Greece and 41% in Spain – with higher penetration in the hotter, southern part of the country.
The same pattern can be seen within France. International coverage has stressed the country’s “cultural resistance to AC”, citing a nationwide figure from 2020 that suggests “only” 25% of French households have AC.
However, polling data from customers of the Hello Watt energy app suggests that there is a distinct north-south divide in French uptake. At least 60% of households in Mediterranean regions of France are equipped with AC, according to these figures.
This can be seen in the map below, with households across northern regions, including Paris, reporting far lower AC installation rates, often below 5%.
Percentage share of households equipped with AC in departments of mainland France, according to polling data. Source: Hello Watt.Finally, when making such comparisons to Europe, it is worth noting that high rates of AC use reported for the entire US also obscure significant differences between – and within – US states. This, too, aligns with differences in regional climate.
Hotter states in the US south have near-universal AC access. But in Washington, a north-western state with a climate more comparable to that of western Europe, 66% of people have AC in their homes.
Some European nations have ‘resisted’ AC – but its popularity is growingInternational commentators have written extensively about Europe’s “longstanding resistance to cooling technology”, especially when compared to the US.
Newspaper editorials in the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, alongside numerous op-eds and blog posts, have added fuel to this “culture war”. Elon Musk has even promoted an AI-generated message stating that Europeans “should just install AC”.
Often, European attitudes are attributed to “guilt” about AC’s energy demand, “cultural conservatism” or “overbearing governments”. One commentator ascribed divergent attitudes in Europe and the US to “different ideas about physical suffering and sacrifice”.
Meanwhile, right-leaning commentators and climate-sceptic groups have blamed “climate policies, which view AC as an unnecessary luxury”.
In general, these critiques often fail to consider the most obvious explanation, which is that AC adoption is low in northern Europe because the historical climate made AC unnecessary.
Critical articles have instead drawn attention to restrictions on AC use in some European countries, as well as the lack of support for AC in official heatwave guidance.
For France, in particular, polling has indeed highlighted widespread disapproval of AC, both on environmental grounds and due to alleged health impacts. Such messages have also been voiced regularly in French media and by left-leaning and green politicians.
However, across Europe there are plenty of signs that such attitudes are shifting, following successive spells of extreme heat.
Amid the June heatwave, there were reports from Germany, France and the UK of “skyrocketing” AC sales. This surge was even acknowledged by the foreign ministry in China, due to the nation’s role in supplying many of these products.
The shift is taking place in politics as well. Marine Tondelier, leader of the French Green party – which has traditionally opposed AC – recently stated that “there are places where we just can’t do without AC anymore”.
Overall, AC has been on the rise across Europe, with France, Spain and the Netherlands all using more than twice as much energy for AC and other “space cooling” technologies in 2024 as they did in 2015.
AC production in Germany has also risen by at least 75% in recent years and a growing share of German homes are being built with it installed.
Notably, there is little evidence that “climate policies” are blocking Europeans from installing AC. Polling in Germany shows that, while people are concerned about environmental impacts, the high costs of installing and running it are perceived as greater barriers.
Finally, there is an important distinction between individual AC units in people’s homes and installing them in public spaces, such as hospitals, care homes and schools.
While neither is widespread in France, support for the latter can increasingly be found across the political spectrum, from Greens to the far-right National Rally (RN).
AC emissions are growing, but its climate impact could be limitedSome people have noted that a wider rollout of AC in Europe could drive up emissions.
As noted in the Financial Times by columnist and chief data reporter John Burn-Murdoch, there is a logic to this argument, “at least superficially”. He writes:
“AC uses a lot of energy; if the proposed defence against emissions-driven global warming means emitting more, then we have an obvious problem.”
The emissions impact of AC depends heavily on the generation mix of a country’s power sector.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), “space cooling” – mostly AC, but this does include some fans – used 2,100 terawatt-hours (TWh) of power globally in 2022.
As such, it was responsible for 1bn tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) from electricity use globally. This equates to around 2.7% of total CO2 emissions globally from fossil fuels and industry.
(As well as indirect emissions through power use, AC units can also directly release greenhouse gases – used as AC refrigerants – when they leak or are improperly disposed of. Following the 2016 Kigali Amendment, countries are progressively trying to phase down the use of potent greenhouse gases in AC units.)
In a LinkedIn post, Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and regular Carbon Brief contributor, says:
“There is a lot of alarmist messaging about how much electricity AC uses. However, on an annual basis, the demand is not that substantial. Currently, AC uses about 1% of electricity in the EU and catching up to adoption rates in the US would double this.”
According to the IEA estimates from 2018, “if left unchecked, energy demand from AC will more than triple by 2050”, reaching 6,200TWh of power.
By mid-century, households would contribute the most to the increase (70%), with at least two-thirds of the world’s households potentially having AC, according to the Paris-based agency.
Decarbonising electricity grids and energy-efficiency improvements can reduce AC emissions and their impact on climate.
For instance, in countries with a low-carbon electricity mix – such as France, where nuclear energy accounts for 67% of its electricity generation – expanding AC would have a more limited climate impact than in other countries.
In countries such as India, there could be a more significant increase in emissions as AC is adopted, due to the role coal plays in the country’s energy mix, especially during the night. Demand is growing fast – following low access historically – and many AC units are inefficient, with high electricity use.
According to a new working paper from the India Energy and Climate Center (IECC) at the University of California, Berkeley, “room AC” – portable plug-in units, as opposed to those permanently installed in buildings – already accounts for nearly one-quarter of India’s peak electricity demand (60-70GW) – and this is before the majority of Indian households have bought their first AC unit.
Dr Nikit Abhyankar, co-faculty director of the IECC, tells Carbon Brief that, as AC use is expanded across the world, it should be paired with solar and battery storage, where the “economics have completely shifted” in the last few years. This will help to cut both energy bills and emissions.
According to the IEA, accelerating energy efficiency improvements could deliver more than one-third of all CO2 emission reductions between now and 2030.
The global energy demand needed to run ACs alone in 2050 could be reduced by 1,300GW – the equivalent of all of China and India’s coal plants – through energy efficiency measures, it estimates.
Aditya Valiathan Pillai, a climate adaptation researcher at King’s College London, tells Carbon Brief that, as the use of AC expands, there is a conversation to be had about where and “what type of technology [is used] and who gets access” to it.
A final point is that many AC units are air-to-air heat pumps, which can efficiently heat homes, as well as keeping them cool. As such, wider AC adoption could boost the adoption of electrified heat, helping to cut emissions from gas boilers.
Heat from AC can contribute to directly warming citiesSome critics of AC mention its electricity demands and associated CO2 emissions from fossil-fuel combustion, which contribute to raising the temperature of the entire planet. (See: AC emissions are growing, but its climate impact could be limited.)
But AC also has a localised impact. It works by removing heat from indoor air and pushing it outdoors, raising temperatures on the street and exacerbating the “urban heat island” effect.
Left-leaning French politicians are among those citing this as an argument against AC, particularly in cities. Indeed, Emmanuel Grégoire, the Socialist mayor of Paris, appeared to be making this point in an interview with Le Monde, during the June heatwave:
“[AC] can be useful for cooling collective spaces and protecting the most vulnerable populations, but individual AC is a scourge – it makes the problem worse by heating the city even more.”
One study concludes that, in a city such as Phoenix, Arizona, where the technology is widespread, AC use during a heatwave can raise night-time temperatures by 1-1.5C.
Another models a nine-day heatwave in Paris – in a future with “massive” AC use – and finds an increase in external temperature of more than 2C, due to heat emitted by the units.
Given this, some scientists argue that AC can be a form of climate “maladaptation” – referring to actions that backfire and make people more vulnerable to global warming.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has highlighted this issue, concluding:
“AC may constitute a maladaptation because of its high demands on energy and associated heat emissions, especially in high-density cities.”
Compared to the US, more people in Europe live in dense, urban areas. According to Dr Vincent Viguié, a climate change economist at École des Ponts ParisTech, this could leave Europeans more exposed to heat from AC units. He tells Carbon Brief:
“If you live in a neighbourhood that is not dense, like in a suburban neighbourhood or in the countryside, you don’t care about this…So, once again, there is a key difference between US and European cities.”
Viguié is among the experts arguing that other climate-adaptation measures should be considered alongside AC, to keep entire cities cool – not just individual homes. He says:
“It’s not to say that the heat released by AC by itself is a reason to forbid AC…It’s just that not taking that into account may lead to bad decisions.”
More AC could help to reduce heat deaths in EuropeHeatwaves can be deadly, especially for older or vulnerable members of society.
According to climate scientists at World Weather Attribution, “heatwaves cause more deaths in Europe than all other natural hazards combined”.
The heatwave in June 2026 is estimated to have killed more than 20,000 people in Europe. In France – which has seen some of the hottest temperatures – the heatwave caused more than 2,700 heat-related deaths, according to analysis published by Carbon Brief.
AC does help to protect people from the effects of extreme heat. A 2021 study found that globally, AC averted an estimated 190,000 heat-related deaths annually during 2019-21.
With its much higher penetration of AC, the US has fewer deaths due to extreme heat than Europe.
Heat kills around 11 people out of every 100,000 in Europe, compared to around two people in the US, according to analysis by data scientist Dr Hannah Ritchie from Our World in Data.
Several publications have pointed out that “Europe’s heatwaves are deadlier than American gun violence”. While this is technically accurate in absolute terms, Ritchie says the comparison is “a bit silly” for a number of reasons, not least because on a per-capita basis, US gun deaths are higher.
Average annual deaths per 100,000 for heat and gun deaths in the US (red) and Europe (blue) to as close to the end of 2024 as possible. Heat deaths are based on excess death methodology, not death certificates. Source: By the Numbers.However, experts suggest that AC is only one part of a wider effort to protect people from extreme heat.
A 2020 study looking at heat-related mortality in Canada, Japan, Spain and the US, found that excess deaths due to heat decreased between 1972 and 2009.
For example, the proportion of deaths due to extreme heat fell from 1.7% to 0.5% over the period in the US and 3.5% to 2.8% in Spain.
However, an increase in AC only explained 16.7% of the drop in the US and 14.3% in Spain.
The research concludes that “other factors have played an equal or more important role in increasing the resilience of populations”. This is supported by research that shows changes to cities, such as planting more trees, as well as behavioural shifts and public-health measures, can all protect people from dangerous heat.
Additionally, across Europe there is already a range of policies and measures in place to protect the most vulnerable from heatwaves. Many of these were brought in following the unprecedented summer of 2003, when 70,000 died from extreme heat.
These policies were highlighted by French environment minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher, in response to the far-right National Rally (RN) party’s AC proposals:
“The incompetent RN has just found out that nursing homes need air-conditioned rooms. Thank you, but it’s actually been mandatory since 2004.”
Another study found that measures that have already been rolled out in France would cut the projected death toll of a 2003-like heatwave by more than 75%. This is in part due to the expansion of AC in places such as nursing homes, but also other approaches, such as heat action plans.
For example, France has a multi-tiered action plan, which includes local governments ensuring access to cooled spaces and water, keeping a list of vulnerable individuals for targeted interventions, as well as national information campaigns.
According to the UN’s office for disaster risk reduction, this French plan has led to a “significant reduction in heat-related mortality”.
While action plans have proved successful in a number of nations, less than half of European countries have such a plan in place.
‘Net-zero rules’ are not blocking AC installation in the UKIn the UK, Conservative politicians and right-leaning media have tried to pit the adoption of AC against net-zero policy.
Writing in the climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph, columnist Matthew Lynn claimed falsely:
“Strict net-zero rules now mean that aircon is effectively banned in the UK.”
(Further down the article, he concedes: “AC is not strictly speaking banned in new-build homes in the UK. But tough environmental rules mean that it is very hard, and expensive, to install in practice.”)
The same narrative has been used in articles by GB News, the Sun and others. A separate article in the Daily Telegraph’s “money” section goes further, claiming that AC had been “torn from homes under net-zero clampdown”.
A blog post from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government rebuts these claims, stating:
“There has been media coverage this week suggesting that AC is banned in homes. This is incorrect.”
For the UK, while it is true that fewer than 5% of homes currently have AC, this is largely due to the fact that it was not hot enough in the past to warrant the expense. Historically, the focus has therefore been on keeping buildings warm, rather than cool.
Extreme heat has previously been rare in the country, so homes were built with insulation and other measures to keep heat in during the “dank winters”. (See: Much of Europe has not needed AC in the past.)
Current regulations do not ban the installation of AC outright. However – as the government’s blog post notes – there is no blanket rule, meaning there are some localised differences.
Certain areas – or certain kinds of properties – may be subject to additional complications for installing AC.
In a 2025 video on Instagram, shadow secretary of state for energy security and net-zero Claire Coutinho referenced the London plan, for example, which is a framework for development in the capital launched in 2021. She said:
“[London mayor] Sadiq Khan says no. The London plan says we shouldn’t have air con because it uses too much energy. But this is mad! This is a poverty mindset that we need to get away from.”
The London Plan does not stop homes from having AC. It simply says that, for new buildings, passive design measures should be prioritised, such as the orientation of the building, the window design and incorporation of measures such as external shading and trees.
A recent response from the mayor added further measures, such as the need to “minimise the necessity for the operation of mechanical measures including AC, which would further add to the heat island effect within urban areas and add operational cost to residents”.
Elsewhere, new-build homes across England must meet the requirements of “part O” of the 2022 building regulation updates. This includes addressing overheating in buildings through energy-efficient design and prioritising passive cooling, with AC as a last resort.
For existing buildings, most AC units fall under “permitted development rights”, meaning no planning application is required to install them.
Additionally, regulations were relaxed in 2025 to make it easier to install an air-to-air heat pump – which can both heat and cool air – without planning permission.
This means that, far from blocking the expansion of AC, net-zero policy has made it easier to install specific cooling systems.
Speaking to Carbon Brief, Andrew Sissons, director of sustainable future at Nesta, says the government must now implement its announced £2,500 subsidy for air-to-air heat pumps “as quickly as possible”, to further ensure that the technology can be rolled out efficiently. He adds:
“[The government] should also continue to expand permitted development rights for air-to-air heat pumps, with a particular focus on flats and homes in denser areas. As long as heat pumps meet the MCS [Microgeneration Certification Scheme] noise test, there are few reasons to limit their use via the planning system.”
Some properties, such as large homes, listed buildings or those in conservation areas, may still require planning permission to install an air-to-air heat pump or other AC. Sissons notes that this can add cost and delay to installation.
While it cannot be said that AC has been blocked or banned due to net-zero, neither has it been prioritised.
This may shift as temperatures continue to rise. UK government advisors at the Climate Change Committee (CCC) suggest that 22% of the UK’s housing stock will likely need active cooling, such as AC, to cope with 2C of global warming.
The CCC’s recent adaptation report also calls for all new homes to be built using low-cost, passive cooling measures, alongside more AC.
Active cooling such as AC is more likely to be needed for retrofitting existing homes, the report adds.
AC is not the only answer to overheating citiesAC has become increasingly politicised in Europe, as demonstrated by France’s RN party announcing its “grand plan for AC” in all public buildings.
As noted by Dutch MEP Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy, this “far-right” embrace of AC is coming from the same people who for years have “delayed emissions reductions”.
In response, left-leaning policymakers in Europe have frequently downplayed the role of AC, prioritising programmes of urban greening and retrofitting older buildings.
Such approaches for dealing with extreme heat have already proved successful. Therefore, many experts argue that these methods, alongside AC, will be essential to prepare for a hotter world.
According to the IPCC’s sixth assessment report, adaptive infrastructure, such as urban forests and green roofs, can reduce energy use because of cooling, with co-benefits for climate, air quality, physical and mental health.
While retrofitting older buildings for heat as well as insulating them from the cold might prove challenging, urban greening and an active shade policy – one that determines how much of every street is exposed to direct sunlight – are simple measures cities can adopt.
Some experts have also warned about the high cost of running AC, expressing concerns that excessive reliance on the technology could increase energy poverty.
In a Carbon Brief guest post published in 2025, researchers at the Basque Centre for Climate Change found that framing AC as the “default solution” can miss the opportunity to design “more inclusive, human-centred responses” to rising temperatures.
William Lewis, a PhD candidate and one of the guest post’s authors, tells Carbon Brief it is not a case of “one or the other”, when considering AC and other options:
“We have this opportunity in European countries to choose a slightly different path [from the US], which isn’t AC in every single home.”
King’s College London’s Pillai says that, by centring the debate on AC, the far-right response to the heatwaves in Europe has “completely neglected the science of how you cool human beings”.
There are many solutions, he adds, that are already widely used across hot developing countries, such as ceiling fans, windows that open and cross-ventilation, as well as strategies to reduce cumulative hours of heat exposure.
Pillai tells Carbon Brief that, while places reaching 42C and higher “definitely need to think about AC very seriously”, places in the “low to mid 30Cs” could rely on these alternatives.
Behavioural change, he adds, is the “least glamorous part” of heat policy, but “pulls most of the weight” of protecting people. These include a wide range of actions and responses – from reducing heat exposure, to wearing lighter clothing and drinking more water and fluids.
There are also workplace protections. Pillai tells Carbon Brief that these could include legislation on mandatory work breaks, cooling and shade requirements at workplaces, as well as health insurance that covers heat stress days that have been lost by heat-exposed workers.
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At This Utah Farm, Resilience Starts With Food
David Chen grows more than 600 varieties of fruits, vegetables, and herbs at Zoe’s Garden in Layton, Utah. For him, farming is as much about cultivating resilience and community as it is about producing food.
“To me, the concept of sustainability always has been how to sustain myself,” says Chen.
This idea has guided Chen since he was a child, when his family emigrated to the United States from China in 1982. They came to Utah with little money, support, or English language skills. Chen remembers the conversations that followed: “We came together as a family and talked. How can we sustain ourselves?”
The family soon relocated to California. Chen decided to stay behind and live with an American family while working restaurant jobs. When his younger brother struggled, Chen took him in, and the question of how to sustain emerged again. Chen was still a teenager himself, and he says the experience of being responsible for family became his education.
“I did not get a college education,” Chen says. “I got my education from how to survive, how to sustain myself.”
Eventually, Chen started his own landscaping and nursery businesses. He grew poinsettias, which are popular tropical shrubs that are prone to pests, says Chen. He was spraying pesticides to keep pests at bay, but the heavy use of agricultural chemicals began to affect his health. When Chen and his wife decided to grow their family, he was forced to change practices.
“I was spraying harmful chemicals, and they made me sick all the time,” says Chen. “My wife told me, ‘Are we going to start a family?’ … ‘Well, only if you stop killing yourself.’”
That meant rethinking how he grew plants. Chen completely stopped using chemicals and instead began farming vegetables in greenhouses. When his first daughter, Zoe, was born, he named the farm after her—a customer had told him that the name means “abundant life” in Greek.
Through Zoe’s Garden, Chen was among a small group helping build Utah’s local food movement and community-supported agriculture (CSA) network. Today, the farm supplies grown fruits, vegetables, and herbs to CSA members, farmers’ markets, and local restaurants.
Chen has involved his daughters in every aspect of the farm: planting seeds, harvesting crops, speaking with customers, and bringing food to market. And his daughters have picked up education of their own through the work.
Once, a farmers’ market customer offered Chen’s six-year-old daughter US$0.50 for a US$4 cantaloupe. She told the customer, “If you can’t afford it, I’m more than happy to give it to you.” She then explained the labor behind the food: how early she woke, how much work went into bringing produce to market.
“I didn’t teach her that,” Chen says. He was proud.
Last fall, his daughters organized a farm day, inviting customers to visit Zoe’s Garden, harvest produce, and experience farm life firsthand. Chen recalls one older visitor navigating muddy fields with a walker and a puppy, eventually picking flowers to assemble into a bouquet: “Everyone was really, really happy.”
For Chen, those moments reinforce how farming is about relationships: between people and food, growers and consumers, communities and the systems that sustain them.
“Part of our concept is how to maximize our ability to sustain ourselves,” says Chen. “We, as Zoe’s Garden, try to share this idea with the local community in every way that we can.”
Watch Chen’s story below and find others from our farmer storytelling events on Food Tank’s YouTube channel.
This article is part of Food Tank’s ongoing Farmer Friday series, produced in partnership with Niman Ranch, a champion for independent U.S. family farmers. The series highlights the stories of farmers working toward a more sustainable, equitable food system. Niman Ranch partners with over 500 small-scale U.S. family farmers and is committed to preserving rural agricultural communities and their way of life.
Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.
The post At This Utah Farm, Resilience Starts With Food appeared first on Food Tank.
South Asia in Focus: Peasant Organizations Raise Alarm over Heatwaves, Delayed Monsoons, Free Trade Deals, and Land Acquisition for an “AI City”
Given the volume of important developments in South Asia this month, and their relevance for La Via Campesina readers around the world, we’re sharing a summarized digest.
The post South Asia in Focus: Peasant Organizations Raise Alarm over Heatwaves, Delayed Monsoons, Free Trade Deals, and Land Acquisition for an “AI City” appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.
The climate fix isn’t cutting all meat—It’s targeting the people who eat the most.
By 2050, Scotland could reduce its meat intake by 35%, just by tweaking the diets of its highest meat consumers, a new study has found. This more targeted approach, instead of a country-wide change, was found to not only curb emissions but also cut health problems, reducing individual cases of diabetes and cardiovascular disease by tens of thousands.
Of all UK countries, Scotland stands out because emissions from food consumption exceed those of the agricultural sector overall. This strikingly large footprint is probably due to Scotland’s heavy reliance on food imports, and it was the jumping off point for the scientists’ work.
To investigate, they looked at Scotland’s dietary intake, then used datasets to track the environmental impact of those diets, ranging from greenhouse gas emissions to water use. With this information in place, they compared 33 ways to achieve the recommendations of the UK Climate Change Committee, a body suggesting that UK countries reduce meat and dairy consumption by 20% by 2030, rising to 35% by 2050, in order to reach its climate goals.
The explored measures ranged from reducing all types of meat consumption across the whole Scottish population, to limiting just red meat consumption only in some groups, and reducing dairy intake alone. The measures also looked at replacing animal proteins with alternatives like beans, eggs, and plant-based dairy alternatives.
Of the 33 possible pathways, the one that really stood out involved reducing meat consumption only amongst Scotland’s biggest meat consumers—those consuming more than 70 grams of red meat per day. This measure proposed a reasonable change: that individuals limit only their red meat intake to 31g per person per day, and cut dairy intake by 20%, to achieve the 2050 goal. This involved reducing animal protein without replacing it with alternatives, as this population is already consuming more protein than healthy diets require.
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With these targeted dietary changes, Scotland could bring down individual greenhouse gas emissions by 1.06 kg of CO2-equivalent per day, which made it the single most effective dietary pathway to reducing carbon footprints. The health benefits were also striking: over 10 years it would reduce cases of diabetes and cardiovascular disease by almost 60,000 and 20,000 respectively. This one dietary change would also reduce deaths over this period by an estimated 2,240. Diets would also be cheaper, by roughly £0.41 per day.
While the targeted population measure was the most effective all-round, other approaches achieved large environmental and health gains, too. All accomplished significant net reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Across the board, meat consumption was the biggest driver of environmental impact, and therefore where the biggest opportunities lay to cut emissions down. Meat consumption could invariably be replaced by other proteins with no impact on nutritional values, and most of the alternative 33 diets were cheaper than the standard diet—except for one where red meat was replaced by oily fish and cost a little more per day.
Nevertheless, identifying a single most effective measure to bring down Scotland’s meat consumption can be a helpful starting point for policymakers. On this note, the study shares two further clues: that Scotland’s highest meat consumers tend to eat more traditional beef-based dishes and meat sandwiches. When it comes to shifting the nation’s dietary footprint, these could be “an effective place to start,” the researchers write.
Kennedy et. al. “Reduced meat and dairy consumption improves health, environmental and most nutritional outcomes without increasing diet costs among Scottish adults.” Nature Food. 2026.
Image: ©Anthropocene Magazine
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