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Vwelcome to Carbon Brief DeBriefed.
The ultimate guide to the week’s key climate change events.
Cease fire causes oil prices to fall
Cease-Fire Decline: Oil prices fell below $96 a barrel after Tuesday’s announcement of a two-week ceasefire agreement between Iran, the US and Israel, according to data Associated Press. However, price volatility resumed when a Saudi Arabian oil pipeline was hit a few hours later Reuters.
CABIN CRISIS: Reuters and other publications covered the comments of Fatih Birol of the International Energy Agency Le Figarowhere he said the current energy crisis is worse than the crises of “1973, 1979 and 2022 combined”. He added that Birol said “the world has never experienced a power outage of this magnitude”.
PROFITS OF POLLUTERS: The Guardian talks about how “the worst polluters hold the world’s future in their hands as they benefit from rising fossil fuel prices,” but adds that “global trends favor renewables.” The South China Morning Post reported that, according to experts, the diversification of energy sources should accelerate, as the war continues to disrupt the world’s energy supply.
All over the world
- CLIMATE HAZARD OBJECTIVES: Britain’s discovery of new oil and gas fields in the North Sea will “jeopardise” international climate targets, experts have said. Guardian. The warning came after the government rejected speculation that it was about to approve new drilling projects, reports Sky News.
- COP33 CHANGES: Indian government withdraws bid to host COP33 climate summit ‘after revising its 2028 commitments’, reports say Climate home news.
- “LONG” SHOCK: The Financial Times covered comments by EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen that the bloc was bracing for a “long” energy shock from the Iran war. Reuters it was reported that five EU countries called for a tax on the profits of energy companies in response to rising fuel prices.
- US budget cuts: According to US President Donald Trump’s 2027 budget proposal, according to the Los Angeles Times.
- AFGHANI FLOOD: Since March 26, heavy rains, floods, earthquakes and landslides have killed at least 148 people and injured 216 in Afghanistan. Reuters.
- ENDANGERED PENGUINS: A “mass drowning” of emperor penguin chicks as sea ice melts due to climate change has led to the International Union for Conservation of Nature officially declaring the species endangered. Guardian.
86,120
Record sales of battery electric vehicles in the UK in March accounted for 22.6% of the total car market, according to Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
- Under current climate policies, more than a quarter of the world’s population will experience more frequent and severe extremes of heat and drought by 2100 | Geophysical Research Letters
- By the end of the century, climate change will increase the impact of wildfires on nearly 10,000 species Nature Climate change
- A range of climate hazards critically exposes up to 30% of southern Africa to ‘environmental degradation’ | PLOS One
(For more information, see Carbon Brief’s daily in-depth summaries of top climate news Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
Carbon Brief The analysis showed that at least 60 countries have announced nearly 200 energy-saving emergency measures since the Iran war began in late February. Some 30 countries, from Norway to Zambia, have cut fuel taxes to help people struggling with rising prices, making it the most common domestic policy response to the crisis, the analysis said. Some countries have stressed the need to boost domestic renewable energy construction, while others – including Japan, Italy and South Korea – have decided to lean more heavily on coal, at least in the short term.
How drag is fighting climate change
This week’s Carbon Brief looks at how some drag artists are using their performances to draw attention to climate change
Return 2005 yearveteran climate journalist Bill McKibben wrote that “what a warming world needs now is art, sweet art” to to help “to create a general awareness about climate change”.
Since then, the theme of climate change has spread to many art forms literature and music through to comedy and the movie.
One of the most recent art forms to pick up the baton of climate communication is drag, with performers using it as a “Trojan horse” to interact with the audience, according to Cheddar is wonderfula British drag performer.
“Joy inspires momentum”
Drag artists around the world have begun to bring attention to the climate movement by using creativity, entertainment and their platforms to engage with their audiences.
In the UK, Cheddar Gorgeous declined the nomination for the British LGBT Awards thanks to Shell sponsorship and has repeatedly called for climate action.
Speaking of “climate speed” TEDx podcast, she claimed:
“Drag can disrupt the mainstream narratives that dictate our society. I love drag, it makes you look at yourself and the world in a different way. And that can be used in all kinds of exciting ways.”
Drag company can be proud of the history of destruction. In a TED talk titled “Why joy is a serious way to act“, American drag queen Patty Gonia told the audience some of “her story” about drag’s role in the protests. She said:
“Since the birth of the queer rights movement, drag performers and trans people have always been at the forefront of organizing, protesting and building community.
“When we had the statistics and the facts of millions of strange people dying of AIDS, but no one joined our fight, drag performers turned pain into joy and thus welcomed millions more people to fight with us.”
Pati Gonya is perhaps the best-known drag artist working on climate change. She is currently touring with her environmental drag show”SAVE HER!“And mine, according to her siteraised over “$4.7 million for LGBTQIA+, BIPOC and environmental non-profit organizations.’
A key part of it message there is a need for diversity and inclusion in the climate movement, adding that “our creativity is critical in this climate dilemma.” In her TED talk, she added:
“The problem with the climate movement isn’t just the abundance of carbon; it’s the lack of joy. The science, the doom and gloom, they scare people, they wake them up. But joy is what gets people out of bed every day to take extra action.”
With Patty Gonia, the climate conversation spills over into the wider drag movement, including a theme that has been touched on multiple times in the highly successful televised drag competition, RuPaul’s Drag Race.
It ranges from drag artist Asia O’Hara explanation what is global warming in season 10 – tells her contestants, “Bitch, the ice is melting!” – to the queen dancing “97% of scientists and four out of four Drag Race judges agree” that climate change is “real” during the season 11 competition. (The host of Drag Race RuPaul Andre Charles faced criticism for according to reports allowing fracking on his ranch in Wyoming.)
According to its supporters, Drag opens the climate movement to a wider audience by promoting diversity, inclusion and creativity in the space. For Patty Gonia, a key part of climate action should be joy, she added:
“Joy offers an incredible opportunity to make the climate movement irresistible. Don’t underestimate the power of joy. We deserve more than doom and gloom because this is the only planet that has Beyoncé.”
Watch, read, listen
COOPERATION OVER CHAOS: In Art Indian ExpressSimon Steele, the UN’s executive secretary for climate change, argued that “climate cooperation offers a way out of the chaos of energy prices.”
ELECTRICAL WORLD ORDER: On st Polychris podcast, Mark Blyth, professor of international economics at Brown University, and Dr. Naa Adjekai Adjei, a non-African resident at the China Global South Project, discussed “what the US dollar has to do” with energy access in Africa.
“CALCULATION”: In Art EquatorMona Ali, associate professor of economics at the State University of New York, researched the closing of the Strait of Hormuz and “the end of American hegemony.”
Approaching
Selection of vacancies
- Global Witness, several climate change jobs | Salary: Varied. Location: London
- London School of Economics, Political Officer – Climate, Gender and Inclusion | Salary: £53,949-£62,160. Location: London
- Climatic group, senior manager, international policy and advocacy | Salary: £47,160-£49,930. Location: London
- WWF, Nedbank Green Trust Manager | Salary: unknown. Location: Cape Town or Johannesburg, South Africa
- Greenpeace Australia Pacific Region, creative producer | Salary: 101,272 Australian dollars. Location: Australia
- Project “Justice”., climate policy researcher | Salary: $96,000. Location: Remote (USA)
DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunn. Please send any tips or feedback to (email protected).
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