Inside Climate News
Global Climate Panel Faces Strife, Potential Funding Crunch
The IPCC, the world's foremost scientific authority on climate change, left its latest Bangkok plenary meeting deadlocked on procedure and facing serious budget shortfalls. The dysfunction comes at a particularly dangerous moment, as climate-driven disasters are accelerating beyond scientists' capacity to monitor them. A weakened IPCC risks slowing the flow of authoritative science that governments depend on to craft climate policy.
Read article →Grist
Solar was poised to help Puerto Ricans survive blackouts — until Trump axed nearly $1B in funding
Puerto Rico lost nearly $1 billion in federal funding earmarked for rooftop solar and battery storage systems that would have helped residents endure the island's chronic grid failures. The Trump administration redirected the money to PREPA, the government-owned utility long plagued by corruption, mismanagement, and bankruptcy. For an island that spent months without power after Hurricane Maria, the shift raises serious questions about whether centralized infrastructure will deliver the resilience that distributed solar was designed to provide.
Read article →Carbon Brief
Analysis: Record wind and solar saved UK from gas imports worth £1bn in March 2026
Record wind and solar generation in March 2026 spared the UK from purchasing £1 billion worth of gas imports, underscoring the growing financial firepower of domestic clean energy. The milestone highlights how renewable capacity is increasingly serving as an economic shield against volatile global fuel markets. For a country still navigating post-crisis energy costs, the figure makes a compelling case for accelerating the buildout further.
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Mongabay
Railroad & tariff war boost soy in Brazil’s Cerrado, endangering Indigenous lands
Brazil's soy industry is capitalizing on the U.S.-China trade war, with exports to China hitting a record 85.4 million metric tons — nearly 80% of total shipments. The windfall is accelerating agricultural expansion in Mato Grosso's Cerrado, one of the world's most biodiverse savannas. Indigenous communities in the region now face mounting pressure as infrastructure investment and surging demand push farming further into contested lands.
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Mongabay
Brazilian banks to verify satellite deforestation data for rural credit
Brazil is tightening the link between environmental compliance and agricultural financing, requiring banks to cross-check satellite deforestation data before approving rural credit. Financial institutions must now confirm that a property does not appear in a government registry flagging potential illegal deforestation since July 2019. The move signals a significant shift in how Brazil's financial sector is being enlisted as a enforcement mechanism in the fight against illegal land clearing.
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