View Online [[link removed]] | Subscribe now [[link removed]]Powered byKnow better. Do better.Climate. Change.News from the ground, in a warming world

By Jack Graham [[link removed]] | Climate change and nature correspondent, UK

Can coffee survive?

As you read this email with a cup of Joe in hand, I hate to tell you that climate change could be coming for that coffee.

You see, Arabica coffee beans aren't as, well, robust as the less popular Robusta varieties in higher temperatures. That's a problem when our planet is repeatedly blasting through global heating records [[link removed]].

Fortunately, my video colleague Albert Han travelled around the world [[link removed]] to Brazil and Malaysia to find a bean which could help save your favourite brew. This is the first of several exciting new documentaries for our Rerooted series on the future of food [[link removed]].

By some measures, half the world's coffee-growing regions will no longer be suitable for production by 2050. But could another long-forgotten bean species become coffee's best bet to survive climate change? Join Albert as he puts that question to farmers and baristas.

A person holds coffee beans in their hand in this illustration for the Context series Rerooted. Thomson Reuters Foundation

It's always sunny in Australia

Down in Australia, meanwhile, one solution to the climate crisis has been implemented for some time: solar power.

In fact, a staggering one-third of households have solar photovoltaic panels installed - the highest solar capacity per person in the world. In a region with high energy costs, the sun is helping many homeowners cope with prices.

The trouble is, reports our correspondent Rina Chandran in Adelaide [[link removed]], these panels are much harder to come by for renters. Social housing and rentals make up more than 30% of properties, which means they are crucial to meeting renewable energy targets. Yet only 4% of rental homes have solar power.

It's a problem of mismatched incentives, explains Dylan McConnell, a renewable energy researcher at the University of New South Wales: renters are reluctant to buy solar systems on properties they have limited rights over, while landlords won't invest when renters will get the benefits.

Efforts are underway to solve this problem, from new incentives like grants to new technologies which can increase access. One called SolShare, for example, allows apartments to share solar energy from a single rooftop system. And what happens in Australia could hold lessons for the world.

People protest at a demonstration at Tooting Broadway against the expansion of London's Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ). August 26, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Coombs

Low Emission Zones

In Europe, however, another effort to tackle climate change has received a cooler reception.

Low Emission Zones, or LEZs, have been introduced to restrict polluting cars in city centres in a bid to boost air quality - such as London's Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ). More than 300 are already in place and more than 500 are planned by 2025, according to Brussels-based environmental NGO Transport and Environment.

Our Europe correspondent Joanna Gill explains how this has led to widespread protests, vandalism and even conspiracy theories [[link removed]].

Backers say these zones can reduce serious illnesses such as asthma and heart disease. But some say the costs like daily tariffs have been difficult to shoulder for low-income communities. And conspiracy theorists have linked them, along with urban planning measures like ' 15-minute-cities [[link removed]]', to a global conspiracy to take away people's freedoms through mass surveillance and fines.

And finally, after 14 years leading our award-winning climate change coverage, Laurie Goering left the newsroom this week. We wish her all the best, and will aim to build on her pioneering work as the risks of climate change - and potential solutions - multiply around the world.

See you next week,

Jack

This week's top picks The bean that could save coffee from climate change [[link removed]]

As climate change threatens coffee crops, Malaysian farmers hope a long-forgotten species could help coffee survive a warming world

Australia's push to put more solar panels on rental homes [[link removed]]

About one-third of Australian homes have solar panels, but the benefits have eluded renters and those in social housing

Why are Europe's Low Emission Zones fuelling unrest? [[link removed]]

Clean air seems like a no-brainer benefit but across Europe restrictions on polluting cars have sparked anger and protests

US firefighters face pay cuts as El Niño fuels wildfire threat [[link removed]]

A squeeze on firefighters' wages could lead to an exodus of experience, hitting the fight against wildfires in a risky year

Domestic violence is cost of climate change for Sri Lankan women [[link removed]]

With drought and erratic rains depleting harvests, women farmers in Sri Lanka tell of beatings by husbands as incomes shrink

Will rich nations step away from fossil fuels, as they promised? [[link removed]]

Activist pressure – not just a COP28 agreement – is what’s needed to move wealthy nations on from coal, oil and gas

Read all of our coverage here [[link removed]] Discover more Nature [[link removed]] Climate Risks [[link removed]] Net Zero [[link removed]] Just Transition [[link removed]] Climate Justice [[link removed]] Green Cities [[link removed]] Thank you for reading!

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