Can final bid to keep 1.5C alive possibly deliver?

A UN process aimed at keeping climate change impacts to the 1.5C warming limit set by the Paris climate accord is exposing deep divisions over the future of fossil fuels, Climate Change News and others report. Submissions to the Belém Mission to 1.5, launched at COP30 in 2025 to address the shortfall in global climate ambition, show small island states and the poorest countries pushing for a faster shift away from coal, oil and gas, backed by the EU and UK.

Arab states led by Saudi Arabia, along with the “like-minded developing countries” bloc that includes China and India, continue to push back against singling out particular energy sources or using the process to assess individual countries’ climate plans. They want its scope narrowed to focus mainly on what rich countries should do to cut their own emissions and provide more climate finance to developing nations.

The mission is due to produce a report at the 2026 COP31 in November setting out priority actions for keeping the 1.5C goal within reach. Island states and least developed countries want its findings carried into the summit’s outcome text, while the like-minded developing countries bloc wants assurance the report won’t feed into other negotiating processes. The split points to a fight ahead at COP31 over how much weight the findings should carry.

Textile’s 92k tonnes microfibre pollution problem

New research from Earth Action, produced with the Nature Conservancy, has found that textile manufacturing releases an estimated 92,000 tonnes of microfibre pollution every year, with a 63% of those fibres leaking into the environment.

The losses mostly happen during wet processing, with washing accounting for the largest share, followed by dyeing and finishing. Existing wastewater treatment prevents around 34,000 tonnes of leakage each year, but even after treatment, the majority of microfibres still escape. Bangladesh, China and Pakistan together account for over half of production-related losses, though the picture shifts once wastewater treatment and sludge management are factored in, with Bangladesh remaining the largest single source of environmental leakage.

The report’s authors argue the problem is manageable because losses are concentrated at a relatively small number of mills and treatment facilities, rather than spread across millions of households. It found that combining improved wastewater treatment, controlled sludge disposal and cleaner manufacturing processes could cut microfibre leakage during production by around 95% by 2032.

‘Integrated’ project delivery for critical minerals

In July 2025, Lifezone Metals completed the feasibility study for its Kabanga Nickel Project in Tanzania. By July 2026, around $854m of contracts were already in the market, even though the project’s final investment decision has slipped to the first quarter of 2027, held up by an unfinished framework agreement with the Tanzanian government.

The gap points to a wider shift in critical minerals development, according to industry news website Crux Investor. Developers are increasingly running technical studies, procurement, permitting and financing negotiations at the same time rather than one after another, an approach known as integrated project development. It changes what a pre-financing company can show investors as evidence of delivery capability, rather than asking the market to take execution risk on trust once financing closes.

At Kabanga, engineering, procurement and construction contracts have already been released to market, funded through drawn debt and a fresh equity raise. Financing is running on two tracks: a strategic equity process led by Standard Chartered, and a project financing process led by Societe Generale involving development finance institutions and export credit agencies. Both depend on the outcome of the framework agreement talks with the Tanzanian government, which remains the item holding up the whole schedule.

Lifezone is applying the same approach across its portfolio, including its Musongati Nickel Project in Burundi and a platinum group metals recycling project in the United States with Glencore, each running on a different regulatory timeline. As more developers adopt this model, investors assessing pre-financing critical minerals projects are being encouraged to look past headline economics towards execution capacity: how much procurement is already underway, how many financing counterparties are involved, and how far a company’s liquidity can stretch.

Race for Africa’s critical minerals intensifies

Japan’s state-backed metals agency, the Japan Organisation for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC), is investing up to $34m in a Toyota Tsusho venture developing a heavy rare earth deposit in Namibia. It marks Japan’s first rare earth mine development in Africa.

JOGMEC will invest in TJ Namibia Rare Earths, a company established by Toyota Tsusho to develop the Lofdal Heavy Rare earth Project. The deposit contains dysprosium and terbium, heavy rare earths used in the permanent magnets that power electric vehicle motors, wind turbines and defence equipment. The project began in 2020 as a joint exploration venture between JOGMEC and Canada’s Namibia Critical Metals, with Toyota Tsusho joining as development partner earlier this year.

The partners plan to complete a feasibility study and reach a final investment decision by March 2027, according to Africa Business Insider. The move comes as Japan looks to diversify its critical mineral supplies after China tightened export controls on several heavy rare earths and related magnets over the past year, and it underlines Namibia’s growing role as a strategic supplier as major economies compete to secure alternatives to Chinese-dominated supply chains.

China ramps up green energy financing oil markets disrupted

The Iran conflict has sent oil and gas prices soaring, threating the global oil supply. The International Energy Agency forecasts world oil demand to fall this year for the first time since the pandemic.

Beijing has used the disruption to accelerate spending through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an infrastructure investment project aimed at improving connectivity, trade, and communication, across Eurasia, Latin America, and Africa. During the first half of 2026, BRI increased its green energy funding to a record $20.1bn, as the US war in Iran drives demand for cheaper renewable energy.

BRI has faced pushback on several fronts. Critics point to debt burdens it has left on partner countries, particularly across Africa and the wider developing world, alongside worries that loan terms and credit arrangements aren’t disclosed clearly, and that China’s partners don’t get the same market access in return.