Excerpt: Last week I wrote on LinkedIn: I have been following climate politics for a long time. I do not think I have ever felt this upset. As the climate crisis accelerates, our leaders are not accelerating climate action. They are reversing it.The post resonated far beyond what I expected. And the most common response was a question: is it really that widespread, or does it just feel that way? This article is the answer. I spent the days since verifying every reversal I could find, decision by decision, source by source. It is worse than I wrote.

… The climate crisis is no longer a future cost. It is hitting farmers, workers, businesses and families now.

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Before, climate policy was far too weak and far too slow, but at least the overall direction was forward. Now, as the consequences become impossible to ignore, the political response is increasingly to weaken even the limited policies already in place. Climate policy is no longer just moving too slowly or getting stuck. In crucial areas, it is moving backwards. That is a profound difference. And honestly, it scares me.

So here is the verified count: 45 policy reversals in one year, numbered below, across 15 jurisdictions and the global shipping regime. Each numbered entry is one distinct policy reversal adopted, announced, proposed, taking legal effect or materially advanced between July 2025 and July 2026, and its status is stated in the entry. Six landed within five weeks this summer, during and right after the heatwave itself. These decisions were not made in ignorance of the costs. They were made in the middle of them.

Across much of the list, the lobbying and organised pressure are documented on the record: fossil fuel producers, automakers, agribusiness, and fossil producer states pressuring foreign regulators with threats of tariffs and redirected energy supplies. Every claim below links to its source. Because history will not ask whether we had enough evidence. It will ask who lobbied, who decided, and who benefited.

🌍 Global shipping
1. Framework blocked (October 2025). The IMO adjourned a full year without adopting the Net-Zero Framework after the US pressured smaller states with tariff, port fee and visa threats, alongside Saudi Arabia.
2. Cancellation push (March 2026). Washington then asked for the framework to be cancelled outright.
🇪🇺 European Union
3. Carbon market (proposed, 17 July 2026). The Commission proposed weakening the the main ETS, the carbon market covering industry and power more than analysts expected, putting roughly 2.4 billion extra tonnes of CO2 at stake, after an EPP demand paper and pressure from Poland and Italy.
4. Methane (guidance, 20 July 2026). The Commission recommended suspending import penalties for 2027 to 2029, after the US, Qatar, Algeria and Nigeria wrote to Brussels and 17 member states demanded changes.
5. Sustainable finance (Council position, 24 June 2026). Member states deleted the ban on “transition” funds financing new fossil fuel projects. TotalEnergies had held about 35 meetings with MEPs in the months before.
6. Cars (proposed, December 2025). The Commission proposed dropping the 2035 combustion engine ban, cutting the target from 100 to 90 percent, after lobbying from Germany, Italy and their auto industry. Still in negotiation.
7. 2040 target (Parliament adopted 10 February; final Council approval 5 March 2026). The climate law allows up to 5 percent international offsets, so domestic cuts stop at 85 percent. Poland had pushed for 10 percent.
8. ETS2, the separate new carbon market (adopted, same law). The carbon price on heating and transport fuels was postponed a year to 2028, a demand won by Poland and eastern member states.
9. Corporate accountability (final approval 24 February 2026, applying in stages). The Omnibus package slashed sustainability reporting, weakened due diligence and removed the climate transition plan requirement. Investigations show eleven multinationals coordinated to derail the law and ExxonMobil was the most active corporate lobbyist on it.
10. Deforestation (adopted, December 2025). The EUDR was delayed a second time to end 2026 and diluted, under pressure from the EPP, the far right, producer countries and industry.
And during the July heatwave itself, ministers discussed further rollbacks, prompting Sweden’s climate minister to publicly urge them to stop.
The European pattern in one sentence: keep the targets, weaken the machinery that delivers them.
🇩🇪 Germany
11. Heating (adopted, 10 July 2026). Parliament scrapped the 65 percent renewable requirement for new heating systems; new oil and gas boilers are permitted again, though blending requirements for climate neutral fuels phase in from 2029. Critics call it an unconditional fulfilment of the fossil fuel lobby’s wishes.
Official projections now show the 2030 emissions gap widening from 25 to 30 million tonnes after the rollbacks.
🇫🇷 France
12. Soil (adopted, 15 April 2026). The Senate gave final approval to the law weakening the zero net soil sealing objective, in a vote driven by the right and far right, unravelling a pillar of the 2021 climate law.
🇨🇿 Czech Republic
13. Green Deal reversal (coalition programme, November 2025). The new Babis coalition’s programme outlines plans to reverse the European Green Deal and refuse ETS2 for households, and Babis has since written to Brussels urging delay of methane and due diligence rules.

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