How did UAE personnel in police vests end up in a helicopter in the Amazon rainforest on a mission that rescued 3,000 animals?
The footage could have been from an action movie, with fireballs and armed raids as the UAE led five South American countries on a blitz against environmental crime.
During the 17-day mission, officers arrested more than 800 people and seized items worth $280 million, including timber from illegal logging.
The Emirati link goes back to 2023, when the UAE hosted the Cop28 climate summit.
A lot of things get announced at such meetings, and the International Initiative of Law Enforcement for Climate went somewhat under the radar in Dubai. Still, it was an unusual moment as police forces took part in a UN climate summit for the first time.
Three years later, the belief in the UAE is that the idea has moved “beyond conference diplomacy” to real actions that help protect the planet.
The UAE-led Operation Green Shield, which also involved Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, was one of the largest such operations in the region.
Though the Amazon is remote to most of us, protecting it isn’t just an act of charity. The National reported recently that $1 trillion could be wiped from the world economy every year due to deforestation.
That’s because forests make it rain by releasing water from trees. They’re called rainforests for a reason, right?
And with drought and wildfires sweeping Europe – and the Middle East bracing for a heatwave of its own– we might need all the rain we can get.
Europe's heatwave causes havoc
Speaking of that heatwave, The National’s London team has been looking at the consequences in Europe.
You know the deal by now: we can’t just blame freakish weather. The wildfires in France and Spain were up to 20 times more likely due to climate change, scientists say. While there have been wildfires in southern Europe before, they’ve been particularly extreme in both 2025 and 2026.
Problems are sprouting up everywhere as a result. Rivers have dried up, tourists have been stranded and nuclear power plants are in danger of running out of water to cool them. There are also warnings about shocks to farming.
“France and the United Kingdom are expanding early warning system coverage for vulnerable countries,” French diplomatic sources told The National’s Sunniva Rose.
At least it’ll cool down soon, right? Maybe – but the weather phenomenon known as El Nino is expected to keep temperatures higher across the world until at least … November.
The Iran war, oil and renewables
The war in Iran has sent oil prices surging. The benchmark price of crude recently hit $100 a barrel for the first time since May after attacks in the Red Sea, although it has since fallen back.
It’s good news for the profits of oil companies like BP, which this week announced it made $5.73 billion in the three months to June.
On the same day, though, BP said it was selling off a US biogas business – the fuel can be made from plants and animal waste – as it continues to reduce its investment in renewables to focus on oil and gas.
It’s a reminder that while environmentalists like to think there’s a hard-nosed “economic logic” behind green energy, it isn’t always that simple.
The big fact
Carbon emissions in the Middle East and Africa could be 30 per cent higher than thought. That’s according to a new study in the journal Science Advances, which warns this could add five years to the quest for net zero.
Jargon buster
Buildings: What does the UN mean when it says almost 40 per cent of CO2 emissions come from “buildings”?
It’s not about the bricks and cement, or even turning the lights off in your kitchen. What they mean is heating and cooling.
In the UAE, air con is the big energy consumer. In Europe, it’s winter heating. So you hear “buildings” as a slightly awkward, region-neutral term.
Get the latest climate news here.
Read more
The National produces a variety of newsletters across an array of subjects. To get the best of our coverage straight to your inbox, sign up here.
