|
Kirsti Knolle, Reuters
Germany’s economy ministry has announced it will provide up to €5bn this year to help major factories reduce carbon emissions by switching to cleaner technology, reports Reuters. The funding, comprising 15-year "carbon contracts for difference" (CCfDs), will cover the extra costs of low-emission production for industries such as steel, cement and chemicals, the newswire says, adding that “the goal” is to help factories stay in Germany and meet climate goals, instead of moving production to countries with weaker environmental rules. Bloomberg says that the funding is less than the €6bn previously earmarked, but will nevertheless be “crucial to helping Europe’s biggest economy slash its emissions by two-thirds by 2030 from 1990-levels, while staying competitive against industries in places like China and the US”. It reports that technologies for capturing and storing CO2 will be offered funding for the first time. Meanwhile, the Times reports that the German government has “quietly carried out” a report into the technical feasibility of resuming supply from the damaged Nord Stream pipeline that transported gas from Russia to Germany until 2022.
MORE ON EUROPE
Portugal plans to impose a windfall tax on energy companies’ profits, drawing on measures used in the 2022 energy crisis, reports Bloomberg. France has called an online meeting of G7 countries for tomorrow to discuss how to “break China's stranglehold on critical materials”, according to Reuters. (Separately, Reuters reports that sources say the G7 is in talks to set up a “permanent unit” to oversee the critical minerals agenda.) The French government also announced domestic measures to reduce carmakers’ and wind developers’ reliance on Chinese rare earths, says Bloomberg. The EU’s climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra has said Europe’s energy crisis is set to “get much worse”, reports Euractiv. A document seen by Reuters indicates that EU energy ministers will take the ”unusual step” of discussing domestic gas production at a meeting next week, in a meeting chaired by rotating president Cyprus.
Sethuraman N R, Reuters
Reuters analysis shows that India's electricity generation rose to 167.6bn kilowatt‑hours (kWh) in April – “the highest since May 2024” – and is expected to increase further “as intense heat leads to record [demand] peaks”. The newswire adds that the share of renewable generation in India's power mix rose to 16.5%, “the highest since July 2025”. On 25 April, India’s peak power demand “hit a record 256.1GW”, with even “higher peaks expected” in May and June, it adds. An editorial in the Hindu editorial argues that, while solar plants supplied “21.5% of the afternoon load” on that day, they “contributed only about 10.8% of daily generation and just 0.1% of the evening’s needs after sunset”. The editorial adds: “Such is the paucity of battery storage [that] prolific [solar-producing states] are being asked to halt their supply, lest it compromise the stability [of India’s grid]…Solar capacity without storage is a half-built bridge.”
As temperatures in India “surged beyond 40C” in April to “punishing levels”, Bloomberg says that the “demand for round-the-clock power is testing the ability of India’s electricity system to provide uninterrupted supply” and “triggering blackouts as infrastructure and generation struggle to cope.” Finally, an editorial in the Indian Express argues that “the early onset of summer should be seen as a warning” that India “needs to align climate science with public health, urban planning and social security”.
MORE ON INDIA
IndiaSpend looks at the “devastating effect” of extreme heat on the country’s 7.7m gig workers “at the mercy of algorithms”, with little or no access to shade, water or toilets. While online platforms for deliveries say they are rolling out “tech-driven tools [and] infrastructure upgrades” to safeguard gig workers in extreme heat, Business Standard reports that unions are calling for “enforceable” protections, arguing that “voluntary measures are not enough”. A new white paper estimates that “about three-fourths of India’s workforce” – roughly 380m people – is engaged in heat-exposed labour, while the “capacity to adapt remains unequal”, reports Mongabay.
Julia Kollewe, The Guardian
The Guardian is among a raft of publications to cover the latest sales update from the UK trade body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), which reveals that electric vehicle sales in the UK jumped by 59% last month. Electric cars accounted for more than a quarter of total car sales in April, with the two millionth electric car registered, according to the newspaper. The SMMT has warned that rising interest in EVs seen since the Iran war could be “potentially tempered” by concern over inflation, higher energy prices and any resultant rise to the cost of living. The Independent reports that the SMMT expects the EV market to be “still some way short” of the 33% target required for 2026 under the UK zero-emissions vehicle mandate. The Times says an influx of “competitively priced” Chinese cars has driven new registrations “back close to pre-pandemic levels”.
Meanwhile, there is widespread coverage in national newspapers – including on the front pages of the Guardian, Sun and i newspaper – of flight cancellations amid a shortage of jet fuel in the wake of the Iran war. The Guardian has a long-read that looks at how “bad” the jet fuel crisis could get, which questions whether the shortage will fast-track – or slow down – the transition to “jet zero”.
MORE ON UK
The Times reports that “thousands” of jobs are at risk from the government’s failure to produce a hydrogen strategy, as planned, by the end of last year. BusinessGreen editor James Murray has posted a thread highlighting the latest misleading press release promoting a Tony Blair Institute report focused on net-zero. BusinessGreen also covers the report’s actual conclusions. Scotland’s first minister John Swinney has told the Press Association he is “very concerned” by reports that oil giant BP is considering leaving the North Sea. Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho, Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice and the Taxpayers' Alliance William Yarwood – all of whom have a history of lobbying against net-zero policies – have criticised Labour’s plans to pay three non-executive directors for Great British Energy £30,000 a year, according to the Daily Express.
In an interview with Sky News ahead of tomorrow’s local elections, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said the pylons being built in her local area – which she claims are “being driven by Ed Miliband's net-zero agenda” – are “not actually going to help deliver cheaper, cleaner energy for the people who are there”. The oil-and-gas company behind the Horse Hill drilling project in Surrey – blocked by the Supreme Court in 2024 – has submitted a revised planning application for the shuttered project, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Finbarr Bermingham, South China Morning Post
The EU is considering a “trade weapon to tackle Chinese overcapacity”, reports the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post. The outlet adds that Brussels is polling EU industry groups before proposing the instrument to European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on 29 May, although the “contours” of the proposal remain a “closely guarded secret”. Europe must “wrangle with how to treat the surge in Chinese cleantech goods” at a time when the Iran war is affecting energy prices in Europe and “sparking higher demand” in products such as solar panels and electric vehicles (EVs), it continues.
MORE ON CHINA
China Daily reports that the “unprecedented inclusion” of private capital in China’s San’ao nuclear power plant provides a “critical clean energy boost” for the regional economy. CGTN reports that a 522km highway in a desert in northwestern China can now generate “more than 15m kilowatt-hours of solar power, proving that even the harshest environments can host sustainable infrastructure”. Economic Daily reports that petrol and diesel consumption in China will continue to decline in 2026, affected by “substitution from new energy and economic restructuring”. The Cover cites an expert saying that “heavy rainfall in southern China and high temperatures across the country are likely to intensify” this summer.
Todd Woody, Bloomberg
Bloomberg covers research which finds that microplastics in the atmosphere are heating the planet and “magnifying climate change impacts”. It says the research, published by Nature Climate Change, reveals that scientists in China and the US have found that “tiny, coloured plastic particles absorb sunlight as winds blow them around the world, trapping heat and contributing to temperature rise”. It quotes Hongbo Fu, an author of the study, saying that "climate models need to be updated” to account for the role of plastic in global warming. Yale 360 says the study “adds another dimension to the climate risks from microplastics”. It continues: “Even though lighter particles are reflecting sunlight, with a cooling influence, in the aggregate microplastics are having a warming effect.”
MORE ON SCIENCE
Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide reached a new high of 431 parts per million in April, reports Scientific American. The Daily Mail reports on figures from Japan’s National Institute of Polar Research which confirm that the Arctic's annual maximum extent – the point in winter when ice coverage should be highest – is now smaller than at any time since satellite observations began in 1979. [Carbon Brief covered this milestone in March when it was announced by the US National Snow and Ice Centre.] Extreme weather is emerging as a “major trigger for strokes”, reports Earth.com. BBC News covers a report from Imperial College researchers which finds that Northern Ireland has seen a “sharp rise in fire weather” – a phenomenon the outlet describes as a “mix of warmth, dryness, and wind that allows fires to ignite and spread rapidly”. This, alongside climate change, is “creating a longer and more volatile wildfire season”, says the outlet.
Douglas Gillison, Reuters
Reuters reports that “Wall Street's top regulator is crafting regulations to undo a dormant Biden-era rule intended to help investors gauge companies' climate-related spending and risks, according to a notice on the US budget office website”. The newswire adds: “The move comes a year after the Securities and Exchange Commission declined to tell a federal court whether it planned either to change the rule or defend the 2024 regulations against industry-backed court challenges that dogged the agency's rule-making efforts under the previous administration. President Donald Trump rejects the scientific consensus on climate change and his administration has moved to undo related regulations adopted under former president Joe Biden.”
MORE ON US
The Guardian unpacks a new “policy platform” from left-leaning thinktank Climate and Community Institute (CCI) – a group which has worked with Bernie Sanders and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez – which calls for a “working class climate agenda”. Reuters has continuing coverage of California’s probe into the Trump administration’s crackdown on wind-farm projects. The New York Times has a long-read on Tom Steyer headlined: “A climate activist wants to run California. Coal helped fuel his wealth.”
|
