The UK’s spring budget missed opportunities to revive the country’s “flagging economy” by “boosting green industry”, reports the Guardian. Delivered by chancellor Jeremy Hunt on Wednesday, the paper says it was one of the “least green budgets in recent years” according to experts and “fail[ed] to recognise one of the fastest-expanding areas of business – the net-zero economy”. The budget included another freeze in fuel duty for petrol and diesel, reports the Daily Telegraph. (This is the 14th year in a row fuel duty has been frozen, a move which as of 2023 had increased UK CO2 emissions by up to 7%, previous Carbon Brief analysis found). Carmakers complained that Hunt had helped petrol car owners while failing to support electric vehicles (EVs), the article says, with companies including Jaguar Land Rover and Stellantis, Fiat and Peugeot having called on Hunt to cut VAT charges levied on drivers who use public chargers from 20% to 5% ahead of the budget. In addition to the freeze in duty, Hunt extended the “temporary” 5p cut to fuel duty, reports the Daily Mail. It says that the freeze and the cut together will cost £5bn and save the average car driver £50 this year, according to Hunt. (Fuel-duty cuts disproportionately benefit wealthier people.)

Hunt also extended the windfall tax on North Sea energy companies to 2029, reports the Guardian. It adds that the chancellor is now facing a revolt by Scottish Conservatives and at least one junior minister over the decision. Douglas Ross, the MP for Moray near Aberdeen and leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said he would vote against the tax extension because it damaged the party’s claims to champion North Sea oil and gas jobs, the article adds. The extension could impact the oil and gas industry’s ability to invest and grow in the region, affecting jobs and losing the Conservatives votes north of the border, reports the Daily Mail. (See Carbon Brief’s factcheck of misleading claims surrounding North Sea oil and gas.). Energy minister Andrew Bowie also criticised the extension, calling it “deeply disappointing”, reports Politico. Hunt announced a £160m deal to purchase the Wylfa and Oldbury nuclear sites as part of plans to revive the UK’s nuclear development pipeline, reports BusinessGreen. 

Alongside the budget, the government also announced that the next UK renewable energy auction will offer a record pot of up to £1bn, reports the Financial Times. Hunt allocated four times as much support as was available last year, it adds. The auction, the sixth under the contracts for difference (CfD) subsidy scheme, will be open to bidders from 27 March, reports Reuters. Some £800m was allocated for offshore wind, reports the Press Association, adding that no offshore windfarms submitted bids in last year’s auction. It quotes Emma Pinchbeck, chief executive of industry group Energy UK saying despite the increased pot for this year’s auction, it would still be an “uphill battle to meet the 2030 target for 50 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind”. (See Carbon Brief’s detailed coverage for more.)

In other UK news, renewables developer NatPower has pledged to invest £10bn into what would become the largest portfolio of battery storage projects in the country, reports the Guardian. The company is set to submit planning applications for three “gigaparks”, with a further 10 to follow next year, it adds. Meanwhile, UK small modular reactor developer Holtec is targeting the “nuclear triangle” in the North of England for a new factory, which will build and export “mini-nukes”, reports the Daily Telegraph. 

The US securities and exchange commissions (SEC) has approved new rules detailing if and how public companies should disclose climate risks, reports the New York Times. This includes how much greenhouse gas emissions they produce, but overall there are fewer demands in the final rules than were in the original proposal made about two years ago, it adds. The original proposals would have made public companies account for not just their own emissions, but also those throughout their supply chain, reports the Washington Post. Nevertheless, it says the final rule still “represents one of the most far-reaching measures by the federal government to push companies toward climate accountability at a time when many are taking neutral stances or facing accusations from activist investors that they are exaggerating their climate achievements”, the article adds. The SEC’s new rule will require “large accelerated filers” and “accelerated filers” to file securities disclosures for emissions from their direct operations (“scope 1”) and the energy that powers them (“scope 2”), explains Axios. Companies must also provide analysis of physical risks to their business from climate change, such as extreme weather, and “transition risks” such as climate policies and changing consumer preferences, it adds. The long-awaited rule, which was finalised in a 3-2 vote on Wednesday, marks the first nationwide climate disclosure rule in the US, reports the Guardian. It adds: “Some experts say it will give investors more transparency into the threat the climate crisis poses to corporations and how they contribute to global warming.” The news was also reported by Reuters, Inside Climate News, the Hill, the Independent and others.

The first lawsuit against the SEC rule was filed within two hours of its passing, with ten US states petitioning to “vacate” the rule and accusing the SEC of overstepping its statutory authority, reports the Financial Times. This first litigation is “ unlikely to be the last”, the FT notes, with the rule expected to be contentious. The article quotes Patrick Morrisey, West Virginia’s attorney-general, telling reporters after his state and others, including Alabama and Georgia, filed their case: “Federal agencies, and very specifically the SEC…need to stick to the statutory mandate that Congress gave them and avoid manipulating private actors for the sake of progressive policy.” In addition to this case, the US Chamber of Commerce is also considering litigation and Republicans in Congress are “vowing” to try to overturn it, reports Politico. The changes in the rule “could also fan friction” on the left for the SEC, with many backers “already expressing dismay”, the article adds. The legal challenge to the new SEC rule was also covered by Reuters, the Hill and others.

In other US news, Axios covered Carbon Brief’s analysis that found by rolling back president Joe Biden’s climate policies, a second Donald Trump administration could lead to an estimated extra 4bn tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Biden’s emissions target is to cut greenhouse gases by 50-52% by 2030, relative to 2005, and under his current policies he would get the US close to that goal at about 43% reduction, the article notes. Under Trump, emissions cuts might be as little as 28% below 2005 levels by 2030, depending on the extent to which he is able to reverse Biden’s climate policies, it notes. Trump winning the US election in November could increase the US’s emissions by so much that they would negate the last five years of global progress on deploying clean energy twice over, reports the Huffington Post, also covering Carbon Brief’s analysis.

Elsewhere, US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell has said that he still does not see the central bank as the appropriate part of the government to take a leading role in dealing with climate change threats, reports Reuters. It quotes him telling the House financial services committee: “I certainly believe climate change is real and poses risks over the long term.” He reiterated that he believes these issues are best dealt with by elected officials, saying “we are not climate change policy makers”, Reuters adds.

February was the warmest in modern times, the EU’s climate service has announced, extending the run of monthly records to nine in a row, reports BBC News. Each month since June 2023 has seen new temperature highs and the world’s sea surface is at its hottest on record while Antarctic sea-ice has again reached extreme lows, the broadcaster continues. The data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service shows February was 1.77C warmer than the pre-industrial average for the month, from 1850-1900, and 0.81C above 1991-2020 levels, reports the Guardian. The global average for the past 12 months was the highest on record, at 1.56C above pre-industrial level for March 2023 to February 2024, it adds. This puts the world temporarily above the 1.5C threshold beyond which, over the long term, the worst impacts of climate change are expected, it adds. This latest data capped off a record heat season for December, January and February globally, reports the Financial Times, which has affected “everywhere from northern Siberia and central and north-west America to parts of South America, Africa and Australia, causing unusual warm, wet and dry conditions depending on the region”. European temperatures in February 2024 were 3.3C above the 1991-2020 average for the month, with temperatures in central and eastern Europe being far above average, reports the Independent. The effects of climate change and El Niño are “however, most clearly seen in the seas”, reports the Times. It quotes Dr Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, who said: “We’ve had our warmest global ocean temperatures ever recorded in the satellite era, exceeding the records set last August.”

In addition to the new study from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, analysis by Climate Central, an independent research group based in New Jersey, found that in several cities in North America, Europe and Asia, not only was winter unusually warm, but climate change played “a distinctly recognisable role”, reports the New York Times. For instance Minneapolis in the US was nearly 5.6C warmer than average between December and February, with the “fingerprints of climate change” detectable for 33 days, essentially a third of the winter season, it continues. Iran’s capital city Tehran was 4.2C warmer than average during the same three month period, with the effects of climate change detectable over 68 days of winter, it adds. Meanwhile, Morocco has experienced record heat, including the hottest January since measurements began, the country’s meteorological department told Agence France-Presse. The North African country saw temperatures in January hit a record, at 3.8C above normal for the period 1991-2020, making it the hottest month of January since the first measurements in 1940, it adds.

Chinese president Xi Jinping said that “in the face of…technological revolution and industrial transformation, [China] must…increase innovation, cultivate and expand emerging industries, and plan future industries in advance”, in a discussion with a delegation of policymakers from Jiangsu province during the “two sessions”, reports the South China Morning Post (SCMP). It says Xi added that “promoting new productive forces doesn’t mean neglecting or giving up traditional industries”. Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily reports that some regions in China are currently “focusing on the building of industrial chains for new quality productive forces” in industries including new energy vehicles (NEVs), energy storage and hydrogen. The SCMP covers a press conference at the two sessions in which Zheng Shanjie, director of the national development and reform commission (NDRC), told the media that “China’s ‘new three’ exports – namely electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and solar panels – [demonstrated] China’s strength in its manufacturing exports” and that “China’s January- February power generation was up 11.7% from a year earlier”. China Energy Net also covers the press conference, republishing an announcement by Zheng that, in 2023, China’s production and sales of NEVs reached 9.5m units, with “growth exceeding 35%”; lithium battery production increased by 25%; and solar cell production grew by 54%. State-run newspaper China Daily reports that Xi on Wednesday visited “national political advisers from the…group of environment and resources” at the two sessions. China Energy Net reports that “the group of environmental and resource” is a newly established group in this year’s two sessions, whose 85 members include “party and government leaders” in the environmental and resource fields, “scientific research experts in ecological civilisation construction” and “corporate executives” in the energy and resources sectors. Climate Home News says that the change in China’s energy intensity “falls short of the rate of reduction needed to hit a goal of slashing energy intensity by 13.5% in the five years to 2025”, according to analysts.

Separately, the SCMP reports that the European Commission will “start customs registration of Chinese electric vehicle (EV) imports on Thursday”, which means that they could be affected by retroactive tariffs if the EU’s probe “concludes that they are receiving unfair subsidies”. Finally, the Wall Street Journal carries a commentary by Connor Pfeiffer, director of congressional relations of the non-profit organisation FDD Action, who writes that “a loophole in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)” makes it possible for Chinese vehicles “to avoid US tariffs by assembling vehicles” in other north American countries, particularly Mexico.

The SEC’s new rule “gets a job done but isn’t exactly inspiring”, writes Bloomberg columnist Mark Gongloff. The new rules are “riddled with monumental caveats” following two years of “furious debate and lobbying”, but their lighter disclosure rules mean they “stand a marginally better chance of surviving in court”, he writes. This “fits a pattern” seen under the Biden administration, for example regulations around fossil-fuel and tailpipe emissions, the freeze on liquified natural gas imports only after they’d nearly doubled, and blocking new oil and gas developments in Alaska only after approving other drilling projects, Gongloff notes. “In the balance, Biden has arguably been the best president in US history for the climate,” concludes the article, despite “frustrating” compromises on climate.

In other comment, Andy Mayer, chief operating officer and energy analyst at climate sceptic thinktank the Institute of Economic Affairs writes for the Daily Telegraph under the headline: “The green movement is stripping away life’s small luxuries, one by one.”

A new study of 32 major US coastal cities finds that far more land could be flooded in future than previous estimates suggest. The study combines projections of sea level rise along US coastlines of 0.25–0.3 m by 2050 with high-resolution vertical land motion – the raising or lowering of land – to quantify the area of land that could potentially be inundated. The findings indicate that 55,000-73,000 people and 31,000-171,000 properties may be affected as a result of the two factors combined, even taking into account current coastal defence structures. Sinking land increases the probability of destructive flooding but is “often underrepresented in coastal management policies and long term urban planning”, say the authors.

Human-caused climate change intensified a severe drought in southeast Australia in 2017-2019 by 18%, according to a new study. An anomalous atmospheric circulation diverted oceanic moisture away from the region, resulting in approximately 50% less rainfall than usual during the cool season for three consecutive years. Already “exceptionally unlikely in the context of natural variability alone”, the rainfall deficits were further amplified by unusually high temperatures, creating the extremely dry conditions that gave the event its name, the “Tinderbox Drought”. Machine learning techniques helped more accurately predict the event, the authors add, potentially providing future “prospects for improving forecasting of droughts”.