China announced today that it would develop a package of major projects to tackle climate change, reports Reuters, “as it moves to bring its CO2 emissions to a peak before 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060”. The newswire continues: “The world’s largest producer of climate-warming greenhouse gas said it would develop new offshore wind farms and accelerate the construction of ‘new energy bases’ across its vast desert areas, the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s economic planner, said in an official report published on Wednesday.” Among the proposed projects cited in the report by the state planning agency is a “controversial hydropower facility on the Yarlung Tsangpo river in Tibet”, the article says. However, it adds, “coal will remain a key fuel, with the NDRC report saying the country will continue to increase coal production and supply this year even as it plans for trials of low-carbon technology at its coal-fired power plants”.

Meanwhile, China’s top political advisory body, the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), has pledged to “constantly offer wisdom and strength in support of the nation’s ongoing efforts to foster a harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature”, state-run newspaper China Daily reports. (CPPCC is one of the two parts of China’s most important annual political gathering, “two sessions”. CPPCC’s annual gathering started yesterday. The opening ceremony of the other part, the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislation, kicks off today.) The newspaper quotes the meeting’s spokesperson speaking ahead of the opening ceremony: “Focusing on green, low-carbon and high-quality development as a fundamental solution to China’s environmental issues, national political advisers [CPCC members, known as deputies] have made great efforts to promote green production and lifestyles, foster consensus on transformation among enterprises and different industrial sectors, and aid in the green upgrade of industries.”

In other news, CPPCC deputy Zeng Yuqun, who is also the chairman of CATL, China’s leading battery manufacturer, proposed at the gathering that China should “urgently establish a safety assurance mechanism for new energy storage” and create a “periodic safety inspection system” for it, online news outlet Jiemian reports. NPC deputy Zhong Baoshen, chairman of Longi Green Energy, another leading solar supplier, calls on the solar industry to strengthen innovation, a separate Jiemian report says. Another NPC deputy, He Guanghua, calls on the improvement of China’s “green electricity” and service for the “green electricity certificates” –  a certificate that allows green electricity to be traded – Science and Technology Daily reports. Bloomberg reports that NPC leaders also pledged to expand the nation’s emissions trading system to cover more industries. Separately, Bloomberg also says China plans to cut its energy use per unit of GDP by 3% by 2025.  Reuters reports that an official report from China also pledged to continue to “enhance coal production”.

Separately, the Trump administration’s additional 10% tariff on Chinese imports has taken effect, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports. China has “swiftly” taken countermeasures, “announcing 10-15% hikes to import levies covering a range of American agricultural and food products. It also placed 25 US firms under export and investment restrictions on national security grounds”, according to Reuters. A spokesperson for NPC urged the US to work with China “in the same direction to resolve trade disputes through equal-footed consultation”, state news agency Xinhua says.

Elsewhere, Reuters reports that China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) seeks public opinions “on rules for import of remnants from the recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries, as well as recycled steel materials”. Xinhua publishes an “explainer” under the headline: “How does China’s green development contribute to global climate action?” The article says that it is becoming clear that global warming is “not merely a distant warning, but a harsh reality” and that China serves as a “beacon of hope in the fight against climate change”. Jim Skea, chair of IPCC, says in an interview with Xinhua that “China’s participation in the global climate governance system is indispensable”.

In comment, state-supporting newspaper Global Times carries an article saying that China’s investments in energy infrastructure during the 14th “five-year plan period” provides the country a “strong competitive advantage” in the “fierce competition in the clean energy sector” globally. And the Guardian publishes an opinion article by its senior China correspondent, Amy Hawkins, arguing that “there is no doubting a spring in the step of Chinese policymakers tasked with promoting Xi’s beloved ‘new quality productive forces’” at the “tightly choreographed two sessions”.

An avalanche in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand on Friday killed eight road construction workers, “a disaster [that] experts say was set in motion weeks earlier by a dry winter, only to be triggered by a sudden 600% spike in precipitation within 24 hours”, Times of India reports. According to IPCC author Prof Anjal Prakash, quoted in the story, the avalanche in Mana “is directly linked to extreme weather”. He added: “When you go from a precipitation deficit to a massive surge in just a couple of days, the risk of avalanches multiplies.” Former met authority deputy chief Anand Sharma told the paper that “[i]t’s simple physics: the ground was too dry, the snow too sudden and the rise in temperature too fast”. BBC News reports that 54 workers were “buried when the avalanche hit a construction camp near Mana village”, killing eight while 46 “have been pulled out alive from metal containers”. A migrant worker Satyaprakash Yadav who was rescued said that the “avalanche hit our container like a landslide” which “broke apart when the snow hit and it ended up near a river”, it adds. Al Jazeera, Agence France-Presse and the Daily Telegraph also report the story. 

In other extreme weather news, a new study finds that climate change has “significantly increased” the frequency of floods in High Mountain Asia since 2000, another Times of India story reports. According to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), “a key additional finding” is “a marked rise in the number of floods happening outside” the monsoon period, the story adds. Down to Earth reports that February “was the hottest in India in the last 125 years”, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD) data. India Today reports that “Delhi experienced the warmest February in 74 years”, Mumbai is “experiencing record-breaking temperatures” and the IMD predicts that “Bengaluru could be hotter than Delhi [this year], an unprecedented shift in climate patterns”. According to US-based weather agency Climate Central, the extreme temperatures in Goa and Mumbai on 25-27 February were, respectively, “at least five times” and “at least three times” more likely due to climate change, Carbon Copy reports. And the Times of India reports that long-term climate change “has severely affected” India’s pepper crop over the past decade.

Meanwhile, responding to a petition filed by eight-year-old activist Ridhima Pandey, India’s supreme court has issued notices to eight central ministries asking them to “cooperate to counter climate change”, NDTV reports. According to the story, the country’s top court said that “it appeared that ministries overseeing environmental issues are working in silos” and “advised a re-assessment” of existing environmental laws.

Science reports how Trump administration lay-offs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have hit the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, a small institute responsible for producing climate models relied on globally. It continues: “Because several of the fired workers led critical projects, it is now likely that several of the lab’s projects, including its next-generation atmospheric model, will be delayed, along with more accurate predictions of climate at regional scales.” The New York Times reports that a number of climate NGOs have been left without funding for two weeks after Trump ordered a freeze on a $20bn grant they were due to receive. Several organisations are being forced to consider laying off staff, the newspaper says. Politico rounds up the latest moves in Trump’s “climate blitz”. The Times of India says Trump’s dismantling of clean energy initiatives has put at least 42,000 jobs at risk. The Independent also reports that Trump is shutting down the state department’s worldwide air quality monitoring programme.

Meanwhile, Trump addressed Congress yesterday, saying that he believes Japan and South Korea want to partner with the US on a “gigantic” gas pipeline in Alaska, Reuters reports. The New York Times factchecks all the climate and energy claims made by Trump in his speech. As Trump spoke, large protests against his agenda were held in more than 50 states across the country, the Associated Press reports. Bloomberg reports that Trump’s latest tariffs could “redraw” global flows of oil. A second Bloomberg story says the tariffs could also cause domestic gasoline prices to increase. The Associated Press also reports from Greenland on how locals now fear two things more than any other: Trump and climate change.

In other US news, the Independent continues to cover the news that Trump has signed an executive order to massively increase deforestation on federal land to “reduce reliance” on timber from Europe. The Associated Press has a Q&A explaining how Trump could try to bypass laws to protect endangered species to achieve this, saying: “The federal government would have to activate a seldom-used committee nicknamed the ‘God Squad’ because it can approve federal projects even if it leads to extinction of a species otherwise protected by the Endangered Species Act.” Finally, the Washington Post reports that the supreme court has struck down rules regulating the discharge of water pollution, “in an unusual case that pitted one of the nation’s greenest cities, San Francisco, against the Environmental Protection Agency”.

A story trailed on the frontpage of the Daily Telegraph says net-zero secretary Ed Miliband is facing clashes with other cabinet ministers, including the chancellor, the business secretary and the transport secretary, over the party’s climate policies. An unnamed Whitehall source tells the paper the ministers had been having a “genuine intellectual debate” about how to ensure “the switch to green energy boosts the economy”, saying: “It’s about competing priorities. There is a jobs-first group of people who very much believe that the point of the green transition should be to reindustrialise Britain. But there’s another group that is less concerned about where things are made and more with cutting carbon. Ed has a mandate to cut carbon but others have a mandate to grow the economy and boost manufacturing – the question is how you square that circle.” A spokesperson for Miliband said “the government’s actions demonstrated continued support for its green energy mission”, the newspaper says. The Daily Telegraph also reports that Europe’s “war on emissions” might mean the “end of £50 flights to the Med”.

Elsewhere, BBC News has a wide-ranging interview with former prime minister Rishi Sunak, in which he says he is now in favour of “abandoning” the UK’s net-zero target, which was made law by another Conservative prime minister, Theresa May. He adds that, when Boris Johnson’s chancellor, he “warned” that the net-zero target was “saddling the economy with costs”. BBC News also reports that plans have been submitted to the government for a “huge solar farm” over the Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire border.

Rob McDonald, managing director of Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks, writes for the Times that new Scottish government guidance on introducing a 52-week determination period for net-zero critical strategic infrastructure projects must mean an end to lengthy delays for powerline projects in the nation. He says: “We look forward to seeing how this works in practice, but it should put an end to years of delay that have held up important projects. Lengthy periods of uncertainty serve no one’s interests, including those who oppose developments. It took nearly four-and-a-half years for consent to be granted for the Beauly-Denny transmission project…A lot of work needs doing, and we need a planning system that helps us all move forward.”

More than one-quarter of deep-sea species inhabit areas that may experience “disrupted connectivity” as the climate warms, new research has found. The study finds that “connectivity loss” between habitats could “increase rapidly in 2050”, particularly in deep strata of the ocean. This, it notes, could impair the “movement capacity” of deep-sea species to adapt to warming. A “climate connectivity framework” developed for the study combines thermal gradient, human impacts and species tolerance thresholds across different ocean strata under different climate change scenarios. The researchers say the findings “highlight the challenges that climate change poses to biodiversity conservation through the disruption of deep-sea connectivity”.