China’s premier Li Qiang has said that Beijing will work “diligently” and take a “series of concrete measures” to achieve the country’s “dual-carbon” goals, reports the state-run newspaper China Daily. The comments were made during the “delivery” of a key political report – the “report on the work of the government” – which takes place each spring at the “two sessions” gathering of leaders in Beijing. The newspaper adds that the measures, according to Li, include establishing “zero-carbon industrial parks and factories”, expanding the national carbon trading market (ETS), as well as improving the “framework for controlling the total amount and intensity of carbon emissions” (also known as the “dual control of carbon”; see Carbon Brief‘s analysis of the policy.). Industry news outlet BJX News highlights that Li Qiang’s work report mentions “new-energy” storage, building renewable facilities on “desert, gobi and desert”, offshore wind power and coal power. The outlet adds that Li said that, in response to “green trade barriers”, China will “keep carbon emissions statistics and undertake accounting initiatives, and develop systems for managing carbon emissions and conducting carbon labeling and certification”. Looking back at 2024, Li said China’s pace of progress was “solid and forceful”, according to another BJX News report. The outlet quotes him saying that the energy use per unit of GDP fell by more than 3%. In addition, he highlights that around 13m new-energy vehicles (NEVs) – including electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid vehicles – were produced, while renewable energy capacity grew 370 gigawatts (GW). 

Elsewhere, Reuters carries an article on the impact of China’s plans on various industries. The newswire says that China looks to “‘vigorously develop’ intelligent connected new-energy vehicles as part of its AI initiatives, and also expand large-scale applications of intelligent connected vehicles at the city level”. China’s steel sector was also mentioned at the two-sessions meeting, which, Bloomberg reports, means Beijing will “push the country’s steel industry to cut output in an attempt to ease a massive glut and restore profitability at mills”. Reuters says “analysts and traders” are “taken by surprise to see clear guidance for the steel industry in such a government report”. Michele Geraci, former undersecretary of state at the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, says he sees “great potential” in Li Qiang’s report for “collaborative efforts in renewable energy and sustainable development” between China and Europe, especially “in the context of the EU’s Green Deal”, according to a China Daily article with includes analysis from experts on the “government work report”. (Carbon Brief’s newsletter China Briefing, published later today, will unpack Li’s annual work report. Subscribe for free.)

Finally, China’s State Council has issued guidance calling for the provision of “high-quality financial support” for the country’s “green transition” and the construction of a “Beautiful China”, BJX News says. China has also issued guidelines on promoting “voluntary corporate greenhouse gas information disclosure”, China News reports. State-run newspaper Economic Daily publishes an article in its print edition saying that China has demonstrated that “green” development is “not a burden, but an opportunity”. The Washington Post publishes an article under the headline: “Australia, with no auto industry to protect, is awash with Chinese EVs.” 

The EU’s ambassador to China has “urged Beijing to stop building coal-fired power plants, saying that its rapid approval of new projects was increasingly at odds with its green ambitions”, reports the Guardian. The newspaper adds: “Speaking at an EU-hosted event in Beijing, Jorge Toledo said the war in Ukraine had underlined the need for energy security, but that the EU had managed to navigate the issue without reverting to fossil fuels. Toledo lamented the increase in China’s coal approvals in the second half of last year. Beijing approved 66.7GW of new coal-fired power capacity in 2024, the majority in the final months of the year. One gigawatt is the equivalent of a large coal power plant.” It continues: “There was also strong momentum in building new coal power. A report published last month by the Global Energy Monitor and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air [see Carbon Brief’s coverage] said China accounted for 93% of global construction starts for coal power in 2024. The report also noted that long-term power purchase agreements, which set minimum quotas for coal power bought by local governments, were slowing the integration of renewable energy into the power grid. Toledo said such trends were unnecessary and that China could quit coal while safeguarding its energy security. ‘Commentators outside China are increasingly puzzled at the continued containment of domestic renewable generation in future stranded coal assets,’ he said.”

Last month, there was less ice covering both the Antarctic and Arctic combined than at any other point on record, reports New Scientist. According to satellite measurements from the European Union’s climate service Copernicus, Arctic sea ice remained at 8% below average while the Antarctic was 26% below average, the article notes. Global average temperatures rose to 1.59C above the pre-industrial average last month, making it the 19th month in the past 20 to be more than 1.5C above preindustrial levels, reports the Guardian. The article quotes Copernicus Climate Change Service deputy director, Samantha Burgess: “One of the consequences of a warmer world is melting sea ice. The record or near-record low sea ice cover at both poles has pushed global sea ice cover to an all-time minimum.” Scientists had expected the La Niña cooling phenomenon in the Pacific to ease temperature rise, but the “cooling cycle’s influence on the southern ocean has been weak”, reports the Financial Times. As such, according to Copernicus, last month was the third-hottest February on record at 13.36C, it adds. The article highlights that the “world is experiencing a string of intense weather, from the polar vortex in the north to a cyclone near south-east Australia, as the latest data show the global temperatures that contribute to extremes continue to linger near record highs”. 

Relatedly, thousands of Australians are now under emergency weather warnings, as Tropical Cyclone Alfred approaches Brisbane, reports the Daily Telegraph. “Flooding rains, destructive winds and violent waves were expected to batter a densely populated 190-mile stretch of coastline straddling the border of Queensland and New South Wales”, the article notes. The Guardian carries an article titled: “Is climate change supercharging Tropical Cyclone Alfred as it powers towards Australia?” It notes that the cyclone has formed in the Coral Sea during a period where sea surface temperatures are 1C above average. The article quotes Dr Savin Chand, an expert on tropical cyclones and climate change in the Australian region, who says: “Climate change isn’t causing tropical cyclones to form because they have been forming for millennia, but the environment in which they’re forming is becoming more hostile [to their formation].”

The US is going to withdraw from the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), reports Reuters in an “exclusive”. JETPs are a collaboration wherein richer countries help developing countries transition from coal to cleaner energy sources, it adds. Currently, JETP consists of 10 donor nations, first announced at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021. South Africa, Indonesia, Vietnam and Senegal were subsequently announced to be the first beneficiaries of the loans, financial guarantees and grants, the article explains. Since Donald Trump took office, the US has “slashed foreign aid and championed development of fossil fuels”, it notes. US commitments for Indonesia and Vietnam within the JETP exceeded $3bn in total, mostly through commercial loans and, for South Africa, $1.063bn out of a wider $11.6bn pledged for the country, it notes. 

In other US news, Guardian analysis has found that fossil fuel and mining firms have won $92bn of public money from states. “Financial speculators are investing in a growing number of lawsuits against governments over environmental laws and other regulations that affect profits, often generating lucrative awards”, the article adds. The US Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that could “pave the way for Texas to host the nation’s first independent disposal ground for spent nuclear fuel”, reports Inside Climate News. And, in 2024, wind and solar generated more electricity in the US than coal for the first time, reports the Times. According to figures from the US Energy Information Administration, the two sources of renewable energy accounted for 17% of generation, while coal fell to an all-time low of 15%, it adds. 

The UK government has announced plans to end its windfall tax on oil and gas companies in 2030, as it launches a consultation on the future of the North Sea energy sector, reports the Press Association. The Department of Energy Security and Net-Zero will now talk to communities, businesses, trade unions, workers and environmental groups to create a plan for phased transition for oil and gas workers, adds the newswire. The government will look for views on how to foster a “prosperous and sustainable” transition away from oil and gas, while turning the North Sea into a “hub for clean technologies”, such as renewables, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS), reports BusinessGreen. As part of the consultation, the Labour government has confirmed its election manifesto pledge, by noting there would be “no new licences to explore new oil and gasfields”, reports the Financial Times. The government will look for a “pragmatic” approach to production and has “left room for the government to take a flexible approach to ‘tiebacks’, in which new fields can be drilled via adjacent existing fields”, the article notes. If the government does bring an end to new oil and gas licenses, it would make the UK the first major G7 oil producer to do so, reports the Guardian. Changes to tax on oil and gas following 2030 would bring in a permanent mechanism, reports Bloomberg, which “will give the industry more predictability and will mean higher payments only if there’s a need to respond to oil and gas ‘price shocks’”. The story is also covered by Reuters, the Daily Telegraph, BBC News, among others.

In other UK news, French energy giant EDF has revived plans for a “fish disco” at its under-construction Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in Somerset, reports the Times. The company “plans to blast noise underwater to stop fish in the Severn Estuary being sucked into Britain’s first new nuclear power station in decades”, the article notes. Elsewhere, the UK and Irish governments have announced a new collaboration deal for connecting offshore wind farms to energy networks, reports the Guardian. The collaboration on subsea energy infrastructure will help to “harness the full potential” of the Irish and Celtic seas, the article continues, as part of “ongoing efforts to reset post-Brexit relations”. A separate story in the Guardian covers a new study that shows that the wealthy in the UK have larger carbon footprints, but are also “uniquely positioned to have positive effects”. The study concludes,  notes the article, that the richest 10% in the UK were more likely to “invest in green technologies and support green policies, but also “used far more energy at home, were more likely to fly for leisure, were more reluctant to sacrifice luxuries, and were likely to underestimate the carbon impact of their own behaviour”. And BBC News has an article headlined: “’Net-zero’ plant aids energy security, court hears.”

Reuters reports that Brazil will use its presidency of COP30 to “press for multilateralism and respect for science”, the conference’s president-designate Andre Aranha Correa do Lago said on Wednesday in a “rejoinder to US President Donald Trump over climate matters”. The newswire adds: “In his first formal address as the incoming leader of COP30, Correa do Lago spoke to the UN General Assembly in New York, stressing the need for international collaboration at the November summit in the Amazonian city of Belem…’Multilateral institutions can and must deliver results commensurate with the scale of the climate challenge,’ he said.”

Meanwhile, in other Latin American news, deforestation in Colombia rose by 35% year-on-year in 2024, Mongabay reports. The country’s environment ministry indicated that 107,000 hectares of forests were cleared last year. The former environment minister Susana Muhamad attributed deforestation to “transactions paid with large sums of money” linked to organised crime. Despite the increase, 2024 is “still forecast to be among the lowest levels in more than two decades”, Reuters reported last month. 

Elsewhere, a heatwave in Lima has caused 11 consecutive days of high temperatures, according to Peru’s national service of meteorology and hydrology, cited by El Comercio. Maximum temperatures reached up to 31.9C and warm temperatures are expected to continue in the coming days. The newspaper cites experts who say the heatwave is associated with “warm sea conditions off the coast of Lima”. 

Migration of monarch butterflies could disappear by 2090 due to climate change impacts on oyamel fir forests in central Mexico, according to research covered by Excélsior. The study notes that water stress in the fir trees is “destroying forests at an accelerating rate”. Climate change is also decreasing the arrival of grey whales to Baja California Sur, in northern Mexico, Milenio reports. This year recorded the lowest number of grey whales in the Vizcaíno reserve since 1996 – an area where the species goes to breed and calve, the outlet adds.

Finally, Portal Minero covers the adoption of Chile’s national adaptation plan for climate change, which seeks “to scale up the country’s resilience to [climate change] and strengthen the response from different sectors”. The plan aims to “integrate adaptation into the public policies” and include a number of measures, from restoring wetlands and forests to boost science and early-warning systems. 

Registrations of new Tesla cars fell in Germany as “chief executive officer Elon Musk irked voters taking part in the country’s closely contested federal election”, reports Bloomberg. According to the German Federal Motor Transport, sales in February fell 76% to 1,429 cars, bucking the overall electric vehicle trend which saw registrations jump 31% in the month, it adds. The US carmaker’s sales have now fallen for two months in a row in Germany, notes the New York Times. “Tesla’s share price has fallen more than 40% from its peak in December and erased all the gains made after Mr Trump won the presidency in November, when investors bet that Mr Musk could use his influence in the White House to benefit his businesses”, the article adds. Tesla sales fell across Europe, reports Reuters, down 24% in the Netherlands, 42% in Sweden, 48% in both Norway and Denmark, 45% in France, 55% in Italy, 10% in Spain and 53% in Portugal. However, the UK “bucked the trend”, with Tesla sales jumping 21% in February, although this still lagged behind the 42% overall increase in battery electric vehicle sales, it adds. Nearly 4,000 Teslas were sold last month, with the Model 3 and Model Y “proving the second and third most popular after the Mini Cooper”, reports the Guardian. The overall car market in the UK shrank for the fifth month in a row, but “motorists are scrambling to buy electric cars” ahead of tax changes, reports the Daily Telegraph. 

US president Donald Trump is waging a war against life on Earth, argues columnist George Monbiot in the Guardian, as he questions if he and his “minions…want to see the destruction of the habitable planet?” Monbiot lists a string of recent moves by the president which will have damaging environmental impacts, including the “mass destruction of national forests” and support for fossil-fuel projects. He describes such actions as “vengeful nihilism”, writing that “it is hard to avoid the thought that environmental destruction is not just a means by which Trump serves his corporate backers, but an end in itself”. He continues to discuss the “definitive fantasy of escape” that is Elon Musk’s proposal for reaching Mars. “This is the only planet in the universe to which we are adapted…This is our heaven and there can be no other,” concludes Monbiot. 

Elsewhere, an editorial in the Irish Times describes a new liquified “natural” gas terminal in the country as a “necessary compromise”. An editorial in the Times focuses on EDF’s plans to use music as a deterrent near its under-construction Hinkley Point C nuclear plant, speculating about the playlist and quipping the “status quo is sturgeon on the ridiculous”. Separately, in the Times, columnist Hugo Rifkind argues that “fear, not ethics, is driving the Tesla boycott” following their falling sales in Europe over February covered above.

Meanwhile, an editorial in the climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph ahead of the chancellor’s spring statement in the UK later this month hits out at reported cuts planned by Rachel Reeves, arguing they “will be more than counter-balanced by the additional costs of net-zero and new workers’ rights”. Following recent comments from former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak regarding the country’s net-zero target, Daily Telegraph columnist and assistant editor Michael Deacon argues that net-zero is a “dangerous” idea. Separately, also in the Daily Telegraph, contributing editor Dia Chakravarty hits out at concerns around inclusivity within a “green transition” expressed by the Climate Change Committee, dubbing proposals to support minorities with public travel as “absurd”.  

Finally, an editorial in the climate-sceptic Sun argues that “scrapping ruinously expensive net-zero targets is another easy win at a time of huge global threat”. Separately, climate-sceptic Reform UK leader Nigel Farage hits out at “net-zero lunacy” in a comment piece for the Sun. 

Some climate modelling projections “overestimate” future Arctic warming and precipitation, according to a new study. Using observational datasets and modelling, the study authors project almost 1C less warming and 1mm less monthly precipitation in the Arctic by the end of this century under an intermediate emissions scenario, compared to previous projections. They identify the largest reductions in warming and precipitation projections in the Barents-Kara seas. These changes are due to an “overestimation of historical global warming and excessive sea ice in the models”, the researchers write.