According to the “most comprehensive scientific analysis to date”, the world’s glaciers are melting faster than “ever recorded under the impact of climate change”, reports BBC News. Mountain glaciers act as a freshwater resource for millions of people around the world, locking up enough water to raise sea levels by 32cm (13in), if they melted entirely, the outlet continues. But, between 2000 and 2023, they lost more than 6,500bn tonnes – or 5% – of their ice, the article notes. The glaciers lost an average of 273bn tonnes of ice every year, or 30 years of water for the entire global population, reports the Guardian. The assessment, led by scientists from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Zurich, found that regional losses were highly variable, with Antarctic and subantarctic islands losing 2% of their volume, but central Europe’s glaciers losing 39%, it adds. The rate of loss is accelerating, increasing by 36% between the first and second halves of the records, reports Le Monde. The last four years set records, with more than 400bn tonnes per year lost, while, in 2023, this rose to 548bn, the article notes. NewScientist quotes Noel Gourmelen at the University of Edinburgh, who says: “Any degree of warming matters for glaciers. They are a barometer for climate change.”

HSBC has become the latest bank to “water down” its environmental commitments, pushing back key targets from 2030 to 2050, reports the Times. The company had been targeting net-zero in its own operations and supply chain by 2030, but has now pushed these commitments back by 20 years, it adds. “In a sign of a further looming climbdown, it also disclosed that it had started a separate review of its interim 2030 targets for financed emissions, which are emissions from the clients it funds,” notes the article. The delay brings HSBC, which had “positioned itself as one of the more ambitious banks on emission reductions”, in line with others like Goldman Sachs, notes Reuters. The bank’s financial reports blamed the change in target on a “slower pace of the transition across the real economy” than it had anticipated, as well as a lack of ambitious decarbonisation policies from government, reports BusinessGreen. HSBC has been criticised for delaying its targets, alongside announcing a new long-term bonus plan for its chief executive, Georges Elhedery, potentially worth up to 600% of his salary, reports the Guardian. 

In related news, a group of 48 institutional investors have called on BP to let shareholders vote on planned rowbacks of its climate goals, reports the Financial Times. The call follows the oil giant’s chief executive Murray Auchincloss saying he would “fundamentally reset” the group’s strategy in the face of pressure from pro-fossil fuel US activist hedge fund Elliott Management to boost performance, it adds.

Citizens Advice has found that the owners of the UK’s electricity and gas networks have made billions in profits due to “policy failure” by the regulator Ofgem, reports the Financial Times. Companies made almost £4bn between 2021-2024 because Ofgem’s formula for setting their returns assumed they were paying more for their borrowing than they were, the article continues. Citizen’s Advice’s new report found that the “loophole means the companies in effect benefited from the inflation that has pushed many households into financial difficulty over the past few years”, adds the article. Ofgem allowed regional network companies to recover borrowing costs amid climbing interest rates from household bills, even though many had secured fixed-rate terms on some of their borrowing, reports the Guardian. The article quotes Dame Clare Moriarty, the charity’s chief executive: “We now know that while households have struggled with sky-high energy bills, network companies have been making astronomical profits.”

In other UK news, former prime minister Sir Tony Blair’s thinktank has found net-zero will not create as many jobs as the government has stated, reports the Daily Telegraph. A new report from the group found that “green” jobs will not be enough to reverse the long-term decline in UK industry, the article notes. The report found that net-zero “must be a pillar of the UK’s growth strategy, but it cannot be the whole strategy”, it adds. 

“Troubled” US electric vehicle (EV) maker Nikola has filed for chapter 22 bankruptcy, just months after warning it would likely run out of money this year, reports the Associated Press. “Nikola was a hot start-up and rising star on Wall Street before becoming enmeshed in scandal and its founder was convicted in 2022 for misleading investors about the Arizona company’s technology,” it adds. The company’s stock prices “began to plunge as doubts emerged about the viability of the company’s technology”, reports the Los Angeles Times. The company was once worth $30bn, but revealed this week that its cash balance had fallen to $47m, so will now wind down its operations and sell its assets and intellectual property, reports the Financial Times. The article quotes chief executive Steve Girsky: “Like other companies in the electric vehicle industry, we have faced various market and macroeconomic factors that have impacted our ability to operate.” Reuters highlights other EV start-ups that have recently filed for bankruptcy amid challenging market conditions, including FISKER, Lordstown Motors, Canoo and Proterra. 

In other EV news, General Motors’ “battery guru Kurt Kelty” has said the company is planning to cut Tesla’s lead with lower-cost batteries, reports the Financial Times. The former Tesla executive tells the publication that General Motors is still committed to chief executive Mary Barra’s vision of an “all-electric future”, despite Donald Trump’s election creating a “cloud hanging over the industry”. The FT quotes Kelty saying: “We’ve got to have a business case without the incentives. And so those are just taken out from the beginning.” Elsewhere, the EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič has said the bloc is “ready to discuss” the 10% tariff on car parts brought in by the US government, reports Politico. 

Sweden’s Supreme Court has ruled that Greta Thunberg and hundreds of other climate activists cannot proceed with a class-action lawsuit to force the state to take stronger action against climate change, reports Reuters. The suit was filed in 2022 and argues that the state “violates” the European Convention on Human Rights by not doing enough to limit climate change or mitigate its effects, it adds. The case was the first of its kind in Scandinavia, arguing the government must reduce greenhouse gas emissions to within the limits of what is “technically and economically feasible”, reports Le Monde. It quotes a statement from the Supreme Court on its decision not to take the case up for review, which says: “A court cannot decide that the Riksdag [Swedish parliament] or the government has to take any particular action…The political bodies decide independently which specific climate measures Sweden should take.”

Meanwhile, in the US, two advocacy groups have filed lawsuits against the Trump administration, reports the Guardian. Both focus on the government’s moves to open up US waters to oil and gas drilling, which the plaintiffs claim is illegal, it adds. The article quotes Kristen Monsell, the oceans legal director at the conservation organisation Center for Biological Diversity – one of the organisations involved in one of the lawsuits – who says: “Offshore oil drilling is destructive from start to finish. Opening up more public waters to the oil industry for short-term gain and political points is a reprehensible and irresponsible way to manage our precious ocean ecosystems.” One suit was filed in Alaska and “is likely to be the first of many challenging the administration’s goal of expanding fossil fuel production”, reports the New York Times. The suit argues that, while Congress granted the president power to place protection on offshore areas, it did not grant the executive branch the authority to undo these, it explains. The suit explicitly names Trump and two cabinet officials, interior secretary Doug Burgum and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick. The news of the lawsuits comes as environmentalists express “outrage” as the Trump administration moved to fasttrack fossil-fuel projects through the permitting process, reports the Guardian. Activists have described the administration’s moves as an attempt to sidestep environmental laws that could damage waterways and wetlands, it adds.

Heavy rainfalls in Peru have killed at least 46 people and “affected” more than 8,000 people across the country, reports El Comercio. The extreme weather has also destroyed 635 houses and is expected to continue in the coming days, particularly in the nation’s northern coast and highlands, according to Peru’s national service of meteorology and hydrology. ABS-CBN has published video of the flooding. Inforegión reports that people in affected regions have been “advised to reinforce the roofs of their homes and establish early-warning systems with whistles, bells, sirens or loudspeakers in coordination with local authorities”.

In other news from Latin America, Colombia’s environment minister, Susana Muhamad, and interior minister, Gustavo García Figueroa, have urged the congress to debate a bill aimed at banning fracking in the country, El Espectador reports. The bill also seeks to “prohibit all exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons in five types of unconventional reservoirs”, the outlet notes.

In Brazil, a comment piece in Folha de São Paulo by Ilona Szabó de Carvalho, a political scientist and president of the Igarapé Institute, highlights the “contradiction” within Brazil’s government, which recently announced plans to begin oil exploration off the coast of Amapá while preparing to host COP30. Meanwhile, Rio de Janeiro is undergoing “high levels of heat”, reaching more than 40C, which could continue for “at least three consecutive days” this week, reports BBC news reports, via Folha de São Paulo.

Finally, Mendoza, a province in Argentina, has issued an “emergency declaration of agricultural disaster” in response to a frost and hail storm that impacted 13 departments last month, Los Andes newspaper reports. 

China has issued a draft regulation designed to “protect its domestic rare-earth industry”, which Beijing has “weaponised its dominance” through export controls and restrictions previously, Reuters reports. The draft is the latest move from the Chinese government to “bring the globally critical sector under tighter state control”, the newswire adds. Another Reuters report says that Jiangsu Jiuwu Hi-Tech, a Chinese company, has halted the export of the equipment for processing lithium, a metal used for electric vehicle (EV) batteries, which is the “clearest sign yet” that companies are following Beijing’s export controls. 

Meanwhile, refiners in China will import more crude oil from Brazil and West Africa amid tariff disputes between China and US, as well as US sanctions on Russia and Iran, reports Reuters. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post says China has condemned the tariff moves from the Trump administration at the WTO, warning that these “tariff shocks” will “disrupt global trade and risk domestic inflation, market distortion or even global recession”, according to Li Chenggang, China’s ambassador to the WTO.

Elsewhere, China Energy Media carries an article jointly written by various research institutes saying that extreme weather has occurred frequently in China in recent years, causing a “great impact on people’s lives”, such as cutting off electricity. The article adds that the establishment of a “new electricity system” with renewable energy being the main supplier still faces challenges, but, with the “right design and management”, it will “strongly address the challenges of global warming and extreme weather events”. Power industry news outlet Dianlian Xinmei publishes an article discussing how commercialised “new energy” could help with the reform of thermal power.

In other news, the state-run newspaper China Daily has an article under the headline: “Private sector driving China’s green-power advances.” The Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily says that many “new energy” power-generation projects are “creating a surge of green momentum” in the Gobi desert in China’s western region. Ouyang Minggao, a professor at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, says that “AI-driven computing is accelerating the development of new-energy solutions”, notes another China Daily article. The newspaper adds that AI’s integration into China’s new-energy system will reshape the sector “on an unprecedented scale”.

China’s state news agency Xinhua has published an analysis on the widening “divergence” between Europe and the US’s climate policies. It says that Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement ended Joe Biden’s “green new policy” (which can also be translated into “green new reform”). It adds: “Not only that, climate language itself has even become taboo for the new US government…US climate policy has significantly regressed, putting huge pressure on Europe to achieve its climate goals…The energy strategy implemented by the new US government will have a considerable impact on Europe’s new energy policy.” Xinhua also quotes Xiao Qian, deputy director of the Strategic and Security Research Center at Tsinghua University, saying that, in the face of “significant differences” between Europe and the US on climate change, Europeans would hope for “strengthened international cooperation”. It adds that China as a “doer” of tackling climate change has “increased global confidence”. 

Meanwhile, state-run newspaper Economic Daily has published an article by Zhang Youguo, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, saying that “accelerate”, “collaborate” and “comprehensive” collectively form the three “key terms” for understanding the “overall green transformation of China’s economic and social development”. The Financial Times has a comment by June Yoon, the newspaper’s Asia Lex editor, arguing that Chinese EV manufacturer BYD’s strategy to make its “advanced driver assistance systems a standard feature at no extra cost” is challenging other automakers’ pricing strategy for the technology, which has been a “cash cow” and key to “offsetting declining hardware margins”. Finally, the South China Morning Post has published a comment piece by Christopher Tang, professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, under the headline: “Why China needs broad-based response to Trump’s tariff tantrum.”

Anjali Sharma, an Australian climate activist and the lead litigant in “Sharma v environment minister”, writing in the Guardian argues that Australian “politicians have divorced the issue of global heating from soaring prices”. She points to a bar of chocolate as an example, highlighting that, while inflation is putting pressure on the cost of groceries, “excessive heat, caused by global heating, reduces the quantity of beans harvested and drives up chocolate prices”. Politicians have separated climate from the cost of living, owing to their poor record on climate action, Sharma writes, adding: “This benefits no one but the major parties, as they talk about the cost of fuel, food and electricity one moment, and approve a fossil fuel extension which will drive up these very costs the next.” She concludes: “We owe it to ourselves to know the full picture and to ensure that when we vote in a few months we cast our ballot with climate action – and our future – in mind.”

In other comment, an editorial in the climate-sceptic comment pages of the Wall Street Journal looks at Nikola filing for bankruptcy (see above), arguing its “spectacular market crash is another warning about the perils of industrial policy and chasing government subsidies”. In the Daily Telegraph, the climate-sceptic editor of its Sunday edition, Allister Heath, responds to Trump calling Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator by arguing that if UK prime minister Keri Starmer “really cared” about the West, he “would go for growth, ditch Rachel Reeves and Ed Miliband’s Leftist idiocy, suspend net-zero to cut energy costs, slash taxes and deregulate”.

An editorial in the climate-sceptic Sun takes aim at the UK’s energy and net-zero secretary Ed Miliband for not expanding oil and gas, writing “He is a lost cause.” In the Times, Sir Dieter Helm, a professor of economic policy at the University of Oxford, claims that the “sprint” to net-zero is counterproductive as the UK’s industry has suffered, concluding that “offshoring emissions is bad for the climate, bad for the economy and bad for growth”. In the Daily Telegraph, Richard Tice, the climate-sceptic deputy leader of the hard-right populist Reform UK party, writes that “Labour has finally come clean about the real cost of net-zero”.

Glaciers around the world have lost around 5% of their ice since the start of this century, contributing almost 2cm to global sea-level rise, a new study finds. (See news coverage above.) The researchers analyse glacier data from the scientific community to assess annual mass changes from 2000-2023. They find that glaciers lost around 270bn tonnes of ice each year during this time period. Glacier mass loss in the past couple of decades was around 18% larger than the loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet and more than twice as big as the loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet.