There is widespread reporting of the imminent closure of Ratcliffe-on-Soar, the UK’s last coal-fired power plant. The Guardian says the plant will be closing tonight after generating electricity for 57 years and after agreeing a “just-transition” plan for its staff. The Times quotes shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho saying the UK’s coal phaseout was made possible by building more offshore windfarms than any other country other than China. Citing Carbon Brief, the newspaper says the government’s plan for clean power by 2030 would mean phasing out gas twice as fast as the coal phaseout. Reuters, the Press Association, the Washington Post, the Economist, Agence France-Presse, ABC News and ITV News all carry pieces on the coal phaseout milestone. (Carbon Brief has in-depth coverage of how the phaseout has been achieved.)

Separately, the UK’s coal regulator the Coal Authority has refused to grant licences for what would have been the country’s first coal mine in 30 years, the Press Association reports. The newswire says the authority has not publicly revealed why it refused permission. The Daily Telegraph says the decision came “weeks after the Labour government withdrew support for it over environmental concerns”. Elsewhere, the Guardian says of Port Talbot in South Wales, the “steel town [is]…braced for the shutdown of the final furnace at its plant on Monday”. It adds: “The closure is part of Tata’s transition towards a greener form of steelmaking as it builds a £1.25bn electric arc furnace for the Port Talbot site by 2027, which produces steel by melting scrap metal.” BBC News also reports from Port Talbot on the blast furnace closure.

Heavy flooding and landslides have killed 193 people in Nepal, the Associated Press reports. The events were caused by days of “unceasing rain”, the New York Times reports. It says: “Nepal, the home of Mount Everest, is prone to landslides and floods because of its mountainous terrain and heavy monsoons. But the warming climate has made weather events more dangerous and deadly, causing frequent flooding from melting glaciers. Climate change has also intensified rainfall. At the same time, rapid development and haphazard construction have added to the risk that lives will be lost in natural disasters.” The Nepali Times says the Kathmandu Valley has seen “half its average rainfall in less than two days”. Reuters says dozens were still missing on Sunday, according to officials, and that the floods had brought the capital Kathmandu to a “standstill”. It adds: “Haphazard development amplifies climate change risks in Nepal, say climate scientists at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).” Agence France-Presse coverage says: “Deadly rain-related floods and landslides are common across South Asia during the monsoon season from June to September, but experts say climate change is increasing their frequency and severity.”

Meanwhile, Associated Press says Typhoon Krathon was hitting the Philippines today, while Reuters reports that it is also expected to cross Taiwan.

Hurricane Helene has killed at least 64 people in the US, caused widespread destruction and left millions without power in the south-east of the country, the Associated Press reports. The newswire says flooding in North Carolina has been described as the worst in a century, including one community, Spruce Pines, being “doused” by 60cm of rain over five days. [Spruce Pines is the location of a mine that produces the uniquely high-purity quartz used in the crucibles that make silicon chips, including solar panels. However, alternatives are already under development.] Helene is expected to cause up to $110bn in economic loss and damages, according to estimates cited by AP, which adds: “Climate change has exacerbated conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful cyclones sometimes in a matter of hours.” CNN says there have been deaths across five US states. The Guardian quotes the head of disaster relief agency FEMA Deanne Criswell saying: “This storm took a while to develop, but once it did it intensified very rapidly – and that’s because of the warm waters in the Gulf that’s creating more storms that are reaching this major category level…In the past, damage from hurricanes was primarily wind damage, but now we’re seeing so much more water damage and that is a result of the warm waters which is a result of climate change.” CBS News says Helene “left a trail of damaged homes in its wake [in Florida], causing up to an estimated $6bn in private insurance losses”. It adds that Florida premiums are already about 140% higher than the US average and says: “With extreme weather becoming more frequent and destructive due to climate change, homeowners in parts of the US facing mounting risks are likely to see significantly higher insurance costs in the years ahead, according to a June paper from experts at the University of Wisconsin and University of Pennsylvania.” The Associated Press says that, in recent years, hurricanes in the US have left hundreds dead and caused billions in damages. Reuters notes that some 24% of oil production in the US Gulf of Mexico was “shut in” on Friday due to the impact of Helene.

A comment for the New York Times by author Jeff VanderMeer says hurricanes are “increasingly supercharged by climate change and hotter water in the Gulf of Mexico, get bigger faster and are more likely to ravage and flood the interior than storms past”. Veteran environmentalist Bill McKibben writes at his Crucial Years blog about how warm air holds more water vapour than cold. Analysis from the Washington Post says six locations on the Florida coast saw their “worst storm surge ever” during Helene. Analysis from the Guardian says that Helene has disrupted campaigning by the Republican ticket, calling it “the latest instance of Donald Trump’s presidential bid being affected by extreme weather worsened by a climate crisis that both Trump and Vance have routinely mocked”.

Separately, the New York Times reports that Tropical Storm John made landfall in Mexico for the second time on Friday. Citing a recent study, it adds that the “rapid intensification of storms is now twice as likely, at least for Atlantic hurricanes, partially because of human-caused climate change driven by the burning of fossil fuels”.

The UK’s new climate envoy, Rachel Kyte, is to retain her role at a “charity whose founders made a multimillion-pound donation to the Labour party and have investments in fossil fuels”, the Guardian reports. It continues: “After controversy surrounded her appointment, some senior figures in the UK and global green movements rallied to Kyte, who is widely respected around the world for her decades of work on climate and development issues.” The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail carry criticism of Kyte for having previously worn an Extinction Rebellion badge.

In other UK news, the Guardian says that North Sea oil and gas firms are “failing to switch their investments to renewable energy, research has shown”. Separate coverage in the Guardian looks at whether the next Conservative leader of the opposition will “embrace [the] green agenda or oppose it”. The Times says public charging for electric cars in the UK is the sixth-most expensive in Europe. The Financial Times says: “Concerns over wind turbines striking or displacing marine birdlife has emerged as one of the most onerous barriers…for offshore wind projects.” The Daily Telegraph reports that the Falkland Islands “is poised to approve a vast oil field in its waters” in what it calls “a diplomatic challenge to the UK and the energy secretary Ed Miliband’s anti-fossil fuel policies”. The Guardian says: “Half of Britons plan to ration energy use this winter as 10% bill rise looms.” The Sunday Times reports that the government is “set to water down a £1bn ‘packaging tax’ proposed by the former Conservative government”. The Daily Telegraph, in a story illustrated with a montage overlaying green fields with huge numbers of pylons, says plans to expand the electricity grid face a “growing legal threat from a string of councils”. The Press Association reports on calls from union leaders for action to “save Scotland’s only oil refinery” at Grangemouth. The Daily Telegraph has a feature, illustrated with a montage of energy secretary Ed Miliband appearing to lay waste to rows of housing amid clouds of black smoke, criticising plans to require rented homes to meet minimum efficiency standards. And another Daily Telegraph article says that “demand” for electric cars “slumps to four-year low”. [EV registrations in the year to date were up by more than 10% year-on-year.]

Finally, Reuters reports that three Just Stop Oil activists threw soup at two Van Gogh “Sunflower” paintings “just hours after two other members of the protest group were jailed for doing the same thing in 2022”. The newswire notes that the 2022 protest, for which the activists received two-year jail terms, had left the painting itself unharmed, but had damaged the picture frame. The Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph both have the story.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz and his government’s two coalition parties – the Greens and the “pro-business” Free Democrats – are “gearing up for tough budget talks” at COP29 in Azerbaijan, reports Bloomberg. The outlet explains that Germany’s contribution to “green projects” overseas fell last year due to a 12% cut in the development ministry’s budget, which is responsible for the lion’s share of international aid contributions. The German government set aside €5.7bn for climate protection and mitigation in emerging markets in 2023, less than the €6bn Scholz promised Germany would pay annually from 2025, notes Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, Bild reports that the construction of Germany’s first onshore liquified “natural” gas (LNG) import terminal started on Saturday. The terminal in Stade, Lower Saxony, with costs estimated at around €1bn, is set to become operational in 2027. However, environmental groups have criticised the terminal’s construction and filed a lawsuit to stop it. In addition, Die Zeit notes that activists from the group Ende Gelände have occupied the construction site of a planned LNG import terminal in Brunsbüttel, Schleswig-Holstein. The newspaper quotes a spokesperson for the group saying: “It is utterly absurd to import more dirty fracked gas in the midst of the climate crisis.”

Finally, Politico reports that German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said yesterday that her government would “work with” Donald Trump’s administration, if elected, even after the Republican candidate made false claims about Germany’s renewables sector.

Campaigners have criticised Azerbaijan, Brazil and the UAE – known as the COP “troika” for hosting COP28, 29 and 30 – the Financial Times reports. It says they “lambasted the three nations – all major oil and gas producers – over their climate commitments”. Reuters says the UAE will publish its new climate pledge ahead of COP29 in November. Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph carries a comment by Varuzhan Nersesyan, Armenia’s ambassador to the UK, who writes: “Baku [capital of Azerbaijan, which was until recently at war with Armenia] is hosting COP29 in November and will use it to call for a ‘global truce’. But it first needs to show it means what it says.”

An editorial in the Times comments on the closure of the UK’s last coal-fired power station at the end of today and says that the “fuel that powered the industrial revolution is passing, unloved, into history”. The newspaper says: “Britain can be proud of its record on refashioning its energy mix over the last decade and a half. In 1968, when Ratcliffe opened, coal supplied 74% of the nation’s electricity. That share was still 39% in 2010 despite the “dash for gas” in the 1990s. Yet in 2017, the country was able to enjoy its first coal-free day in terms of electricity generation. Carbon pricing and emissions limits forced coal out of the grid, together with a second dash, for renewables.” However, the editorial goes on to criticise the government’s “doctrinaire” plans for clean power by 2030, saying: “The grid is nowhere near ready for this revolution in terms of distribution and storage…Extending the role of gas beyond 2030 is a prudent safeguard against blackouts.”

In a comment for the New York Times, Sky News economics editor Ed Conway writes: “Few in Britain – including me – will mourn the passing of coal or the closure of plants such as Ratcliffe…Even so, it’s hard not to feel a little nervous about what, at its heart, is an experiment, one fraught with danger. Britain has turned itself into a test case for what happens when you take an industrial economy and rapidly wind down the use of fossil fuels. Already, there are consequences: higher power costs and a shrinking manufacturing base.”

The Sunday Times carries an article by Ben Southwood and Sam Bowman, editors of the magazine Works in Progress, and Samuel Hughes, head of housing at right-leaning thinktank the Centre for Policy Studies. It says they are the authors of “the essay gripping Westminster”, a “15,000-word diagnosis of the country’s long decline [that] has the corridors of power abuzz”, which they have abridged for the newspaper. The article says, inaccurately, that wind and solar are a “core reason why” electricity in the UK is more expensive than elsewhere and that “there is little we can do about the high cost of intermittent renewables”. (Last week, BusinessGreen editor wrote: “[F]or all [the essay’s] impressive research, the section on energy in particular should not be taken as gospel. Indeed, some of its core claims are highly contested and run directly counter to the broad consensus on the best, fastest and most cost-effective way to decarbonise the UK’s energy system…[The essay] barely touches on how the primary driver behind the recent increases in energy prices has been the UK’s outsized exposure to volatile fossil gas prices.”)

Writing for the Financial Times, former cabinet secretary and chair of Frontier Economics Gus O’Donnell argues against the last government’s “absurd” fiscal rules in favour of greater government investment. He writes: “If the new National Wealth Fund leverages its balance sheet to buy a stake in a green energy start-up, the current rule counts the debt but not the value of the financial asset.” He also cites the recent offshore wind auction, as an example of bringing in the private sector to boost investment to “deliver real results without any need for government money up front”. O’Donnell also backs the recent Draghi report on EU competitiveness, writing: “Why not demonstrate to the EU what it is missing by adopting his excellent recommendations first?” A related Financial Times news story says chancellor Rachel Reeves is “looking at loosening fiscal rules to allow her to increase borrowing to pay for investment”. It says a report from accounting firm EY estimates the UK needs £1.6tn in investment by 2040 in areas including energy, transport and defence.

In other UK comment, a Times editorial says Just Stop Oil protesters were handed “appropriate” two-years jail terms for criminal damage on Friday, after throwing tomato soup at Van Gogh’s glass-covered Sunflowers. It says: “In sentencing the pair, the judge recognised not only the thousands of pounds worth of damage done to the painting’s 17th-century frame, on which the soup acted as a “paint stripper”, but also the harm that might have been done had soup seeped behind the glass.” An editorial in the Sun says “three cheers for the moral clarity of the judge” in the case. The Sunday Times carries a comment by climate-sceptic columnist Rod Liddle, attacking “adenoidal” energy secretary Ed Miliband and the government’s Great British Energy “chimera”. The Daily Telegraph gives a column to Karl Williams of right-leaning thinktank the Centre for Policy Studies, who criticises “Ed Miliband’s socialist energy plans”. Another Daily Telegraph column, by Zoe Strimpel, criticises the “weirdness of contemporary eco-activism”.

A Politico feature at the end of New York “climate week” looks ahead to the US election and says: “Diplomats, ministers, green advocates and businesses alike avoided engaging publicly with the prospects of a Trump win…the lack of a concrete, unified counter-Trump strategy – during dozens of conversations and interviews – illustrates the difficulties that would confront the global climate movement if it had to face another hostile administration in Washington.”

A new study finds that the northern Amazon has seen a three-fold increase in the number of days with “extreme fire weather conditions” since 1971. The authors use reanalysis datasets to investigate changes in the compound weather conditions conducive to high fire risk over South America, such as temperature, “dryness” and humidity. They find that “the surface temperature of the tropical Pacific Ocean modulates the interannual variability of dry compounds in South America”.