The EU has unveiled its negotiating stance for the COP29 climate talks next month, reports Bloomberg, leaving “unanswered the key question of how it will boost funding for poorer countries in their fight against global warming”. The upcoming climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, has “one clear aim”, the article continues, “turning billions of dollars in climate finance into trillions, while helping countries embark on the climate transition and deal with increasingly extreme weather”. Many EU countries that are “grappling” with increasingly severe budget deficits are trying to pressure countries such as China to “share the burden”, adds Bloomberg. The Council of the EU, made up of member state governments, published its negotiating stance following a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday to “hash out the final version”, reports Reuters. The council’s statement noted that “private investment will have to provide the largest share of the required investment in the green transition”, it adds. This follows the COP29 presidency chief negotiator saying on Monday that the scale of the need for climate finance is trillions of dollars, but the realistic public sector goal is in the “hundreds of billions”, Reuters notes. Irish environment minister Eamon Ryan, who has been appointed to co-lead part of the negotiations at the COP29 summit in Azerbaijan, warned there was a “real risk” of failure at the negotiations, reports Politico. It quotes Ryan speaking at the EU meeting in Luxembourg and saying: “It’s not certain we will get agreement in Baku. It’s not an easy issue when you come down to discussing the financial future and…multilateral cooperation is not exactly the flavour of the month at the moment. So there’s a real risk we might not get agreement.” Ryan said that the “complete injustice of current energy systems” meant developing countries are shut off from global financial markets, leading to issues that could prove to be an obstacle to progress in Baku, reports the Irish Times.

In related news, Australia has launched a bid to host the COP31 climate summit in 2026 in Adelaide, reports the Guardian. South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas declared that hosting COP31 would draw more than 30,000 people and be worth $500m to the state in a speech in Adelaide on Monday, it adds. The country is “vying with Turkey to host the year-ending climate summit”, with a decision expected at next month’s COP29 in Azerbaijan, the article continues. It adds that the Australian government’s bid includes co-hosting the conference with Pacific nations.

The UK is at risk of “experiencing a repeat of the sharp increase in energy costs which has fuelled the continuing cost of living crisis because it relies too heavily on gas”, reports the Guardian, citing analysis from the Energy Crisis Commission. The newspaper says the commission has warned that the country is still  “dangerously underprepared” for another crisis, because it continues to use gas for its power plants and home heating. The Press Association says the commission, which is made up of representatives including Energy UK, Citizens Advice and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), found that the 2021-2022 crisis “exposed various weaknesses in Britain’s energy system across three areas – supply, demand and targeted support for the poorest households”. The Daily Telegraph also has the story.

China’s CRRC Corp has developed the world’s “most powerful” floating offshore wind turbine with a capacity of 20 megawatts (MW), state news agency Xinhua reports. Separately, China’s Dongfang Electric announced that it had developed a 26MW fixed-foundation offshore wind turbine, Bloomberg reports, saying that the new model is “radically larger than anything previously available in the sector”. Meanwhile, state broadcaster CCTV hosted a discussion between the founders of seven solar manufacturers, quoting one as saying China’s solar market is now “distorted and even collapsed”, adding that products would not be sold below cost if production “were aligned with market demand”.

In other China news, a Beijing court concluded the city’s “first carbon emission quota trading case”, which clarified the rules for the “formation and validity of carbon quota trading contracts” following a dispute between a Beijing environmental protection company and a Sichuan power generation company, the state-run legal affairs newspaper People’s Court Daily reports. Bloomberg reports that China’s carbon prices “jumped to 103.49 yuan ($14.62) a tonne”, the highest price on record, as “a looming compliance deadline for industries increased the prospect of a supply shortfall”.

Elsewhere, China’s export growth “unexpectedly slowed” in September, up just 2.4% from a year earlier, the “lowest level” since May, Bloomberg reports. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) also covers the story, citing customs officials as attributing the low figure to “extreme weather disruptions, global shipping congestion and base effects”. CCTV reports that China’s green and low-carbon industrial development accelerated between January and September 2024, with “green technology service sectors”, such as new energy and energy conservation industries, growing by 20% year-on-year, and solar and wind energy industries maintaining “rapid growth”.

Business news outlet Yicai reports that Inch Cape Offshore, an offshore wind farm in the UK backed by “a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned clean energy giant SDIC Power Holdings”, is expected to start construction in December. The Spectator publishes a feature article saying that “if [Ed Miliband] is to have any chance of reaching [the UK’s clean energy goals], China will be key”, adding that “the British government could be handing China control over one of the industries of the future”.

Burning household rubbish to make electricity is now the “dirtiest way the UK generates power”, BBC News reports. Nearly half of the rubbish produced by UK homes is now being incinerated, including increasing amounts of plastic, it continues. The article is based on analysis of five years of data, which it says shows that burning waste produces the same amount of greenhouse gases for each unit of energy as coal power, which ended in the UK at the end of last month. The broadcaster reports that waste industry group the Environmental Services Association contested the findings and said emissions are “challenging to avoid” when dealing with waste. The article says councils have turned to energy-to-waste facilities over the past 15 years following concerns from government about the emissions produced by landfill, resulting in an increase in taxes councils pay for burying waste. It quotes scientists saying that the use of incinerators is a “disaster for the climate” and calling for a ban on new facilities. 

A Guardian editorial on the government’s investment summit, which took place yesterday, says the state must “mediate between workers and capital, rejecting corporate dominance”. It says that politics inherently involves a “contest of competing interests”, but argues that prime minister Keir Starmer “seems naive in believing that problems can be ‘solved’ without confrontation”. The article uses the “green light” given for the expansion of London’s Stansted airport as a key example, saying that the decision will create jobs but that “passenger jets significantly contribute to the climate crisis”. The article says: “Even the government’s own green advisory committee warns that ‘no airport expansions should proceed’ without a clear plan to manage the environmental impact.” Elsewhere, Daily Telegraph investment editor James Baxter-Derrington writes under the headline: “Believe it or not, Keir Starmer is full of good investment ideas.” He says yesterday’s summit included “£24bn to boost the burgeoning clean energy sector, in which the UK must finally stop dithering and make itself a global leader”.

In other comment, a Lex opinion piece in the Financial Times says “Governments’ push towards net-zero could lead to increased cost of upgrading buildings.” A piece in the Hill by the head of the Climate Leadership Council Greg Bertelsen says: “The 2024 presidential cycle has finally given us a vision for an effective climate strategy that elevates American workers. You just have to combine what the two campaigns are saying.” In BusinessGreen, director of policy and strategy at thinktank Ember, Richard Black, makes a case for COP29 to agree a global target for energy storage. 

As part of a special supplement titled “Labour’s net-zero challenge”, the Times has a series of articles looking at the UK’s decarbonisation plans. This includes a piece looking at some of the key areas that will need to be decarbonised if the UK is to meet its net-zero target, including the rollout of heat pumps and EVs and tackling energy costs. It states: “The Conservatives cut emissions from electricity, industry and waste – but now Labour has to tackle the most stubborn issues.” Another piece in the Times’ supplement looks at the “pylon wars” taking place amid the push to expand renewable energy. A further articles explores geoengineering, in which it says the “drastic measures humanity could take to mitigate climate change are clever – but divisive to say the least”.

Despite the record-breaking global temperatures of 2023, a new study says an increase in the rate of warming since the 1970s is not yet “detectable from a statistical perspective”. Using “statistical techniques specifically designed for identifying structural changes in time series”, the researchers assess four global average surface temperature records over 1850-2023. The results show “limited evidence for a warming surge”, the authors say, adding that “an increase of at least 55% is needed for a warming surge to be detectable at the present time”. [Analysis by Carbon Brief, looking at the post-1970s period specifically, shows that the warming rate of 0.18C per decade seen since 1970 has almost doubled to roughly 0.3C per decade over the past 15 years.]