Politico reports that “EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra is considering options to soften the bloc’s 2040 climate goal as he tries to contain a backlash against Europe’s climate ambitions”. The outlet continues: “The European Commission, the EU’s executive, is expected to propose legislation in the coming weeks to adopt a previously announced target to cut 90% of greenhouse gas pollution by 2040. But to allay political concerns about the effort’s cost to heavy industry and agriculture, Hoekstra is weighing ‘flexibilities’ for reaching that goal, according to a commission official and two people briefed on the discussions…The options being discussed range from allowing countries to defer steeper cuts to letting them count carbon reductions they pay for in other countries. Another idea would be to lean more on carbon that forests or technology can remove from the air.” An editorial in Bloomberg argues that “Europe keeps going green as the going gets tough”, but adds: “Europe’s fundamental predicament in addressing both the clean energy transition and its new security challenges is political. Its centrist leaders must demonstrate to voters that closer cooperation and deeper integration can deliver results. If they don’t succeed now, they might not get another chance.”

Separately, Bloomberg says: “Germany added more onshore wind turbines in the past decade than any other European country, but a severe slump in output this month shows how the nation’s energy system is still at the mercy of the weather and its old fossil-fuel plants. Wind speeds slumped about 12% in March from a year earlier, because of a North Atlantic ocean pattern that put Germany in an unusually long-lasting high-pressure bullseye. That sent average daily power generation from the nation’s thousands of turbines to its lowest level since 2016 and kept power prices elevated. The slump highlights how once again Europe’s biggest power market has to be bailed out by its legacy coal and gas plants and how difficult it will be for Germany to substantially reduce emissions from its power sector.” Another Bloomberg article reports: “France’s greenhouse gas emissions fell at a slower pace in 2024 than in previous years as efforts to curb pollution in the transport and building sectors lagged. Emissions fell by 1.8% last year to 366m tonnes of CO2 equivalent, led by a 12% drop in the energy production sector that benefited from rising nuclear and renewable output, according to Citepa, a non-profit group that provides data to the Environment Ministry. That compares with a drop of 5.8% in 2023.”

There is widespread media coverage of a “police raid” last Thursday in which, according to CNN, “six women attending a meeting on climate change and the war in Gaza” at a Quaker meeting house in London were arrested. The broadcaster adds: “Quakers, a nickname for members of the Religious Society of Friends, follow a religious tradition that originally grew from Protestant Christianity in the 17th century. Quakers have a long history of supporting protest movements and non-violence is one of their core beliefs.” A statement issued by Paul Parker, a recording clerk for Quakers in Britain, said: “No-one has been arrested in a Quaker meeting house in living memory.” The Guardian says the women were members of the protest group Youth Demand. The newspaper adds: “Youth Demand describes itself as ‘a youth-led nonviolent civil resistance campaign demanding the UK stops arming Israel and cancels all new oil and gas granted since 2021’…The Met police said it had arrested six people at the meeting on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance. It said it arrested five other people for the same offence on Friday – four in London and one in Exeter. The police said those arrested were part of Youth Demand and claimed those attending the meeting were planning direct action in the capital next month.”

In other UK news, the Daily Mail reports: “Ed Miliband is failing to tackle soaring energy bills while risking power shortages in his race to net-zero, MPs have warned. In a ‘fresh humiliation’ for the energy secretary, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) criticised the time being taken on reviews of gas and electricity prices. It urged the government to set out a timetable for reducing electricity bills through its previous commitments to rebalance the costs of electricity and gas. The PAC also said Mr Miliband must do more to convince parliament he has a ‘robust plan’ for ensuring energy security when it is more reliant on ‘intermittent renewables’.” The Financial Times says: “The UK government should replace the windfall tax on oil and gas ‘as soon as practicable’, a business-led task force has said, warning the window of opportunity to secure the future of the North Sea is ‘closing fast’. The North Sea Transition Taskforce, backed by the British Chambers of Commerce, said ministers have chosen to ‘wait too long’ with their decision to replace the ‘flawed’ energy profits levy in 2030.” The Daily Telegraph covers the story under the headline: “Miliband urged to scrap windfall tax to avoid mass job losses in North Sea.” The Times carries a comment piece by Philip Rycroft, chair of the North Sea Transition Taskforce, under the headline: “Ministers must act now to save the North Sea.”

Elsewhere, the Daily Telegraph platforms the concerns of Sir Dave Lewis, the former Tesco boss “spearheading an audacious plan to power millions of UK homes with cheap solar and wind power from Morocco”, who warns that the UK “risks missing out on a pioneering £25bn green energy project because of ministerial dithering”. The Guardian has a news feature under the headline: “Peatland burning ban aims to protect wildlife and England’s carbon stores.”

Meanwhile, the right-leaning newspapers continue their campaigning against net-zero across their news pages with articles about the alleged negative impact on “fishermen”, “boats”, “plastics” and “data centres”. Finally, the Daily Telegraph reports: “Sir Keir Starmer is poised to accept the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and align with EU rules to hit net-zero. The government wants to rejoin the EU’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) carbon market, which it left when Brexit took effect at the end of 2020. But the Telegraph can reveal it will mean changing British rules to match EU laws, accepting decisions from a foreign court and pressure to stay in lockstep with Brussels’ net-zero policies.”

The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has announced that it has discovered a “major oilfield in the eastern South China Sea, with proven reserves exceeding 100m tonnes”, reports Xinhua. The state newswire adds: “The newly discovered Huizhou 19-6 oilfield marks a breakthrough in China’s offshore oil exploration, as it is the country’s first large-scale integrated clastic oilfield discovered in deep to ultra-deep layers, CNOOC said. Situated about 170km from Shenzhen in south China’s Guangdong Province, the oilfield sits at an average water depth of 100 metres. Test drilling has yielded a daily production of 413 barrels of crude oil and 68,000 cubic metres of natural gas, demonstrating its potential.” Reuters says the field is “not in a disputed part of the South China Sea and lies within China’s Exclusive Economic Zone, which runs for 200 nautical miles or 370km from its coast”. It continues: “Such [ultra-deep] reserves are challenging for oil and gas exploration, given the high temperatures and pressures exerted at these depths. China wants to reduce its import dependency to bolster its energy security, but its crude oil imports are expected to peak as early as next year as transport fuel demand begins to decline for the world’s top oil buyer.” Separately, Reuters reports that CNOOC saw profits grow 11% last year to 138bn yuan ($19bn), driven by “record oil and gas output”.

Meanwhile, China has issued a new development plan for its aluminium industry, including a target for increasing the “ratio of clean-energy usage in the electrolytic aluminium industry to more than 30%” by 2027, energy news outlet International Energy Net reports. China also aims to “raise recycled aluminium output by more than 15m tonnes” by 2027, the outlet adds. Bloomberg says “companies won’t be allowed to build new alumina plants in heavily polluted areas” under a directive that “mirrors similar guidance…given to copper smelters”. The plan also aims to “guide the elimination of uncompetitive producers”, financial news outlet China’s Securities Journal notes. Under the plan, aluminium producers are urged to “participate in renewable projects such as solar, wind, hydrogen and energy storage systems”, as well as “engage in green electricity trading…and [invest] in clean-power projects to increase clean energy use”, according to industry news outlet BJX News.

China’s installed non-fossil-fuel power capacity “surpassed two terawatts (TW) for the first time” as at the end of February, representing a “cumulative increase of 103%” since 2021, the beginning of the 14th five-year plan, according to Communist party-affiliated People’s Daily. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post also covers the story, stating that “non-fossil fuels now account…for 58.8% of China’s total installed power capacity, edging closer to Beijing’s 60% target for this year”. China issued 256m green electricity certificates (GECs) in February, a “five-fold increase year-on-year…involving 64,000 renewable energy projects”, China Energy News reports. China has also issued a “digital transformation” plan to make its light industry “more high-end, intelligent and greener”, says Xinhua. State broadcaster CCTV says China has connected to the grid a 200 gigawatt (GW) wind power plant – the country’s “largest single-machine onshore wind power project” – in the province of Inner Mongolia, meeting annual demand for “about 670,000 people”.

Finally, the coal mining and washing industry’s net profits in the first two months of 2025 fell 47% year-on-year to 51bn yuan ($7bn), according to industry news outlet China Energy Net. Energy. And Dialogue Earth publishes a dialogue between Zhao Pei, an energy campaigner, and energy analyst Putra Adhguna about how China and Indonesia’s coal-dependent regions “can learn from each other” on transitioning away from fossil fuels.

The Associated Press (AP) reports that the Trump administration is “terminating grants for two clean-energy projects and roughly 300 others funded by the Department of Energy are in jeopardy as the president prioritises fossil fuels” The newswire adds: “The DOE is canceling two awards to a nonprofit clean-energy thinktank, RMI [formerly known as the Rocky Mountain Institute] in Colorado, according to a document from the agency confirming the cancellations that was reviewed by the Associated Press on Friday. One was for nearly $5.3m to retrofit low-income multifamily buildings in Massachusetts and California to demonstrate ways to reduce the use of energy and lower planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. The other was for $1.5m to assess business models for electric vehicle carsharing in US cities.” The Washington Post has an article headlined: “The US coal industry is dying. Trump threw it a lifeline.” The New York Times carries a feature headlined: “How Lee Zeldin went from environmental moderate to dismantling the EPA. He once talked about the need to fight climate change. Now, he embraces Elon Musk, lavishes praise on the president and strives to stand out in a MAGA world.”

In other US news, AP reports that an “expanse of Gulf Coast federal waters larger than the state of Colorado was unlawfully opened up for offshore drilling leases, according to a ruling by a federal judge, who said the Department of Interior did not adequately account for the offshore drilling leases’ impacts on planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions and an endangered whale species”. E&E News explains how climate researchers in the US are “waiting for the axe to fall”. And a feature in Le Monde says it is an “incredibly confusing and chaotic situation for climate science in the US”.

There is continuing coverage around the world of extreme weather, following last week’s fires in South Korea and the south-east US. In Australia, the Guardian reports that Queensland cities and towns are dealing with the effects of flooding – including extensive livestock losses and widespread damage – after a “year’s worth of rain fell in a matter of days”. It adds: “The north Queensland city of Townsville would ‘almost certainly’ surpass its annual rainfall record this week, just three months into 2025.” Queensland premier David Crisafulli warned that the losses in livestock as a result of the flooding will be “soul destroying”, reports another Guardian article. He added: “We’re dealing with tens of thousands of stock losses across beef, as well as sheep and goats. There’ll be a massive economic impact, but there’s also that social and personal impact when you lose your livelihood.” The article also quotes a local mayor, who said: “We’re in uncharted territory. We’ve never been here before.” ABC News, CNN and Sky News all have the story.

In the US, the Texas Tribune says that flooding caused by severe storms has left at least three dead with “more than 200” needing rescue in southern Texas. The outlet adds: “In Harlingen, officials said their city received a record-breaking 21.5 inches [546mm] of rain this week, beating its all time two-day total rainfall record set in 1912.” Fox Weather says: “At least one person was killed Sunday after severe weather battered the central US. The storms, which spanned from the southern Great Lakes region to as far south as Texas and Louisiana, packed destructive wind gusts, large hail and tornadoes.” The outlet says as many as “109 million people” were threatened across the region by the extreme weather. USA Today says the fires continued to “rage” across the Carolinas over the weekend.

In the frontpage interview with the Daily Telegraph, Emma Pinchbeck, the chief executive UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC), says that she “understands” why some people are “angry” about the push towards decarbonising the economy by mid-century: “It never works to force people to change their lives,” she says. But she insists that there are plenty of signs of progress: “Regardless of what you feel about the politics of net-zero or about climate change action, the economics of the energy transition are astounding. The International Energy Agency is saying global emissions may well peak by 2030. And then start declining, which is in line with where it needs to be to meet the Paris Agreement.” The article continues: “‘I am not trying to sugar coat things,’ she explains, but says that the sceptics who argue that we can do nothing and nothing will change are naïve.” Pinchbeck tells the newspaper that “there is change coming”, adding: “The trend lines already show, for example, people are eating less meat [and that applies to her, too]. One study talks about us eating six kebabs rather than eight, but we also need to make the alternatives cheaper, tastier and more available. That is enough to drive change and farmers have always responded to change.”

Meanwhile, in other UK comment, BusinessGreen editor-in-chief James Murray says: “Can the UK be both a clean energy and defence industrial ‘superpower’? Of course it can.” The Daily Mail clears a whole page for climate-sceptic commentator Dominic Lawson to argue that “grotesquely hypocritical MPs are hammering our economy with net-zero dogma while letting other countries off the hook”. The Daily Mail also has an editorial that states: “The government fails to grasp that through tax hikes, net-zero, high energy costs for industry and a bloated state, it has stalled the engine of growth. Until that engine is restarted, Britain will be going nowhere.” The Daily Telegraph has the Conservative shadow cabinet member Robert Jenrick claiming, without offering any evidence, that “Ed Miliband’s head-first rush to reach net-zero is crippling businesses and family finances”. Also in the Daily Telegraph, Roger Bootle (“one of the City’s leading economists”) argues: “The really big prize would be to abandon the current frantic pursuit of net-zero and to embrace all the policies that would give Britain cheap energy. The Conservatives have recently made this jump. For Labour, is this a leap too far?” [According to the CCC, shifting to net-zero would cut household energy bills and motoring costs by £1,400 per year by 2040.] Finally, the Times carries a news feature headlined: “Why our solar panels are inseparable from Chinese slave labour.”

Justin Rowlatt, BBC News’s climate editor, asks: “So, did [Just Stop Oil] really win and does this mark an end to the chaos caused by its climate protests?” He writes: “In the face of stiffer sentences, some climate campaigners have said they will turn to more clandestine activities. One new group says it plans a campaign of sabotage against key infrastructure. In a manifesto published online it says it plans to ‘kickstart a new phase of the climate activist movement, aiming to shut down key actors of the fossil fuel economy’. That’s not a direction the JSO members I spoke to said they wanted to go.” He concludes: “JSO has said its last protest – to be held at the end of April – will mark ‘the end of soup on Van Goghs, cornstarch on Stonehenge and slow marching in the streets’. But don’t believe it. When pressed, the JSO members I spoke to said they may well turn back to disruptive tactics but under a new name and with a new and as yet unspecified objective.” The Daily Telegraph’s personal obsession with Ed Miliband continues with a column by Robert Taylor ending with the line: “Just Stop Oil might have claimed success, but the campaign to Just Stop Miliband starts now.”

In other comment, an editorial in the Times says that “Trump’s obsession with Greenland illustrates the Arctic’s importance”, adding: “The suspicion must be that Mr Trump, ever the businessman, is ­interested in what lies beneath Greenland’s vast icecap and wants the US to be there when some of it melts.” On the same theme, Timothy Snyder, a history professor at Yale University, writes in the Guardian: “We [the US] really do have a problem taking responsibility. The US has fallen well behind its allies and its rivals in the Arctic, in part because members of Vance’s political party denied for decades the reality of global warming, which has made it hard for the US navy to persuade Congress of the need to commission icebreaker ships…As with everything Musk-Trump does, however, the cui bono question about imperialism in Greenland is easy to answer: Russia benefits.”

An editorial in the Washington Post [which, under its pro-Trump owner Jeff Bezos, has been forced to only run comment pieces that support “two pillars: personal liberties and free markets”] argues that Trump’s moves against Biden-era policies “exposes a basic misunderstanding of the fight against climate change”. The article continues: “It is not only about restricting economic activity. Far more important to the effort – and what should excite this administration – is building stuff. Fighting climate change should involve energising the economy, including by expanding solar and wind power, which are already the fastest-growing sources of electricity in history and are proliferating in many Republican-led states. The country also needs added transmission lines to make the electrical grid more resilient and to move energy around the country as needed. And it needs advanced nuclear reactors, still in development, which have the potential to spark an energy renaissance. Other technologies, including batteries with expanded storage and more efficient electric vehicles, are important, too. All such building projects could create jobs and boost gross domestic product growth while sharpening the US’s competitive edge against its adversaries. Trump should view this not as some left-wing agenda, but as an opportunity…The Trump administration’s embrace of the tired climate denialism that Republicans have toyed with for years shows a frustrating lack of imagination.”

The expansion of aquatic vegetation across “northern” lakes drove a 125% increase in methane emissions over 1984-2021, according to new research. The authors used satellite imagery to monitor aquatic vegetation in 2.7m lakes. They find that 72.5% of the lakes experienced higher “greenness” over 1984-2021. According to the study, lake area and fertiliser use were the main determinants of vegetation expansion in densely populated areas, while temperature was the main driver in sparsely populated areas. The authors say their findings highlight the “necessity of incorporating aquatic vegetation in estimates of methane emissions from northern lakes”.