In its latest “world energy outlook” annual report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warns that demand for electricity around the world is rising faster than expected, making it harder for countries to cut carbon emissions, the New York Times reports. The IEA says that, over the next decade, the world could add the equivalent of Japan’s annual electricity demand to grids each year, driven by demand for new factories, electric vehicles, air-conditioners and data centres, the newspaper explains. “All that extra demand makes it tougher to tackle climate change,” the article says, adding: “Previously, the agency expected that global consumption of coal, the dirtiest of fossil fuels, would drop significantly by 2030 as wind and solar power expanded. But with electricity demand rising quickly in places like China and India, coal use is now projected to decline more gradually.” The outlet quotes IEA executive director Fatih Birol, who says the world is “moving at speed into the age of electricity, which will define the global energy system going forward”. 

The IEA report suggests this transition could see fossil fuels become significantly cheaper and more abundant as countries have access to more oil, gas and coal than needed to fuel their economic growth, the Guardian says. Birol says the report confirms the IEA’s forecast that the world’s fossil fuel consumption will peak before 2030 and fall into permanent decline as climate policies take effect, the newspaper reports. But the IEA “also flagged a high level of uncertainty as conflicts embroil the oil and gas-producing Middle East and Russia and as countries representing half of global energy demand have elections in 2024”, says Reuters. The Associated Press focuses its coverage on how the global shift to electric vehicles “is poised to disrupt the global oil market”. It adds: “The agency said based on current trends and policies and the availability of materials, EV will reach 50% of global car sales in 2030.” CNN leads with the potential “relief” for consumers brought by lower energy prices, while the Wall Street Journal notes that “clean energy sources are set to grow at a faster pace than global energy demand by the end of the decade, becoming the largest source of energy in the mid-2030s”. 

The European Union is “sticking to its controversial plans” for curbs on combustion engines from 2035, despite heavy pressure from the car industry to water down the incoming rules, reports the Financial Times. The newspaper says it has seen “answers prepared for the bloc’s climate chief Wopke Hoekstra for when he faces parliamentary hearings next month”, which say that the EU “cannot and should not roll back” its plan to outlaw the sale of new cars powered by fossil fuels. The law, announced in 2021, “has come under fire from Europe’s carmakers as they struggle with flagging electric vehicle sales and intense competition from Chinese manufacturers”, the newspaper explains. However, the briefing says that the new rules create “predictability for investors and manufacturers” and are essential for the bloc to reach its goals on reducing CO2 emissions, as well as to “strengthen the competitiveness of the EU automotive industry”.

Meanwhile, BMW’s chief executive has called for a “correction” to the ban, reports the Times, claiming that it “would afford European manufacturers less reliance on China for batteries”. With the mood among carmakers and consumers “trending towards one of pessimism”, Oliver Zipse says that “a strictly technology-agnostic path within the policy framework is essential”, the newspaper reports. Zipse – speaking at the Paris motor show – “has long pushed for regulators to permit various technologies – including alternative fuels like e-fuels or biofuels and hydrogen fuel cell cars”, notes Reuters. The Daily Telegraph also covers the comments and reports that the motor show “reveals the problems with Europe’s EV market”. Finally, The Daily Telegraph’s climate-sceptic columnist Matthew Lynn says the “backlash” against EVs in the US could “end up costing [Democratic nominee Kamala Harris] the presidency”.

EU ministers have “nodded to support for nuclear energy” for the first time as part of the bloc’s mandate for the UN climate summit, in what the Financial Times describes as “a sign of atomic power’s rising prominence as an energy source”. It continues: “Deep divisions between France and Germany held up the discussions over the EU’s negotiating stance for the COP29 gathering, but EU countries ultimately agreed that they should call to accelerate ‘low-emissions technologies’ in line with a deal made at the previous COP28 summit that included nuclear power. The push for more recognition of nuclear energy symbolises a shift in attitudes towards the power source in Europe, which were hardened against it following Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.” According to the newspaper, officials involved in the discussions “said the nuclear debate had distracted from wider questions about the EU’s own energy mix and its contributions to international climate finance”. One European official involved in the negotiations said nuclear positions had become “religious”, the FT notes, and that the “elephant in the room” was the lack of discussion over how much the EU would contribute in funding to poorer countries most affected by climate change.

A group of MPs and experts have urged the government to ensure that all homes in England are built to the most efficient low-carbon standards, or risk locking households into higher bills and greenhouse gas emissions for decades, reports the Guardian. The government is “mulling changes to the building regulations in England to bring in a ‘future homes standard’ that would require all new homes to be built with low-carbon equipment such as heat pumps and solar panels”, the newspaper explains. However, “lobbyists from the industry are telling ministers that it will be impossible to meet the government’s flagship target of building 1.5m new homes in this parliament” under these standards, it says. In a letter sent to housing and planning minister Matthew Pennycook, 28 MPs, three peers and 12 industry bodies and civil society organisations warn that “it is essential that these [1.5m new] homes are built to standards that ensure low bills and minimal carbon emissions”. They add that “we should not be building houses in the next five years that will have to be retrofitted, at much greater cost, five or 10 years later”. Elsewhere, Politico reports on how “no one has a plan to fix Britain’s old, cold homes”.

In other UK news, the Financial Times reports on internal emails showing that Drax – the UK’s biggest biomass power station operator – found that it was “highly likely” to have burnt wood sourced from old forest areas in Canada deemed to be environmentally important. According to the emails – seen by the newspaper – the wood received by pellet plants owned by Drax from its suppliers in British Columbia was traced to areas local authorities classed as ecologically significant, as well as “high-risk” private land. The story comes as the Yorkshire Post reports that a “coalition of environmental groups has called on the government to stop providing subsidies for biomass power, a method of energy production used by companies including North Yorkshire power station operator Drax”.

Finally, the Times, which is hosting its “Earth summit” this week, has a series of stories covering: a US start-up planning to build a £300m micro nuclear project on the site of an old coal-fired power plant in Wales; how cryogenic air storage plants “can help UK hit net-zero”; how the UK is not prepared for a shutdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation; how carbon removal is “a dream becoming reality”; whether Labour’s plan to double green hydrogen is “bold ambition or hot air?”; and reporting that England has “stalled” and is “going backwards” on COP16 nature goals.

China’s consumption of coal accounted for more than 55% of its “total primary energy consumption” in 2023, down 12.1 percentage points compared to a decade ago, according to an annual report released by the Ministry of Natural Resources at a mining conference, state news agency Xinhua reports. The report says that the share of non-fossil energy, including hydropower, nuclear power, wind power and solar power, has increased by 7.7 percentage points during the same period, the news agency adds. Beijing News and the Communist Party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily also cover the report.

Reuters says that, as global coal prices decline, China’s imports of coal in September reached a monthly record high of nearly 47m metric tonnes, according to data by the country’s General Administration of Customs. Bloomberg reports that around 8.6 gigawatts of “previously unannounced Chinese-backed coal-fired power plants” have entered construction or the “pre-permitting phase” last year in places outside China, despite president Xi Jinping promised to end new coal fired projects abroad in 2021, according to a new research by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. A separate report by state news agency Xinhua says that Shanxi, China’s major coal-producing province, now has more than 50% of its coal produced via “intelligent mining”. 

Meanwhile, China’s National Energy Administration says that it “encourages coal power units to adopt carbon-reducing measures, such as co-firing biomass, to promote low-carbon development in coal-fired power plants”, industry news outlet BJX News reports. Chinese news outlet National Business Daily says that Chinese authorities, including the People’s Bank of China and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, have jointly issued “opinions” on “leveraging green finance to support the construction of a beautiful China”, covering areas including “improving professional green financial services” and “expanding green financial products and services”.

Elsewhere, Reuters reports that global electric vehicle sales have grown by an annual 30.5% in September this year, with China surpassing its record numbers recorded in August, according to data from market research firm Rho Motion on Tuesday. The Financial Times reports that a US battery start-up will “build the world’s first large-scale factory to produce lithium sulphur batteries”, which could “help break US dependence on China for metals crucial for the energy transition”. Finally, in a Reuters commentary, Asia commodities and energy columnist Clyde Russell says that “China’s rapid electrification is catching out oil producers”.

The US Small Business Administration (SBA) says it has exhausted funds for its disaster loan programme following increased demand from back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton, reports Reuters. With the US congress in recess until mid-November, the SBA says it was “pausing new loan offers for its direct, low-interest, long-term loans to disaster survivors” until additional funds are made available, the newswire says. The Hill notes that the “programme needs about $1.6bn amid heightened demand”. In a statement, US president Joe Biden has encouraged disaster survivors to continue applying for assistance and said the SBA would process new lending applications while the fund is empty and issue loans later, reports the Washington Post. It notes that, despite a request from Biden earlier this month, “officials have said they will not call lawmakers back to Washington early to provide additional money”. CNN also has the story, while the Financial Times reports on estimates that Hurricane Milton will lead to about $36bn of insurance payouts for the private sector.

Meanwhile, the Hill reports that North Carolina’s governor has said that 92 people are still missing after Hurricane Helene, while the Associated Press says that school disruption is still affecting tens of thousands of students in the south-east of the US. The New York Times reports that a rollback of flood-protection rules in 2017 by then-president Donald Trump “has left critical infrastructure projects at higher risk”. The newspaper also covers the success of a town on the west coast of Florida that was “built to weather hurricanes”. Finally, the Hill reports the “flood of conspiracy theories and rumours following the severe weather in the south is sparking concerns that political figures’ embrace of misinformation is just the beginning as the general election draws closer”.

When Hurricane Milton slammed into the west coast of Florida on 9 October, becoming the second powerful hurricane to hit the state in just two weeks, a vocal minority argued that “the hurricanes were engineered, that Florida’s weather was being manipulated or even that it was targeted at Republican voters”, write two psychology researchers for the Conversation. People have a fundamental need to feel safe and secure in their environment, the researchers write. Therefore, “if climate change is real, it poses an existential threat, leading some to reject it in favour of conspiracy theories that preserve their sense of safety”. Faced with the uncontrollable nature of climate change, people “often embrace conspiracy theories to regain that sense of control”, they add. The authors cite the first psychological study into beliefs after a natural disaster, which focused on a major tornado outbreak in the US midwest in 2019: “Researchers found that people more affected by the outbreak were more likely to believe the tornadoes were controlled by the government. Importantly, this belief was explained by the fact that those affected by the tornadoes felt like they had no control over their own life.” There is a risk that these beliefs become a “self-perpetuating cycle”, the authors say, noting: “The more that people believe in climate conspiracy theories, the less likely they are to take action to mitigate climate change. Research has shown that merely exposing people to climate change conspiracies is su

Drought and aridity are already having a “significant impact” on internal migration – especially in arid and “hyper-arid” regions of southern Europe, South Asia, Africa and the Middle East and South America – according to new research. The authors use census-based data from 72 countries to analyse more than 100,000 “migration flows” between subnational regions between 1960 and 2016. They find that the impacts of climate on migration are stronger in rich countries, but add that there is higher “out-migration” from poorer regions to wealthier regions within countries.” Age and education groups respond differently to climatic stress, the study adds.