Talks for a new global plastics treaty have reached a halfway point, with countries clashing in a “heated” plenary session on Wednesday over a lack of progress, Climate Home News reports. It says: “Several nations pushing for an ambitious agreement have complained vehemently over the slow pace of the negotiations, with diplomats accusing some of their counterparts of holding up discussions and failing to act in good faith. While not naming countries directly, negotiators and observers told Climate Home that some fossil-fuel producing nations – led by Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran – have repeatedly stalled the talks. These countries do not want the treaty to include any provisions on plastic manufacturing, preferring a narrow focus on managing consumption and waste.” South Korea is hosting the fifth and final UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) meeting to agree a new legally binding international treaty for addressing plastics pollution, with an agreement due to land on 1 December, Reuters adds. It adds: “Although three of a planned seven days of talks have passed, they have yet to yield an agreed text, and talks on financing to help developing countries implement the treaty had not completed line-by-line negotiations.” The Guardian reports that a record number of plastic and fossil-fuel lobbyists are attending the talks. Carbon Brief explains via five charts why these talks matter for climate change.

Reuters reports in an “exclusive” that the FBI “has been investigating a longtime Exxon Mobil consultant over the contractor’s alleged role in a hack-and-leak operation that targeted hundreds of the oil company’s biggest critics, according to three people familiar with the matter”. It explains: “The operation involved mercenary hackers who successfully breached the email accounts of environmental activists and others, the sources told Reuters. The scheme allegedly began in late 2015, when US authorities contend that the names of the hacking targets were compiled by the DCI Group, a public affairs and lobbying company working for Exxon at the time, one of the sources said. DCI provided the names to an Israeli private detective, who then outsourced the hacking, according to the source. In an effort to push a narrative that Exxon was the target of a political vendetta aimed at destroying its business, some of the stolen material was subsequently leaked to the media by DCI, Reuters determined. The Federal Bureau of Investigation found that DCI shared the information with Exxon before leaking it, the source said.” Reuters adds that, in a statement, Exxon said it “has not been involved in or aware of any hacking activities”, calling allegations to the contrary “conspiracy theories”. Reuters could not determine whether Exxon itself has also been the subject of the FBI investigation. DCI tells the newswire that it complies with the law.

The UK government has announced it will hold a consultation on zero emission vehicle mandates, which require automakers in the country to sell a higher proportion of electric vehicles each year or face fines, Reuters reports. The mandate, introduced by the previous Conservative government, requires EVs to make up 22% of an automaker’s new car sales in 2024, a target which rises to 80% in 2030. The Associated Press reports that the consultation follows the “decision by Stellantis, the owner of Vauxhall, to close its van factory in southern England at the potential cost of 1,100 jobs”. It reports: “Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds told lawmakers Wednesday that the problems encountered by Stellantis in the transition to electric vehicles are not unique, adding that the government will do all it can to prevent the plant’s closure.” Reynolds also “confirmed plans to review the ZEV mandate as part of a consultation on the new Labour government’s plan to ban the sale of new “purely petrol and diesel” cars by 2030”, AP says. The Times reports that ministers, including Reynolds and Louise Haigh, the transport secretary, “are urging the Treasury to give motorists additional help to switch to EVs”. It continues: “Rachel Reeves is being urged by manufacturers to halve VAT on new EV sales and to change vehicle excise duty to make EVs cheaper to run. The industry is also calling on the Treasury to amend the present system whereby motorists who charge their vehicle in public charging stations have to pay 20% VAT, as opposed to 5% when charging at home.” The Daily Mail reports on Reynolds’ comments to lawmakers that he was first warned by Stellantis that the Vauxhall factory could close in mid-July, 10 days after entering office.

Elsewhere, the Daily Mail reports on comments by Climate Change Committee members to the environmental audit committee, where they reaffirm that some emissions reductions needed to meet the UK’s climate targets will come from behaviour changes, such as flying less, eating less meat and using more public transport. The newspaper notes that this comes after prime minister Keir Starmer told journalists at COP29 in Azerbaijan that the UK’s new emissions target was not about “telling people how to live their lives”. The Daily Telegraph, meanwhile, revisits comments made by Donald Trump’s pick for US energy secretary earlier this year, where he implies that climate policies have been “troubling” for the UK economy.

Zhang Jianhua, head of China’s National Energy Administration (NEA), writes in an article for the Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily that China’s new energy law, which will be effective from 1 January next year, will provide an “institutional foundation” for the country’s energy security and “explicitly” supports the “prioritised development and utilisation of renewable energy”. Zhang also calls for accelerating the construction of a “new power system”, according to the newspaper. Dianlian Xinmei, a media outlet which belongs to China Electricity Council, says that the NEA has issued an “opinion” policy document on “strengthening electricity safety governance to support high-quality development of the new electricity system” – the first time a national policy document “specifically” addresses “governance of electricity system operation safety”. 

Separately, Chinese vice president Han Zheng has called for the “green transition of global industrial and supply chains” at the opening ceremony of the China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE), state news agency Xinhua reports. The state news agency adds: “[Han] said China is willing to work with all other countries to expand cooperation in areas such as the green industry and clean energy”. A comment article by Reuters by Gavin Maguire says that China’s power companies are “on track to cut coal’s share of annual electricity generation to below 60% for the first time in 2024”.

Meanwhile, an article by the business news outlet 21st Century Business Herald says that China displayed its energy transition “ambition” and “outcomes” at COP29, after having established the “world’s largest clean-power generation system”. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports that, according to Sabine Weyand, the EU’s director general for trade, the EU and China are “not close to finalising a deal” that would end their “long-running” dispute on electric vehicles (EVs). However, Sabine Weyand says that the two parties have had 50 hours of “constructive” discussions, the outlet adds. 

Global Times, a state-supporting newspaper, publishes a comment by Jia Weilie, professor at the Institute for Sustainability of Huzhou University and a researcher at the Budapest Centre for Long-term Sustainability, under the title: “‘Green cold war’ undermines climate collaboration efforts.” The article argues that western countries have “built barriers in global green cooperation and economic development”. Singaporean news outlet CNA carries a comment by Peili Pey and Danielle Lynn Goh, both with the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, which says: “Even if the US exits from the Paris Agreement, as it did in 2016, climate targets and negotiations will continue, with China stepping up to lead the global energy transition.” It continues: “China is increasingly positioning itself as a climate leader, evident through its climate partnerships with countries such as Australia, France and Germany.” 

Climate change ‘disproportionately’ affects the health of African descent and Indigenous people in Brazil, according to a report by the Brazilian Centre for Climate Justice covered by Folha de São Paulo. The analysis highlights that these groups struggle with issues such as access to healthcare and “environmental racism” leading to “climate injustice”.

Meanwhile, Mexico’s government proposes a 15.8% reduction in the “climate change budget” for 2025, Animal Politico reports. The outlet adds that of the 205m pesos ($1bn) allocated for climate change, 60.8% is earmarked for trains, roads and the Sembrando Vida reforestation programme. Additionally, the outlet reports that Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration is also proposing a 39% cut to the budget for the country’s environmental ministry.

In a comment piece for Argentina’s La Nación, Manuel Jaramillo, general director of Fundación Vida Silvestre Argentina, argues that Javier Milei’s decision to withdraw the Argentinean delegation from COP29 in Azerbaijan could affect the country’s international image, as well as the production and export of goods, as there are “increasing standards related to climate targets and deforestation-free products”.

Finally, El Espectador reports that Colombia’s government is aiming to boost the steel industry while phasing out coal. According to the newspaper, at the start of Gustavo Petro’s government, new open-pit thermal coal exploration and exploitation concessions were banned; however, the coking coal industry, which was listed in 2022 as a strategic mineral for the energy transition, will “continue to be boosted”.

There are several comment pieces and editorials in right-leaning UK newspapers critical of the zero emissions mandate and climate policies in general. Times columnist Iain Martin says he has “started to wonder what happens to UK politics when the entire net-zero experiment blows up”, adding: “For Nigel Farage’s Reform party it is a gift, of course. In the next Scottish elections in 2026 he will campaign in bold, simple terms against the shutdown of the North Sea oil and gas industry. In the Midlands and elsewhere he will say he is the defender of the car workers, and in the southwest and beyond he will pose as the champion of the farming industry, all under an anti-net zero banner and harrying Labour. This sustained campaign against the most extreme manifestations of the green revolution has the potential, I suggest, to be the next Brexit, the coming explosion. This could be the result when populism meets the mainstream again, and hitherto safe assumptions about politics are blown away because many voters decide they have had enough.”

The Daily Telegraph has an editorial titled: “Zealotry on net-zero risks destroying jobs.” An editorial in the Sun says: “We are already a world leader on climate action so why are we throwing our own workers on the scrapheap?” The Sun also has a column by omnipresent climate-sceptic commentator Ross Clark saying that net-zero will “end up costing thousands of workers their jobs”. The Daily Mail has an editorial accusing Starmer of “fibbing” about the UK’s new UN emissions target for 2035 not being about “telling people what to do” in their lives. The Daily Mail also has a column by Matt Ridley, an advisor to the UK climate-sceptic lobby group known as the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which contains a number of falsehoods about emissions from EVs.

A new study reconstructing the global history of ocean acidification in the interior of the ocean has revealed the human-driven changes in acidification between 1800 and 2014. Around half of the “acceleration” of ocean acidification occurred from 1994-2014. The researchers note that acidification driven by human-caused CO2 emissions “represents a major threat to ocean ecosystems, yet little is known about its progression beneath the surface”. They add that emissions “have already put ecosystems in danger that thrive hundreds or thousands of metres beneath the ocean surface”.