A new satellite called MethaneSAT was launched in California yesterday to track methane emissions from the oil and gas industry, Reuters reports. The newswire continues: “While the European Space Agency and another satellite-based tracker called GHGSat are already providing methane emissions data, MethaneSAT will provide more detail and have a much wider field of view, its backers say.” The Financial Times reports that the $88m satellite was first announced by the Environmental Defense Fund – a US-based non-government organisation – six years ago. It adds that the satellite was launched into space via a rocket operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, adding that Google will “provide the AI computing capabilities required to crunch vast amounts of data produced by the orbiting methane monitor”. The Guardian says the satellite will “‘name and shame’ the worst methane polluters in the oil and gas industry”. It notes that more than 150 countries have pledged to cut their emissions of the gas by 30% from 2020 levels by 2030 and some oil and gas companies have “made similar pledges”. It adds: “The first results after the commissioning process are expected at the start of the summer with the full flow of data being available from early 2025.” New Scientist reports that the satellite will orbit the planet 15 times every day. The Washington Post notes that the satellite “will monitor areas that supply 80% of the world’s natural gas”. According to the New York Times, the satellite “can detect changes in gas concentrations as small as three parts per billion in the atmosphere”. The newspaper adds: “EDF will make MethaneSAT’s data freely available early next year, allowing oil and gas companies or environmental regulators to find and fix leaks faster…[EDF] also hopes to enable a wider group of elected officials, investors, gas buyers and the public to more readily understand who is responsible for leaks in order to hold them accountable.” The Hill, Scientific American and Climate Home News also cover the story.

Jeremy Hunt is expected to freeze fuel duty for another year in his budget announcement tomorrow, the Times reports. The newspaper notes that the 5p cut in petrol and diesel prices, which was announced by Rishi Sunak in 2022, is due to expire this month. It adds: “The freeze is expected to be part of a package of measures in Wednesday’s budget designed to set electoral dividing lines with Labour…Although not raising fuel duty in line with inflation and keeping the 5p cut will cost the Treasury £5bn in the next fiscal year, it does not affect Hunt’s room for other tax cuts because they are deemed to be temporary – even though fuel duty has been frozen since 2011.” The Financial Times carries the news on its frontpage. The Daily Express reports that the RAC and AA “urged Jeremy Hunt to protect struggling drivers by freezing the duty and keeping a 5p temporary reduction in the levy”. Reuters reports that Hunt is also due to extend the windfall tax on energy firms’ profits for another year. The newswire continues: “The Energy Profit Levy (EPL) was introduced in May 2022 after a jump in energy prices resulting from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Hunt increased the tax in November 2022 from its initial 25% rate to 35%, bringing the overall tax burden on North Sea oil and gas producers to 75%, among the highest in the world. The chancellor also extended the tax until 2028 rather than 2025 and expanded it to electricity generators with a levy of 45% in an effort to raise tens of billions of pounds to plug a major hole in public finances. In his annual tax-and-spend speech on Wednesday, Hunt is set to extend the levy by one more year to 2029, the three sources told Reuters.” A self-congratulatory editorial in the Sun welcomes Hunt’s decision to maintain the freeze in fuel duty. “Were it not for the Sun, drivers would pay roughly £16.50 more each time they fill up the family car],” the newspaper says, claiming that Hunt’s decision is “the result of a 14-year fuel duty freeze brought about by our wildly successful Keep It Down campaign”. And the Daily Express gives a platform to the climate-sceptic motoring lobbyist Howard Cox to rage against “selfish eco-fanatics” and claim that “anti-motorist Labour will of course reverse all these policies”.

In other UK news, the Times reports that “the BBC presenter Chris Packham has insisted that Just Stop Oil has a right to protest outside the homes of MPs despite fears over the safety of politicians”. However, the Guardian says that Downing Street “criticised” Packham, calling his comments “irresponsible”. The Daily Mail adds: “The environmentalist drew a furious backlash for claiming ‘radical’ groups should be entitled to a ‘portfolio of protests’.” Elsewhere, the Guardian reports that “campaigners have been given permission to challenge plans for a new oilfield in an area of outstanding natural beauty” in the Lincolnshire Wolds. Separately, the Times reports that the Dorenell wind farm in northern Scotland, which is owned by EDF, “has been ordered to pay £5.5m into a fund for vulnerable customers after the energy regulator found that it had overcharged the grid to switch off”. The Guardian covers new analysis by Greenpeace of International Energy Agency data which finds that “the UK spends less on low-carbon energy policy than any other major European economy”.

“The European Union is set to call for the fossil fuel industry to help pay for fighting climate change in poorer countries under a United Nations target,” says a Reuters “exclusive” reporting on a draft document for a meeting of EU foreign ministers later this month. The newswire notes that COP29 is the deadline for countries to agree to a new climate finance goal, adding that “the new climate finance target is expected to be far larger than the existing UN commitment of rich countries to spend $100bn per year from 2020, a target they failed to meet on time”. According to Reuters, EU foreign ministers will argue that the oil and gas sector should contribute to the fund. This comes as Bloomberg reports that “the United Arab Emirates will bring together country representatives and leaders from global financial institutions at a special meeting in June in a bid to scale up finance commitments at this year’s round of climate talks”. And Reuters warns that “Africa will be $2.5tn short of the finance it needs to cope with climate change by 2030”, according to a UN official.

In other European news, Reuters reports that “EU countries [are] split over support for nuclear energy”. The newswire continues: “Ahead of a meeting of EU countries’ energy ministers on Monday, two rival factions of ministers met to strategise how to support their preferred energy technology. A group of 13 pro-nuclear EU countries, led by France, called for stronger EU policies on nuclear energy and said recent breakthroughs with Brussels to recognise the importance of nuclear power in the energy mix must now be turned into concrete projects and funding…Meanwhile, Austria and Germany led a 13-country call to demand Brussels promotes renewable energy instead.” Separately, Reuters reports that the EU energy policy chief has said that “the European Union should support struggling European manufacturers of solar panels, but cannot close its borders to imports of such products”. And, separately, the newswire reports that 2023 was a “record year for building new wind farms” in Europe.

Bloomberg looks ahead to the delivery of premier Li Qiang’s government work report at the “Two Sessions” meeting, which is occurring in Beijing between 4-11 March. The outlet says that getting back on track towards the government’s currently “underperforming” climate goal and reducing the “amount of energy needed for economic growth” are both likely to be a “focus”. Another Bloomberg article lists key policies announced by Li earlier today, which include a growth target of around 5%, a target to “cut energy consumption per unit of GDP by 2.5% in 2024”, an expansion of the national carbon market and “accelerate[d] reform for energy prices [and] coal power”. The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports that Li said that China will “prudently” push ahead with carbon neutrality. Reuters notes that China will “step up exploration and development of oil, natural gas and strategic minerals to ensure energy and resource security and will tighten control over fossil fuels consumption”. 

Separately, the state-run industry newspaper China Electric Power News says that Liu Jieyi, a spokesperson for the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), briefed the media that the CPPCC has over the past year consulted on topics such as “strengthening ecological environment protection” and “accelerating establishment of a new energy industry” to advance construction of “a beautiful China”. Financial outlet Yicai reports that the chairman of China National Nuclear Power plans to propose at the Two Sessions that China “incorporate nuclear energy into its national green policy system”. China Energy News reports that CPPCC member Li Shufu, chairman of the automotive company Jili Group, will propose that China establish a “unified product carbon footprint management system” and promote “international alignment and mutual recognition of the carbon footprints” of automotive products. Energy outlet IN-EN.com reports that another CPPCC member Jiang Yaodong, the former vice dean of China University of Mining and Technology, will propose that China “construct new large-scale coal mining areas…especially in resource-rich regions such as Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang”.

Meanwhile, SCMP covers research by the University of California San Diego and Tsinghua University, which has found that China will need “nearly 6 terawatts (TW) of solar and wind power to achieve its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2060”. BJX News reports that, according to new data, the utilisation rates of solar and wind power across various regions in January 2024 both reached 98%. The Business Times reports that Chinese solar company Longi is urging the government to “crack down on low prices and ensure panel quality as excess capacity and fierce competition spur company failures”. China Energy Net reports that 10 “high-precision” greenhouse gas observation stations have commenced operations across China, boosting the country’s capabilities in “monitoring and assessing climate change”. 

In other news, the Communist party-supporting People’s Daily has published a commentary arguing that “Europe and China could chart a shared roadmap for success in the EV revolution as they did four decades ago in the auto industry”. The state-run newspaper China Daily republishes a commentary by Fabrice Fourcade, the Sino-French electricity cooperation association chairman and China chief representative of Électricité de France (EDF), who says that cooperation in China’s “green” economy has become a key area of importance “for foreign investment”. Finally, Reuters quotes the EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson saying that the “European Union should support struggling European manufacturers of solar panels, but cannot close its borders to imports of such products”.

At least nine outlets have published interviews with John Kerry, the outbound US climate envoy, who will leave office on Wednesday. The Financial Times reports that, despite handing over his post to John Podesta, Kerry “aims to remain involved in drumming up finance for the clean energy transition”. The outlet continues: “Kerry said discussions about the exact role he would play in climate finance were still in their infancy, but he added: ‘I’m going to personally try to help accelerate that process of deployment and pull the people together.’ While he would not have an official role in the US presidential campaign, Kerry said he would continue to support Joe Biden. He would be better able to speak out on climate issues when no longer subject to the Hatch act, a law that restricts political activities by federal employees, he said.” Kerry tells Reuters that after leaving his post, he “will be in a better position to be able to try to leverage, push, cajole, work at the effort”. The Associated Press reports that Kerry “plans to attend the next round of negotiations later this year in Baku, Azerbaijan”. Kerry tells the Guardian that he does not see the US as a “force for ill”, adding: “We are living up to our obligations to transition…we are in transition, and as our renewables come online they [fossil fuels] are going out at a very rapid rate.” However, the Atlantic reports that Kerry called US politics “embarrassing”. Kerry tells the outlet that the US has pledged only $17.5m to the international loss and damage fund because “Congress zeroes out things that have climate beside it”. The Wall Street Journal highlights Kerry’s relationship with China’s climate envoy, Xie Zhenhua, noting that “when Kerry was secretary of state under President Barack Obama, he hammered out an agreement with Xie that laid the groundwork for the US and China to sign the Paris accord in 2015”. The Washington Post reflects on Kerry’s work on a more recent US-China deal, in which “Beijing agreed to collaborate with Washington on reducing planet-heating methane emissions and transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy”. The deal “helped clinch a historic outcome at last year’s UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai”, according to the newspaper. It says that Kerry “hasn’t lost his command of policy details”, adding that “some of Kerry’s counterparts in capitals across the globe worry his departure from government marks the end of a distinctly inclusive era in climate negotiations”. E&E News, the Hill, the New Yorker, Bloomberg and Cipher have also published interviews with Kerry or features about his time as US climate envoy. 

In other US news, the Hill reports that firefighters in Texas “​​scrambled Monday to contain massive wildfires that have already scorched a record-breaking 1.3m acres in the Lone Star State and forced the evacuation of an entire town”. Elsewhere, Axios says: “March has barely begun, and the West is coping with a ferocious blizzard, while Texas is battling its largest wildfire on record”. The Washington Post reports on broken temperature records in Detroit and Buffalo. Meanwhile, the Hill reports that “California’s ski resorts were hit by a massive blizzard this weekend, with some mountain towns seeing more than 10 feet of snow”. Axios adds that some parts of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains have seen more than 100 inches of snow. The Guardian reports that some of California’s most expensive cliff-side houses are in danger after record rainfall. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that wildfire season has begun early, highlighting fires from Canada to Australia. And the New York Times says: “Canada’s emergency preparedness minister is warning that this year’s wildfire season will be worse than the record-breaking season of 2023…This year’s fires could be especially bad in two of the country’s most fire-prone provinces, where nearly 150 of the blazes that started during last year’s season are still burning this winter, under snow-covered ground.” 

Elsewhere, CNBC news reports that “Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler on Wednesday will hold a vote on one of his most controversial proposals: a rule that would require corporate America to disclose material risks posed by climate change”. According to the outlet, under the initial proposal made in 2022, companies would have to disclose emissions in three categories – Scope 1, 2 and 3. The proposal has received 15,000 comment letters – the most ever received for a single proposal – the outlet adds. In other US news, the Washington Post reports that tribal leaders are raising concerns about proposed “clean-energy projects” that “touch sites of importance to Indigenous peoples”. And Inside Climate News covers new analyses showing that “the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is directing funding and resources toward methane-reducing programs that may increase methane emissions, and “climate smart” farming practices that, in fact, may not be smart for the climate”.

Bloomberg columnist David Fickling has penned a comment piece extolling the environmental benefits of eating insects, but arguing that more insect farming will lead to greater meat consumption. He says: “If anything, the most likely future for insect farming is one where it accelerates humanity’s growing appetite for poultry and mammal flesh, rather than reducing it. That’s because insects are best suited to solving a problem the livestock industry has been struggling with for decades – the protein deficit. Intensive farming depends on getting animals to grow faster and that requires levels of protein that are rarely found in their natural diets.” Fickling concludes: “If feed pellets made from fly larvae, crickets and mealworms succeed in lowering the cost of producing poultry and livestock meat, it’s going to make such products more affordable and increase global consumption.”

In other comment, Beatriz Monge-Sanz, a senior researcher at the University of Oxford, writes in the Conversation that climate change is causing winter cold snaps in the northern hemisphere to become more common. Monge-Sanz highlights the impacts of the extreme cold, including “sharp increases in energy demand to cope with indoor heating, an increase in cold-related hospital admissions and the activation of services needed to assist the most vulnerable”. She explains that some of these cold snaps are linked to disruptions in the stratospheric polar vortex, and explains her research, which “looks at ways to improve forecasting models to better capture the type of stratospheric behaviour that leads to these cold spells”. Elsewhere, the Los Angeles Times columnist Sammy Roth argues that we shouldn’t panic over the recent slowdown in electric car sales. 

A new study identifies many regions of the world that have favourable climate conditions for wind power generation, including the American midwest, Australia, the Sahara, Argentina, central Asia and southern Africa. These regions have high wind power densities, low seasonal variability and limited weather fluctuations, according to the study, which uses weather reanalysis data. The authors add: “We found little evidence for strong trends in wind droughts over recent decades in most places. Rather, the most severe wind droughts in many places occurred before wind power substantially penetrated power systems, which suggests that historical weather data can be useful in designing reliable wind-reliant electricity systems.”