Last month was the hottest January on record, “surprising scientists” who had expected that a cooling La Niña weather cycle would slow the almost two years of record temperatures, reports the Financial Times. January 2025 was the third-hottest month globally on record, according to the Copernicus Climate Change service, the EU’s Earth observation agency, the article continues. January saw a surface air temperature of 13.23C, 1.75C above the pre-industrial average, it notes. “The world’s warming is due to emissions of planet-heating gases from human activities – mainly the burning of fossil fuels – but scientists say they can’t fully explain why last month was particularly hot,” BBC News adds. La Niña conditions in the Pacific Ocean tend to lower the globe’s average temperature, at least temporarily, making the record-high “something of a surprise” to researchers, notes the New York Times. Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate for Copernicus, tells the Associated Press that “even though the equatorial Pacific isn’t creating conditions that are warming for our global climate, we’re still seeing record temperatures”, adding much of that is because of record warmth in the rest of the world’s oceans. Axios notes that climate scientists are still investigating a range of factors that may be causing the climate to warm faster in recent years, “from changes in marine shipping fuels to the massive eruption of an undersea volcano”.

The UK government has announced plans to make it easier to build small modular reactors (SMRs) in England and Wales, BBC News reports. Changes to the planning system will “clear a path” for the introduction of SMRs, which are faster to build than existing large nuclear reactors, says the Financial Times. “At present, rules state that only the government may designate sites for potential nuclear power stations, severely limiting where they can be built. There are only eight designated locations in the UK,” says the Times. UK prime minister Keir Starmer will drop this requirement in the hope that the first SMRs can be built by 2032, the article adds. The announcement follows Starmer’s call for technology companies to work with government to build SMRs to “power energy intensive AI datacentres across Britain”, notes the Guardian. The government has also promised to establish a new Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce to “spearhead improvements to the regulatory framework and come forward with proposals to make it easier to build new projects in the UK”, reports BusinessGreen. Reuters quotes Starmer, who says in a statement that “this country hasn’t built a nuclear power station in decades”, adding: “We’ve been let down, and left behind.” Starmer has announced the changes as a vow to “push past the Nimbyism” to allow these mini nuclear reactors to be built, notes a frontpage story in the Daily Telegraph. (The government’s statement can be read in full online. And see Comment below.) 

In other UK news, Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch has accused Starmer of “giving in to eco-nutters” over delays in approving new North Sea oil and gas fields, reports the Times. The plans for a second runway at Gatwick could be “thwarted” by rules around the number of people allowed to arrive via public transport, says the Times. (Gatwick is one of three London airports looking to expand; if all three are approved this could lead to the equivalent extra emissions of 92m tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2050, recent Carbon Brief analysis found.) A feature in the Daily Telegraph offers a case study of a heat-pump installation in a 1930s home, with the owner saying: “Heat pump doomsters are wrong – I have no regrets.” 

US president Donald Trump’s administration has “put at risk close to $500m a year in grant-based climate funding for developing countries”, reports Climate Home News. Hundreds of climate programs are at risk as Trump and Elon Musk threaten to “shutter the state aid agency, USAID, and slash overseas development assistance”, it explains. The article quotes Karen Mathiasen, a project director with thinktank the Center for Global Development, who says: “I think this is the end of US [government] climate funding.” She reacts to the “shocking speed and brazenness” with which the current government is working to dismantle foreign aid. The Trump administration’s decision to close USAID has “drawn widespread criticism from congressional Democrats and raised questions about the influence billionaire ally Elon Musk wields over the federal government”, reports the Associated Press. The article notes that among the hundreds of projects funded by USAID are conservation projects in the Brazilian Amazon. Scientists in the US have “described experiencing distress, disruption to their work and interruption of payments in the chaos following Donald Trump’s executive orders affecting federal grant money”, reports the Guardian. 

Elsewhere, newly appointed US energy secretary Chris Wright has warned against treating climate change as “political football”, dubbing it falsely as a “slow-moving problem” in an interview with Fox News. Singapore’s Straits Times says the US’s exit from the Paris Agreement raises questions about the fairness of the agreement. It quotes Indonesia’s special climate change and energy envoy Hashim Djojohadikusumo, who said at a recent forum: “Indonesia produces three tonnes of carbon while the US produces 13 tonnes, yet we are the ones that were being told to close our power plants and reduce our steam power plants.”

Norwegian energy group Equinor will increase its fossil fuel production and halve spending on “green” energy “in the hunt for shareholder returns”, reports the Financial Times. The company, which was previously called Statoil, but rebranding in 2018 as part of an environment-focused push, announced new targets on Wednesday, it continues. By 2030, Equinor plans to produce 2.2mn barrels of oil equivalent a day, 10% higher than previous expectations, the article notes. Meanwhile, its renewables target will fall from 12GW-16GW to 10GW-12GW, it adds. Chief executive Anders Opedal said that the “green” transition was moving slower than expected, costs had increased and there was a reluctance amongst customers to sign long-term contracts, reports BBC News. The article quotes Opedal, who says: “We are scaling down our investments in renewables and low-carbon solutions because we don’t see the necessary profitability in the future.” The Times and Daily Telegraph are among the other outlets also covering the story.

In other oil and gas news, increased demand across Europe’s largest economies has lifted regional gas prices to their highest levels since early 2023, reports Reuters. “Gas-fired output during January in Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Poland all jumped by well over 10% from January 2024’s levels to their highest for that month since at least 2022”, the newswire adds. French oil major TotalEnergies has posted higher trading profits in the gas market in its Q4 earnings, helping to offset the impact of low oil prices and weaker fuel demand, reports Reuters. TotalEnergies’s chief executive Patrick Pouyanne has also announced that he expects the US Export-Import bank to complete its approval of $4.7bn in financing for a liquified natural gas project in Mozambique in a matter of weeks, reports Bloomberg.

Tesla’s sales in Germany have fallen 59% in January, reports the New York Times. The dip follows the company’s chief executive and advisor to US president Donald Trump Elon Musk chiding “Germans for focusing too much on “past guilt” for Nazi-era crimes and urging voters to support a nationalist party in the country’s general election”, the article notes. The number of newly registered Teslas fell to 1,277 in January, a nearly 60% fall while the overall German market was down just 2.8%, reports Reuters. In the UK, Chinese “electric car titan” BYD has overtaken Tesla as public opinion “sours” towards Musk, reports the Daily Telegraph. In January, BYD saw a 500% annual increase while Tesla’s sales were down about 8%, it adds. 

In other electric vehicle (EV) related news, Toyota has raised its profit forecast and announced plans to “double down” on the Chinese EV market, reports the Financial Times. The company will be the third manufacturer to have a fully owned battery or EV factory in China, the article notes, as “fierce competition forces the retreat of other foreign brands”. Toyota also announced that it will start producing batteries for EVs, hybrids and plug-ins at a new $14bn facility in North Carolina, with the first models expected to be shipped in April, reports the Associated Press. Automaker Ford is projecting up to $5.5bn in losses in its EV and software operations this year, a similar loss to last year and a “sign of the severe difficulties in cutting costs on battery-powered models”, reports Reuters. Ford cites “headwinds related to market factors” for the loss, adds the Associated Press. The company’s EV business, Model e, posted a full-year loss of $5.08bn for 2024, as revenue fell 35% to $3.9bn, it notes. In the UK, Vauxhall owner Stellantis will close its factory within months following a “row with the government over its net-zero rules”, according to the Daily Telegraph. 

All electric cars now make up a fifth of the market in the UK, reports the Times. New figures from industry body Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that, in January, sales of battery electric vehicles rose to 41% of the market, from 20,900 to 29,900, it adds. Figures from NGO New AutoMotive, also released on Wednesday, also show a surge in EV sales, reports BusinessGreen. Sales of EVs were up 34% year-on-year in January, from 15% of the market last year to 21.5% in 2024, it adds. “NewAutomotive urges government to stay on track with ZEV mandate to help ensure the UK maintains its position as a leader in the transition to electric vehicles, but industry warns upcoming tax hike could hamper progress”, notes BusinessGreen.

Ámbito reveals that Argentina’s government will pull the nation out of the World Health Organisation, due to what the government alleges are the “high costs of adhering to such an organisation and the organisation’s links with leftist proposals”. The outlet adds that Javier Milei’s administration is now “analysing the legal implications” of abandoning other organisations and treaties, including the Paris Agreement.

In other news from Latin America, foreign ministers of states comprising the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (ACTO) have agreed to continue working to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss in the Amazon basin, TeleSur reports. The organisation, made up of Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, and other rainforest countries, will carry out “concrete actions against deforestation, illegal mining and wildlife trafficking”, the outlet notes.

Elsewhere, Colombia’s environment minister is to evaluate the environmental impacts of new offshore energy projects in the country, El Espectador reports. “Colombia would have the first wind farms of its kind in Latin America,” says the outlet, adding that the country expects to produce wind energy on its Caribbean coast.

China is willing to work with the EU to “boost cooperation” and “respond to ‘global challenges’”, according to the country’s foreign ministry, saying that the world is “facing the risk of division, fragmentation and disorder”, Reuters reports. The remark comes as the bloc faces potential tariffs on its exports to the US, with the EU’s China hawks “showing signs of willingness to rethink the relationship between Beijing and Brussels”, the newswire adds. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) says that the EU’s “most prominent China hawk”, Ursula von der Leyen, has said that “there was space to deepen trade ties and even ‘find agreements’ with Beijing” for the second time in a fortnight, which represents a “significant softening in tone” from the bloc. Liu Yuanling, research assistant at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of American Studies, writes a commentary in the state-run newspaper China Daily arguing that China and the EU should “join hands to provide leadership on climate governance in the face of [the] Trump administration’s abrogation of responsibility”.

In other news, Reuters reports that Chinese firms “control about 75% of Indonesia’s nickel refining capacity, raising concern over supply chain control and environmental risks”. The China-Global South Project says that the Trump administration’s probable cessation of funding Indonesia’s just energy transition partnership agreement “means transforming one of the world’s most coal-dependent economies could now depend on Chinese money and tech”. SCMP reports that Guinea’s Simandou iron ore mine is “on track to deliver a significant breakthrough this year to its Chinese investors”. China Daily cites “South African officials and scholars” saying that South Africa “aims to strengthen cooperation with China this year across various sectors to achieve mutual benefits”, especially in climate change. China Daily also publishes an opinion article by Stephen Ndegwa, executive director of Nairobi-based thinktank South-South Dialogues, saying China’s “robust investment in renewable energy across the global south is a critical lifeline for developing nations”.

Elsewhere, industry news outlet BJX News reports that 30 provinces in China have set “quantitative targets” for hydrogen energy development, mainly focusing on fuel-cell vehicles, refuelling stations and industry output. Economic Daily says that China’s energy security and low-carbon development continued to strengthen in 2024, quoting an official at the National Energy Administration (NEA) saying that, in 2025, the department will focus on “increasing investment” to secure oil and gas supply. Economic news outlet Jiemian reports that China’s energy storage sector faces “intensified low-price competition and structural overcapacity issues” as companies continue to enter the sector “blindly”. Finally, SCMP reports that Chinese and Swedish researchers have developed a “high-yield rice variety” that emits up to 70% less methane than normal rice. 

Writing in the Daily Express, UK energy secretary Ed Miliband argues that “Britain is lagging behind and there’s a powerful solution that has been neglected”. The country has a “proud history” of nuclear power, he writes, which has helped power homes and businesses and provided unionised jobs. The country has fallen behind in the “race for jobs and investment”, but the government’s new plan will “drive forward on nuclear power as part of our plan for change to boost our energy independence, create jobs and unlock growth”, says Miliband. He points to the impact of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on energy bills and the need for more energy independence and the potential of new nuclear technologies, such as small modular reactors. “We will move fast and build things to seize these opportunities for Britain,” Miliband concludes. 

In other comment, an editorial in the climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph argues that North Sea oil is a “test” for prime minister Keir Starmer, adding that the “rationale behind blocking new offshore oil and gas projects is hard to fathom”. (Analysis by Carbon Brief in 2024 found that if the government approved the 13 potential oil and gas projects in the North Sea, an extra 350m tonnes of CO2 equivalent could be emitted.) A comment piece in the Financial Times by Asia Lex editor June Yoon looks at Tesla and Hyundai, making the case that investors should look more at the Korean company. 

Demand-side strategies could reduce emissions from buildings by 51-85% and transport by 37-91% by 2050, relative to a “current policies scenario”, according to new research. The authors use global integrated assessment models to assess CO2 reductions from three intervention strategies – “reducing or changing activity”, “improving technological efficiency” and “electrifying energy end use”. The study finds that electrification has the “largest potential” for “direct emissions reductions” in both buildings and transport.