The “vast majority” of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions released since 2016 can be traced to a group of 57 fossil fuel and cement producers, reports Reuters. The newswire adds that the group of nearly 60 entities, which include nation-states, state-owned firms and investor-owned companies, produced 80% of the world’s CO2 emissions between 2016 and 2022, according to the Carbon Majors report by non-profit thinktank InfluenceMap. Despite governments pledging to cut emissions under the Paris Agreement, the analysis finds that “most mega-producers” have increased their output of fossil fuels and other related emissions in the seven years following the agreement, when compared to the seven before, reports the Guardian. Within the thinktank’s database of 122 of the world’s biggest historical climate polluters, the researchers found that 65% of state entities and 55% of private-sector companies had increased production, it adds. Since 2016, state-owned companies accounted for 37% of CO2 emissions, while investor-owned accounted for 25%, reports Axios. Of the state-owned companies, Saudi Aramco was the biggest with a global share of 4.8% of CO2 emissions since 2016; then Gazprom and the National Iranian Oil Company, it continues. Of the investor-owned companies, Chevron, ExxonMobil and BP had the biggest share of CO2 emissions, it adds.

Separately, governments and private investors will need to pay $3.5tn a year to tackle climate change, an ex-BP boss has warned, reports the Times. Lord Browne of Madingley, who ran the oil giant from 1995 to 2007, tells the publication that the world is on the edge of an “energy transformation that will take us from climate crisis into a new era of climate correction”. The amount of money needed to limit warming to 2C is “huge” but “achievable” and could be used to encourage emerging markets to use clean power to fuel their economic growth, he adds.

The number of trees lost in Brazil and Colombia was down “dramatically” in 2023 – falling by 39% – due to political action, reports BBC News. In Brazil, there was a 36% drop in primary forest losses in 2023, following Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva being elected president and promising to tackle tree losses and deforestation, it adds. This is particularly significant as, in 2022, Brazil was responsible for 43% of all tropical forest loss, the article notes. However, adds the outlet, “increased tree felling and fires in Bolivia, Laos and Nicaragua wiped out many of these gains”, concludes the annual study by the World Resources Institute (WRI). In 2023, 9.1m acres of primary tropical forest, equivalent to an area almost the size of Switzerland, was lost, reports the New York Times. While this was 9% less than in 2022, the “improvement failed to put the world on course to halt all forest loss by 2030, a commitment made by 145 nations at a global climate talks in Glasgow in 2021 and reaffirmed by all countries last year”, it notes.

A boom in mining projects for minerals needed in renewable energy technologies is now threatening up to a third of apes in Africa, reports the Guardian. A new study found that an estimated 180,000 gorillas, bonobos and chimpanzees are at risk due to the increased demand for critical minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel and cobalt, it adds. The true impact of these mining operations may be even higher, because mining companies are not required to make biodiversity data public, reports Bloomberg. It quotes Jessica Junker, lead author of the paper and a researcher at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany, who says: “Mining harms apes through pollution, habitat loss, increased hunting pressure and disease, but this is an incomplete picture. A shift away from fossil fuels is good for the climate, but must be done in a way that does not jeopardise biodiversity.” West African countries have the greatest overlap between mining operations and apes, with about 80% of the region’s great apes living within 30 miles of mining sites, reports Inside Climate News. Central Africa has the highest number of apes that could be potentially impacted by mining due to the density of the population, with more than 135,000 individual great apes, it adds.

Elon Musk is exploring the possibility of building a £3bn Tesla electric vehicle (EV) factory in India, reports the Daily Telegraph. Tesla’s “hunt for an Indian factory site” comes after officials in New Delhi agreed to cut tariffs on EV imports for manufacturers that invest $500m in a plant in the country within three years, it continues. India’s prime minister Narendra Modi is looking to “put the brakes on China’s dominance” in the sector, the article notes. Tesla will send a team to India next month to search for a site for the factory, with potential locations being carmaking hubs in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, it states. Elsewhere, state-run Indian Oil Corp Ltd is in talks with the country’s atomic power monopoly to build small nuclear units, reports Bloomberg. The refiner and fuel retailer is looking to use the small modular reactors, or SMRs, in its refineries for clean power, as the early-stage technology is seen as a cost-effective alternative to larger plants, it adds.

US regulators have “thwarted” efforts to make climate risk a focus of global financial rules, reports Bloomberg. European central bankers have been advocating for the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision to “agree on requiring lenders to disclose their strategies for meeting green commitments”, it explains. According to people familiar with it, in closed-door meetings US officials have cited their narrow mandate and concerns that the Basel Committee is “overstepping its purpose”, adds the article. Critics of tougher climate proposals have accused the watchdogs of prioritising political objectives over sound financial regulation, while supporters have said disclosures are needed to limit financing to the fossil fuel industry, reports Reuters.

In other US news, California, Texas and Florida lead the country in solar generation, while Texas, Iowa and Oklahoma lead in wind generation, reports Axios. New analysis has found that solar installations generated nearly 240,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity across the US in 2023, which is up eight-fold from 2014, it adds. Wind power reached an estimated 425,000GWh in electricity in 2023, slightly down on the year before due to wind speeds, reports the Hill. Elsewhere, California leads in greenhouse gas sulfuryl fluoride emissions, according to a new study, reports Inside Climate News. California emits more of the synthetic pesticide sulfuryl fluoride, used primarily to fumigate homes, than the rest of the lower 48 states combined, it notes. The state represents around 12% of the global share of sulfuryl fluoride emissions, while the rest of the US represents around 5%, reports the Hill. While emissions of other greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are found across the US, said senior author Scot Miller, an assistant professor of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins University, “On our sulfuryl fluoride map, only California lit up like a Christmas tree”, the article adds.

Finally, the Californian snowpack is at a ​​”rare average of 110%”, reports the Guardian, setting up “good” water savings for the year ahead. This follows years of swinging extremes, with last year’s April survey, considered one the most critical the article notes, coming in at 237% of average. The snowpack acts as an indicator for how well the state will fare during drier months, as it supplies roughly 30% of California’s water and slowly refills reservoirs, pumping rivers and streams, as well as wetting soils, during the dry season as it melts, it adds.

Network Rail is planning to spend £2.8bn to protect the railway from the effects of climate change, warning it is having to cope with more extreme heat in the summer months and more floods in the winter, reports the Guardian. This is part of a wider £45.4bn five-year investment plan being undertaken by the company to upgrade Great Britain’s rail network, it adds. The investment will fund measures such as making embankments more resilient, recruiting 400 additional drainage engineers, training hundreds of operational staff to better interpret weather forecasts and installing CCTV at sites where there is a high risk of flooding, states the Press Association. Additionally, more smart-movement sensors will be installed on cuttings and embankments to give early warning of changes to engineers to help avoid landslips and new technologies will be introduced that use topography to better predict wind speeds, helping trains to run at higher speeds during stormy weather, reports Businessgreen. Climate change is the biggest challenge facing the railway, says Andrew Haines, Network Rail’s chief executive, adding: “The extreme weather of the past year that has seen an unprecedented 14 named storms, has taken its toll on our railway – with experts predicting more of the same to come. We are responding to that challenge with a huge investment in making our railway more resilient and better performing for rail users during such events,” the article quotes. In contrast, the Daily Telegraph seeks to undermine the story by reporting that its own “analysis” shows that the “proportion” of delays from climate change-related issues has fallen over recent years, with delays from “severe weather, autumn and structures” responsible for 10.3% of all delay minutes in 2020-21, and 7.7% in 2022-23, although both are higher than 2019-20. (The article quotes a range of closely connected climate-sceptic lobbyists and politicians in an attempt to support its claim.)

In other UK news, ministers have warned that the country should impose a frequent flyer tax to reduce demand for air travel, reports the Press Association. The UK has set out plans to cut emissions from aviation using technological measures, like increasing fuel efficiency and the adoption of sustainable aviation fuels, within its “jet zero strategy”, it explains. But the Environmental Audit Committee has urged the government to bring forward the first review under the strategy to 2025, so it can be determined whether the sector remains on track for its 2050 net-zero target, it adds. MPs have “urged the government to step up its efforts to hold the domestic aviation industry accountable for its efforts to decarbonise”, as there are concerns that development of clean technologies and fuels alone might not be enough to align the sector with climate targets, reports BusinessGreen. 

The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reports that two Chinese-linked companies are being investigated by the European Commission over whether they “used state subsidies to undercut rival bids in a Romanian solar project” as the EU launches probes into solar subsidies under the new foreign subsidies regulation. The Financial Times also covers the investigation, adding that “the probes reflect a hardening stance in Europe towards cheap Chinese imports, which the EU’s solar industry has blamed for the heavy losses and plant closures of several European solar panel manufacturers”.

State newspaper China Daily reports that Chinese president Xi Jinping and US president Joe Biden have agreed to “push for the steady development of China-US relations” in a phone conversation, with both sides agreeing to “conduct dialogue and cooperation in areas including anti-drug efforts, artificial intelligence and climate change”. The read-out of the conversation released by the US embassy in China says: “President Biden also raised continued concerns about the PRC’s unfair trade policies and non-market economic practices, which harm American workers and families.” The comment from Biden came after China filed a WTO complaint against US EV subsidies and US treasury secretary Janet Yellen warned “China not to flood the world with cheap clean-energy exports, saying they would distort global markets and harm workers”.

Meanwhile, the South China Morning Post carries a feature on the overcapacity in China’s “new energy” sector, saying that, despite “price slashing and Western threats”, Chinese manufacturers are staying positive on “churning out goods and planning overseas expansions” while waiting for the domestic demand to catch up. Reuters has a report titled: “China solar industry faces shakeout, but rock-bottom prices to persist.” The newswire says that China’s “crowded solar power sector is pushing smaller players out of the market, but excess production capacity – with more on the way – threatens to keep global prices low for years”.

Separately, China’s central bank has loosened restrictions on auto loans for the first time since 2018 to “promote auto trade-ins”, Reuters reports. The Communist party-backed newspaper People’s Daily reports that shares of many Chinese “new energy vehicle” (NEVs) brands “continue to rise” after they posted March sales figures. State-run economic news outlet China Digital Space reports that China’s National Bureau of Statistics is expected to add the NEVs into the “new power system” and promote “the coordinated development of urban smart infrastructure and intelligent connected vehicles”. Economic news outlet Yicai reports that the cumulative electricity generation of China National Nuclear Power, the state-owned enterprise, reached 51,090 gigawatt-hours in the first quarter of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 2.8%.

In other China news, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) has issued new regulations on carbon markets, saying that “local authorities are not allowed to establish new carbon emissions trading market”, the energy news outlet IN-EN.com reports. Economic news outlet 21st-Century Business Herald quotes Lu Shize, deputy director of the MEE’s climate change department, saying that the next step in the development of the carbon market is to “gradually introduce a paid quota allocation method”. China Daily reports that a recent study by scientists from Lanzhou University has revealed that the influence of global warming will make the northern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau become “warmer and wetter”. 

In Santiago, Chile, an 11-day heatwave has ended, becoming “the longest in history,” according to Raúl Cordero, a climatologist at the University of Santiago, La Tercera reports. The newspaper cites Chile’s Meteorological Directorate, which says that temperatures surpassed 31C, when the usual average is 25C, and registered “unprecedented characteristics”. 

Meanwhile, in other news from Latin America, Lima recorded a “historic peak” of 4,300 dengue cases in a week due to high temperatures, experts tell Peru’s El Comercio. Argentina’s La Nación reports that climate change is “tropicalising” temperate regions, leading to changes in insect and animal populations, such as dengue mosquitoes. Guillermo Sferco, a biologist at the National University of Córdoba, tells the publication that it is altering bird distribution in the country’s central region.

Elsewhere, rising sea temperatures are driving jellyfish infestations from the southern to northeastern coasts of Brazil, O Globo reports. Citing Marcelo Soares, an oceanographer at the Federal University of Ceará, the outlet notes that jellyfish could modify animal populations and fish production. Excélsior reports that Mexico’s National Forest Commission has announced that 24 fires have affected more than 4,500 hectares of natural protected areas. The commission adds that 45 wildfires were put out last Friday, although 113 were still active. Finally, El Espectador publishes a story on how the Colombian state has won a lawsuit against a US oil company seeking to develop a hydrocarbon project in an area of “ecosystemic importance” known as the Serranía Block. 

There has been a “cascade of climate news” in Australia over the Easter weekend, writes Adam Morton, the Guardian Australia’s climate and environment editor. This has included a debate around changes to rules around the consultation of Indigenous groups ahead of new gas developments, he explains. Critics have said the “government was making it simpler for gas developments to go ahead while it faced decisions on some major export developments that could lead to billions of tonnes of CO2 being pumped into the atmosphere”, explains Morton, with the conclusion delayed until May. Elsewhere the Australian government has revealed the design of its new proposed vehicle emissions standards, announced $1bn for a “solar sunshot” program and tabled legislation to create the Net Zero Economy Authority, writes Morton. Additionally, in news “the government would prefer not to talk about”, a study found that Australia’s main technique to create carbon offsets was largely a failure, the article notes (See Carbon Brief’s in-depth explainer on carbon-offseting). 

In other comment, omnipresent climate-sceptic commentator Ross Clark argues in the Daily Telegraph that “not even Elon can save EVs from disaster” following statistics on the value of second-hard EVs.

New research estimates a potential reduction in annual greenhouse gas emissions across US households of 2.47m MtCO2 by improving insulation and lowering the critical threshold for switching on heating by 1C. The new study uses daily gas consumption data in 1,000 counties to examine the relationship between gas usage and outdoor air temperature. Behaviour change has a direct effect on reduction in gas consumption while building renovations provide long-term energy and emissions savings, the authors note, with both strategies together creating “a powerful strategy for substantial reductions in gas consumption”.