The latest International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA) annual statistical release shows that 585GW of new “clean” power capacity was added globally last year, reports BusinessGreen. Renewables accounted for 92.5% of all electricity capacity brought online in 2024, with the sector delivering a record annual growth of 15.1%, it adds. Solar was “by far the fastest-growing form of renewable power”, reports Yale Environment 360, accounting for 77% of the new capacity, while wind accounted for 19%. According to IRENA’s data, China installed more renewable power in 2024 than all other countries combined, it adds. The G7 and G20 countries accounted for 14.3% and 90.3% of new capacity, respectively, reports Axios. The outlet quotes IRENA director-general Francesco La Camera: “Each year [renewables] keep breaking their own expansion records, but we also face the same challenges of great regional disparities and the ticking clock as the 2030 deadline is imminent.” Despite the increase, the world is still not on track to reach the international goal of tripling renewable energy from 2023 to 2030, reports the Associated Press. According to IRENA’s calculations, it is currently expected to be 28% short of this goal, the article adds. 

South Korea continues to battle wildfires that have doubled in size in a day, killing at least 26 people and destroying hundreds of buildings in the south-eastern province of North Gyeongsang, reports the Guardian. Lee Han-kyung, the country’s disaster and safety division chief, has said the “wildfire has once again exposed the harsh reality of a climate crisis unlike anything we’ve experienced before”, the article adds. South Korea is facing “snowballing damage” from the wildfires, reports Sky News. The fires have now destroyed a 1,300-year-old Buddhist temple, as well as houses, factories and vehicles, while burning more than 43,000 acres, it adds. The fire is in the county of Uiseong and is currently only 68% contained, reports Reuters. It has been exacerbated by gusty winds and shown “unimaginable” scale and speed, according to Lee Byung-doo, a forest disaster expert at the National Institute of Forest Science, adds the article. It continues: “Climate change is projected to make wildfires more frequent globally, Lee said, citing the unusual timing of wildfires that ravaged part of Los Angeles in January and a recent wildfire in northeast Japan.” A firefighting helicopter crashed in the mountains of Uiseong on Wednesday, killing the pilot, reports BBC News. Korea Forest Service chief Lim Sang-seop has said a “small amount” of rain is now expected in the area on Thursday, but “not enough to play a meaningful role in extinguishing the wildfires”, reports Le Monde.

A third of global GDP could be lost this century if the “climate crisis runs unchecked”, according to a new joint report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the UN Development Programme covered by the Guardian. The report finds that taking “strong action to tackle the climate crisis” will increase growth rather than harm countries’ finances as net-zero critics have claimed, it adds. Setting ambitious targets on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, as well as setting out the policies to achieve them, would result in a “net gain to global GDP by the end of the next decade”, the article adds. Accelerated climate action could increase global GDP by 0.2% by 2040 compared with current policies, reports Reuters. The report shows that “well-designed climate policies not only cut emissions, but could enhance efficiency, productivity and innovation – potentially raising output by an amount equivalent to the size of Sweden’s economy”, the newswire adds.

The UN’s climate boss Simon Stiell has “urged Europe to step up efforts to tackle global warming under its security spending drive, as concerns mount that the EU is sidelining green action while dashing to revitalise its armed forces”, reports the Financial Times. Climate experts fear “green” funding will be cut, following European nations’ reduction of aid budgets, increase in borrowing and general restructuring as they look to “re-arm in the face of US president Donald Trump’s threats to leave Nato”, it continues. The article quotes Stiell who said in a speech in Germany on Wednesday: “The climate crisis is an urgent national security crisis that should be at the top of every cabinet agenda.” Stiell also called on the EU to submit its delayed climate plan “in order to fill a diplomatic vacuum left by the US”, reports Bloomberg Law.

Relatedly, at a speech at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin, UN secretary-general António Guterres has called on countries to deliver their climate plans by September, reports Climate Home News. Guterres called for the plans to be “strong enough to limit global warming to 1.5C and to provide finance to developing countries in line with promises”, it adds. He urged countries to “step up to the plate with more climate finance and ambitious decarbonisation plans”, reports BusinessGreen. Guterres added that “the economic case for – and opportunities of – climate action have become ever clearer – particularly for those who choose to lead”. Meanwhile, in an interview with Agence France-Presse, chair of UN climate panel the IPCC Jim Skea insists that the body is “not in crisis and remains relevant despite criticism it is too slow in publishing its landmark scientific reports on climate change”. (For more, see Carbon Brief’s summary of the most recent IPCC meeting.)

In other European news, the EU has advised citizens to stockpile enough food, water and essentials for 72 hours, reports the Guardian. The advice comes as part of plans to increase readiness for “catastrophic floods and fires, pandemics and military attacks”, it adds. The “call to action for the EU’s 450 million citizens comes as the 27-nation bloc rethinks its security, especially after the Trump administration warned that Europe must take more responsibility for it”, reports the Associated Press. The article cites cyberattacks, climate change and disease as factors increasing the chance of a crisis.  

The Chinese owner of British Steel has “rejected a £500m lifeline offer from the UK government, raising fears about thousands of jobs at the steelmaker”, reports the Financial Times. A letter sent to Jingye by the government this week, offered funding to “sustain the business and help it switch to greener production”, it adds. This follows two years of rescue talks between the company and the government to try to keep the company’s flagship Scunthorpe plant in Lincolnshire running, the article notes. On Wednesday, Sarah Jones, the industry minister, told MPs that the offer had been rejected by Jingye, reports Sky News. “We are still in talks with them at the moment,” Jones told the business and trade select committee, the article adds. The £500m is equivalent to the £1.25bn package finalised with Tata Steel last year for its larger site, it notes.

The UK’s decision to issue 28 oil and gas exploration licences was challenged in London’s High Court on Wednesday, reports Reuters. Marine conservation organisation Oceana UK has brought the case against the licenses issued under the previous government in May 2024, arguing they failed to consider the impact on climate change, the risk of accidents and the risk to protected marine life, it adds. Oil and gas giant Ithaca Energy has announced that it will press ahead with two North Sea projects, despite legal threats from “green activists”, reports the Daily Telegraph. The company has said it hopes to extract the “first oil” from the Rosebank field, west of Shetland, as early as next year, the article adds. 

In other UK news, high commodity prices which “bear the fingerprints of climate change” could push up inflation in coming months, reports BusinessGreen. This is despite inflation falling slightly to 2.8% in a “modicum of good news” for chancellor Rachel Reeves ahead of yesterday’s spring statement, it adds. Reeves’ statement included very little on climate or energy, while “green groups have slammed the statement for its lack of focus on climate and nature, calling out missed opportunities”, reports Edie. Similarly, BusinessGreen reports that environmental groups have lamented the statement as a “missed opportunity”. An analysis piece in the Guardian, however, argues that the “fact that chancellor swerved climate crisis and net-zero targets suggests the sector has avoided the axe for now”. 

Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer BYD aims to double its overseas sales this year to more than 800,000 vehicles, Reuters reports, adding that it “plans to keep its cost advantage” by assembling the vehicles in “local markets”. Wang Chuanfu, BYD’s chairman, says the company “expects to see ‘a substantial rise’ in its market share in Britain” and sees “great opportunities” in Latin American and Southeast Asian countries, but “had no plans to sell into Canada and the US in the short term due to geopolitical developments”, adds the newswire. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) has an article under the headline: “US lawmakers urged to stop China’s critical minerals ‘exploitation’ of DR Congo.” The newspaper says the critical minerals include cobalt, a key component of EV batteries, and DR Congo is “by far the world’s biggest source of cobalt”. Bloomberg reports that the wind-turbine price in China is expected to “recover”, after being hit by a “price war following several years of rapid expansion”.

Meanwhile, state-supporting newswire Xinhua highlights the “coordinated development of electricity and hydrogen” during China’s 15th five-year plan, which starts from 2026. The outlet adds that “electricity-hydrogen integration” can address “challenges” in both the electricity system and the “green” hydrogen sector. State-run newspaper Economic Daily publishes an article about the “urgency” of providing “high-quality financial support” for the “green transition” and “Beautiful China”. International Energy Net reports that China is “making an all-out effort” to develop largescale wind and solar power bases in the country’s deserts.

Elsewhere, the Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily says that China has played a “positive role in leading the green transition”, according to participants in the Boao Forum for Asia – an influential conference attended by Asian leaders. Xinhua also covers the story, saying that China is “restructuring by prioritising high-end manufacturing, digital development and green industries”, which will bring “new opportunities for the world”. Xinhua publishes another article under the headline: “Boao establishes zero-carbon zone in pursuit of sustainable development.” State broadcaster CCTV says that China has attracted “large world investments” in renewable energy

Finally, SCMP publishes a comment piece by Bonnie Zuo, the China engagement lead at Transition Asia, a non-profit thinktank, arguing that, with the “right incentives”, electricity-based steel production methods and the utilisation of renewable energy sources, such as green hydrogen, can help China’s steel industry shift towards a “fully low-carbon process”. 

Brazil’s federal court of accounts has questioned the “cooperation agreement” worth more than $83m between the COP30 organisers and the Organisation of Ibero-American States (OEI), according to Folha de São Paulo. The Brazilian government says such agreements are justified and have been made at other international events such as the G20. However, parliamentary opponents have called for an investigation into the decision, the article adds. Meanwhile, during a trip to Japan, Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has criticised the exit of “some countries” from the Paris Agreement, O Globo reports. 

In other Latin American news, six states in northern Mexico are experiencing “extreme or exceptional droughts”, according to Excélsior. The state of Sonora is the most affected, with 88% of its territory under drought conditions. Only two out of 13 watersheds in the country are not affected by drought, the newspaper adds. 

Elsewhere, more than 550 hectares of rare peatland swamps are being destroyed in Madre de Dios, southeastern Peru, due to gold mining, according to a study covered by Mongabay. The study points out that at least 63 out of 219 peatland areas, within the Peruvian Amazon, have been affected, which could lead to the release of up to 14.5m metric tons of carbon stored in the ecosystems.

Finally, Chile is to boost its national strategy for lithium extraction, according to Dialogue Earth. The country holds 44% of the world’s lithium reserves and is second in lithium production, the outlet notes. Chile is now looking at “alternative extraction methods” and the “release of exploration contracts”, after approving its national lithium strategy in 2023.

While “we’ve long known President Donald Trump is a climate-change denier…nothing could have prepared us for the breadth or intensity of the assault on climate action that Trump has unleashed during his first months back in office”, argues Bloomberg opinion editor Mark Gongloff and data editor Elaine He. Every agency with a connection to climate has been faced with an “onslaught”, with the article using a graphic to explain the 82 actions across 20 government bodies that has seen during Trump’s first 52 days in office that will “deepen the climate crisis”. The article highlights that, while renewable energy continues to get cheaper, any investment required to achieve net-zero “must be weighed against the trillions in damages threatened by climate change”. Further graphics show the “climate demolition” being undertaken by Trump’s government, before the article concludes that the “scale and complexity of Trump’s onslaught…may seem discouraging…But awareness is the first step to recovery. Our hopes of having a livable environment depend on it.”

Elsewhere, there is some reaction in the UK newspapers responding to yesterday’s spring statement by the UK chancellor. The Guardian argues that the statement matters as much for what was not said as was, noting that there was “no urgency – even amid a climate crisis”. The climate-sceptic Sun claims that if growth is truly the government’s priority it would “now ditch two obvious drags on it – net-zero and the new workers’ and unions’ rights.” In the Daily Mail, broadcaster and commentator Andrew Neil (who has a long history of casting doubt on climate science) argues that the statement’s only consolation was that it made “no mention of green investment in the zealous pursuit of net-zero being a path to growth”. 

Finally, the Daily Telegraph‘s climate-sceptic columnist Matthew Lynn argues that “bosses are finally starting to admit that net-zero is making us poorer”, following comments about the cost of flying from Australian airline Qantas. And Le Monde’s environmental sciences correspondent Stéphane Foucart writes in a new column that “NGOs contribute to the effective functioning of democracy, silencing them will not make the environmental crisis go away”. 

Fewer than one-third of petrol subsidy reforms introduced since 2016 remained in place for one year, new research finds. The study authors assess petrol subsidy reform efforts from 2016-23, focusing on 21 countries who had the largest subsidies in 2003-15. There has been an increase in the “frequency and ambition” of reforms in recent years, but a “drop in their durability”, they write. Just 30% of reforms survived for one year, while only 9% lasted for three years. This “calls into question the effectiveness of recent strategies for reducing fossil-fuel subsidies”, the researchers say.

Climate change is one of the key drivers behind the global spread of disease-causing bacteria, according to a new study. The study findings indicate that the richness, abundance and “invasion risk” of human pathogenic bacteria (HPB) will increase globally by the end of this century. The study authors analyse a global map of the distribution of this bacteria and model predictions for its spread by the end of this century, under four future pathways. They find that the “threat of environmentally mediated” HPB infections may be more severe in a world with amplified human activities and climate change.