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TODAY'S CLIMATE AND ENERGY HEADLINES
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Today's climate and energy headlines:
- Tesla suffers first ever annual sales drop as China attacks electric vehicle market
- Morgan Stanley follows Citi, Bank of America in quitting climate group
- US: Biden expected to permanently ban oil drilling in some federal waters
- China may miss target for cleaning up largest steel industry
- Last year was China’s hottest on record, weather agency says
- UK electricity cleanest ever in 2024, with record 58% from low-carbon sources
- Germany: Renewable energy temporarily covers 125% of electricity demand
- Smarter incentives would help India adapt to climate change
- Diverging responses of terrestrial ecosystems to water stress after disturbances
Climate and energy news.
The electric-vehicle company Tesla has recorded its “first ever drop” in annual sales, against a backdrop of growing competition from Chinese rivals and “a global slowdown in growth of electric vehicle sales”, according to the Daily Telegraph. The US company, led by the billionaire Elon Musk, brought its yearly sales total to 1.79m cars in 2024, slightly below the 1.8m sold in 2023 – despite achieving a record high for quarterly sales in the final three months of the year, the newspaper says. The Associated Press notes that while electric-vehicle sales slowed in the US throughout the first nine months of 2024, “they are still growing”. It cites experts who say Tesla is now facing more competition from legacy automakers, as well as relatively new companies, and that it needs to produce a new, affordable model to remain competitive, following the “limited appeal” of the Cybertruck. (Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that the Cybertruck – a giant pickup – will join the relatively short list of electric vehicles that qualify for $7,500 in US tax credits, based on their components being sourced domestically in the US.) Despite slowing electric-vehicle sales, the Washington Post says Tesla share price finished the year up more than 60%. “The majority of that gain came after the presidential election, as Musk emerged as one of [incoming US president Donald] Trump’s closest confidants during the transition,” the newspaper explains. Nevertheless, Bloomberg says there are doubts over whether Musk’s ambitions for growth in 2025 can be met, “particularly if electric vehicle tax credits are rolled back under Trump”. It explains that the next president has criticised these Biden-era policies. The Times identifies the Chinese company BYD, which is vying with Tesla to be the world’s top-selling electric vehicle manufacturer, as a key blocker of the company’s growth forecasts. It notes that BYD has been trying to expand sales outside China, but has faced “strict tariffs on imports” in the US and the EU.
Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports that BYD sold a record number of electric vehicles and hybrids globally last year – 4.3m compared to 3.6m in 2023. However, the newspaper notes that BYD did not oust Tesla as the biggest seller of pure battery-electric vehicles, selling 1.76m compared to Tesla’s 1.79m. The article notes that China is expected to sell more pure battery-powered cars and plug-in hybrids than vehicles with only internal combustion engines for the first time in 2025. It says this is “a result of hundreds of billions of dollars in government subsidies over the past decade”. Chinese companies such as Nio and Li Auto have followed Tesla and BYD in extending buying incentives into 2025, “as a price war in the world’s largest auto market continues for a third year”, according to Reuters.
Elsewhere, Norway is “on the brink” of achieving its target for 100% of new car sales to be electric by 2025, according to the National. The article says that 88% of new cars sold in 2024 were zero-emission. It attributes this growth, in part, to tax incentives funded by Norway’s oil-and-gas revenue. Unlike its EU neighbours, Norway has not imposed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, and these have “surged to account for almost 10% of new car sales in Norway in only five years”, Reuters reports. Xinhua notes that four Chinese companies have entered the top 15 best-selling brands.
Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Bank of America are part of “a wave of Wall Street firms” ending their membership of “a major climate-banking group”, Bloomberg reports. The Net-Zero Banking Alliance is intended to “aid the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions”, and other recent departures have included Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo, the article notes. All the banks have stated that they remain committed to their net-zero goals, Bloomberg says. Nevertheless, it explains that “the defections are playing out against a tense political backdrop in the US, as the country’s biggest financial firms find themselves the targets of Republican campaigns that have characterized net-zero groups as climate cartels”. The Financial Times notes that, when the alliance was launched in 2021, it was seen as an important step towards tackling climate change by limiting investment in and lending to industries that contribute to emissions. The newspaper describes recent departures as the “latest sign corporate America may retreat from climate goals during Donald Trump’s second term as US president”. In particular, it notes that Republican lawmakers have pressured banks to move away from pledges to avoid lending to oil-and-gas companies. Republican-led states, including Texas, West Virginia and Florida, have already tried to penalise financial institutions and investment firms for employing Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards, arguing that they are aimed at harming fossil-fuel industries, the Globe and Mail explains. The Times notes that the latest news is a setback for the alliance, and the wider Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero of which it is part. This was launched by former Bank of England governor Mark Carney in the run-up to COP26 in Glasgow, and was described by him as a “breakthrough in mainstreaming climate finance”, the newspaper notes. The Wall Street Journal has an editorial concerning what it calls the “coercive climate-policy exodus”.
US president Joe Biden is expected to permanently ban new oil-and-gas drilling in parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and other federal waters, “in a way that could be difficult for the Trump administration to unwind”, according to the New York Times. It cites two people familiar with the plans, and says Biden plans to “invoke an obscure provision of a 1953 law, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act”, which would allow him to withdraw federal waters from future leasing. The newspaper says the move would “cement” Biden’s legacy on climate change, with Trump aiming to “reverse virtually every law and regulation” aimed at cutting emissions. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that oil drilling and a new pipeline could restart in Santa Barbara, California, where an oil spill in 1969 drove an early wave of environmentalism. “The pipeline plan looms at a time when many Californians fear backsliding on climate and environmental issues” under Trump, the article says. A Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas survey finds that US energy executives expect faster permitting times for drilling on federal lands under president-elect Trump, according to Reuters.
China could miss its “year-end target for boosting production of less-polluting steel”, says Bloomberg. China’s goal is to have more than 15% of its steel being produced by electric-arc furnaces by the end of 2025, but the average operating rate for these furnaces dropped to its “lowest rate” – 49% last year – from 2021, according to Shanghai-based data provider Fubao Information, adds the outlet.
Meanwhile, China’s first energy law came into force on Wednesday, “which helps ensure national energy security and serves as a cornerstone for promoting a green and low-carbon transition”, says state-affiliated newspaper Global Times. The law consists of nine chapters, including energy reserves and emergency response, as well as energy technology innovation and supervision, and establishes “the legal status of green certificates, encourages users to prioritise the use of renewable energy and supports the development of new technologies…and innovations such as advanced energy storage”, says the newspaper. It continues: “For the first time, the energy law includes hydrogen energy in national legislation, clearly defining hydrogen’s role as an energy source.”
Elsewhere, the Fengning hydropower plant – the world’s largest pumped storage hydropower – entered operation on 31 December, reports Xinhua. The construction of another mega hydropower project on the Yarlung Tsangpo (or Yarlung Zangbo) river in Tibet was approved on 25 December, according to state-owned newspaper China Daily. David Fickling, a Bloomberg columnist, writes in an opinion that the Yarlung Tsangpo project “generate[s] as much as 70 gigawatts of clean energy, sufficient to power the UK or Taiwan”. He continues to write that the heavy weight of the project could cause tremors, but “that might be a worthwhile price to pay if such an immense piece of engineering was able to reverse China’s carbon addiction…China’s fundamental problem is that its dirigiste economy uses too much energy too wastefully”.
On New Year’s Eve, president Xi Jinping said: “We have fostered new quality productive forces in light of actual conditions…For the first time, China has produced more than 10m new energy vehicles in a year.” The Chinese Ministry of Finance issued a notice a day ago that “in principle, at least 30%” of the new vehicles purchased by the government should be electric vehicles from now on, according to Xinhua. The ministry also said at its annual conference on 23-24 December that “the construction of ecological civilisation will be supported in 2025”, says International Energy Storage Net’s social media account chuneng365. It adds that the conference confirmed the Chinese government will “steadily promote carbon peak and carbon neutrality, and promote green and low-carbon transformation in key industries and fields”.
In other news, China announced a new policy to accelerate the application of “clean and low-carbon hydrogen in industrial sectors” on 30 December, reports China Energy Net. The new policy will promote the off-grid production of renewable hydrogen and that by 2027 “positive progress” will be made, adds the outlet. A new “guidance” on “accelerating the comprehensive green transformation of agricultural development and promoting rural ecological revitalisation” by 2030 was also issued on 30 December by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, according to economic newspaper Yicai. Another Yicai report says that the first city level “carbon offset cooperation alliance” – a carbon offset programme – was established in Wuhan on 26 December, the capital of Hubei province in central China, “marking a huge milestone in the country’s carbon reduction efforts”. Finally, state news agency Xinhua reports that the retail prices of gasoline and diesel will increase and China’s three biggest oil companies and oil refineries have been “directed to maintain oil production and facilitate transportation to ensure stable supplies”.
Last year, China reached its hottest annual temperature since records began, according to the China Meteorological Administration, quoted by Agence France-Presse. The top four warmest years ever were the past four years, and all of the top 10 warmest years since 1961 – when the full record began – have occurred since 2000, the article says. It notes that China experienced extreme weather in 2024, with dozens killed and thousands evacuated during floods around the country. China Daily says 2025 has also begun with warmer-than-average temperatures, with much of the area south of the Yangtze River experiencing temperatures exceeding 15C – “far from the biting cold temperatures typically expected during this winter period”.
Elsewhere, the UK’s Met Office has also announced its temperature results for last year, with 2024 provisionally the fourth hottest on record, according to MailOnline. This means 2024 follows 2022, 2023, and 2014 as the fourth warmest year for the UK, and all top 10 warmest years have been since 2000, the news website adds. The Press Association also covers the story, quoting the Met Office as saying in a statement that this marks another “clear illustration that our climate is changing, right now”.
Many UK publications have covered Carbon Brief’s analysis showing that the UK’s electricity was the cleanest it has ever been in 2024. The Guardian was among them, noting that wind and solar generation both hit all-time highs, with low-carbon power sources reaching a record 58% of generation in 2024. The Times also covers the analysis, stating that it “outlined just how quickly the electricity sector has been transformed in recent years”. It quotes Carbon Brief’s Simon Evans, who co-authored the analysis, stating that 2025 is likely to be the first year that wind power overtakes gas generation. BusinessGreen has a write-up of the analysis, noting that despite the success of the UK’s electricity transition, the “grid remains well short of the government’s target of achieving at least 95% clean power by 2030”. The Press Association also covers the story.
Separately, an “exclusive” story on the frontpage of the i newspaper reports that the government has “confirmed” that nearly all UK homes will end up having to install a heat pump rather than a gas boiler or other green alternative. It says gas boilers will be banned in new homes by the end of this decade, and notes an existing commitment from the previous government to end the sale of new gas boilers by 2035, regardless of the home’s age. “Although energy secretary Ed Miliband has suggested he will scrap the hard deadline,” the article adds. It notes that the government has signalled that plans for replacing gas boilers with hydrogen boilers in the UK “are set to be abandoned, following growing questions over whether they are practical”. Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph reports that the government has enlisted the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) – known as the “nudge unit” – to encourage the public to take up heat pumps. A Daily Telegraph editorial (not yet online) criticises this decision, stating: “Heaven preserve us from an outbreak of nudges in aid of energy secretary Ed Miliband’s swivel-eyed targets.”
According to data from the German Federal Network Agency, on New Year’s Day, renewables in Germany reportedly generated more electricity than consumers required, reports Der Spiegel. Despite this, gas and coal power plants continued to operate, the outlet notes. During the midday hours, the share of “green” electricity in consumption rose to nearly 120% and temporarily reached approximately 125%, considered a “rare” phenomenon, explains the article. The newspaper continues that the expansion of renewable energy in Germany has recently “regained momentum” with more wind capacity added to the grid, bringing the total to 72.4 gigawatts (GW). Solar energy grew even more rapidly, with nearly 15GW of new capacity added, raising the total to around 98GW, adds the outlet. However, due to strong wind output and low demand, German hourly day-ahead prices dropped into negative territory during 14 hours for delivery on 1 January, Montel reports.
In addition, another article from Der Spiegel covers the story about Mona Neubaur, the minister for economy, climate and energy in North Rhine-Westphalia, pledging to “ensure that at least 1,000 additional wind turbines are built in the state within the next five years”, with plans to designate 61,400 hectares of land for this purpose.
Meanwhile, Die Zeit reports that German electricity provider RWE has conditioned its planned exit from coal-fired power generation by 2030 if new gas power plants are built. “RWE is working on the coal phase-out by 2030, which we have agreed upon with the federal and state governments. However, this will only work if we receive the tender for gas power plants in 2025,” RWE CEO Markus Krebber told Rheinische Post. Otherwise, the lignite power plants and opencast mines “would have to operate for a longer period”, notes the outlet.
Climate and energy comment.
An editorial in the Economist considers the climate adaptation problem facing India. “India is not yet rich, but is already shelling out a fortune to adapt to climate change: 5.6% of GDP in 2021, up from 3.7% in 2015. Vast though these sums may be, they barely match the scale of the problem,” it says. The article says that “simple ideas, widely disseminated, can make a difference”, pointing to efforts to plant trees in Mumbai slums to provide more shade and give children cooler places to study. It stresses that there need to be measures to encourage people to use less water in Asia’s most water-stressed country. “India needs a more joined-up approach: heat-resilient building codes to encourage shade, ventilation and better materials; proper planning for the millions whom climate change will push to migrate internally; better information-gathering; and a price for water that makes people use it with care,” the magazine suggests. The editorial accompanies an article in the same issue titled: “How 1.4bn Indians are adapting to climate change”.
New climate research.
A new study finds that the carbon uptake in dry ecosystems is becoming more sensitive to water availability, while carbon uptake by wet ecosystems is becoming less sensitive. Researchers use remote-sensing data on ecosystem productivity and two future climate change scenarios to examine the changes in sensitivity following “disturbances” such as drought and wildfire. They find that these disturbances cause “indirect” effects on ecosystem productivity by altering the sensitivity of the ecosystem to further drought. The authors add that “sensitivity takes ~4-5 years to recover after disturbances, but the increasing frequency of disturbances threatens this recovery”.