Energy secretary Ed Miliband is visiting Beijing “to appeal to China to back international climate change commitments”, the Times reports. The newspaper says Miliband is taking part in three days of talks with senior Chinese officials “in an attempt to shore up support for multilateral climate action” ahead of COP30. The newspaper continues: “Government sources said Miliband wanted to foster a much closer bilateral relationship with Beijing on climate-related matters at a time of fears that some countries would use America’s decision to withdraw from the process to reduce their own commitments to reduce carbon emissions. Miliband is also expected to hold discussions on future potential energy collaboration with Beijing as part of the government’s wider reset of relations with China. However, Whitehall sources said that ministers still had security concerns over allowing too much Chinese involvement in sensitive projects such as onshore wind farms and Miliband’s visit was unlikely to result in any concrete investment decisions.” The Daily Telegraph (article not yet online) says that Miliband “will not mention Beijing’s coal” on the trip. 

In other UK news, the Guardian reports that the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has said that “fresh incentives to boost a flatlining electric car market are urgently needed”. According to the newspaper, the group said its research “showed growth in consumer demand for EVs was lower than expected, with only one in eight new buyers planning to switch in the next three years, putting jobs at risk”. The Press Association also covers the warning. The Times quotes the head of Kia UK, who called EV targets a “sword hanging over us”. In an article trailed in the frontpage, the Daily Telegraph says that Keir Starmer is “poised to relax a planned ban on popular hybrid cars”. It continues: “Following warnings from carmakers that the move could hurt investment, a Whitehall source on Thursday suggested that the government is now open to allowing more hybrids to be sold up until 2035.”

Elsewhere, the Times says a tribunal has heard that energy company Drax “tried to ‘silence’ a senior employee in a cover-up to prevent her concerns about its environmental credentials from becoming public”. The newspaper continues: “The former civil servant claims that she was unfairly dismissed by the energy company months after setting out concerns to executives around its claimed use of sustainable wood.” Separately, the Press Association reports that Chris Skidmore – the UK’s “former net-zero tsar” – has “teamed up with the ex-UN climate chief to launch a clean power taskforce aimed at countering recent reversals on action”. The outlet continues: “The organisation, which will be co-chaired by former UN executive secretary for climate change Patricia Espinosa, will include leading stakeholders in the renewables sector. Mr Skidmore said the taskforce will set out success stories on how renewable energy has brought down costs, improved energy security and transformed local economies across the world.”

China’s finance ministry has issued “administrative guidelines for special clean energy funds”, including “additional subsidies” for renewables and funding support for new “clean energy” projects, industry news outlet China Energy Net reports. It adds the measure will focus on “rural energy”, large-scale clean energy projects and “smart energy systems”. Reuters says the guidelines will support “clean utilisation of fossil fuels from 2025 until 2029, with a “possible extension” after “temporary” guidelines expired last year. The special funds, for which 3.2bn yuan ($440m) had already been budgeted this year, also cover a “subsidy programme to support unconventional natural gas drilling”, according to Bloomberg. Separately, China’s green bond market grew to 80bn yuan ($11bn) this year, “nearly eight times” higher year-on-year, reports the 21st Century Business Herald.

Meanwhile, China’s southern provinces have “lagged behind” northern ones in “shifting towards a cleaner power mix”, writes Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst of Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), in Dialogue Earth. This is partly due to insufficient investment in the “wind and solar capacity, or coordinating grid operations” as “rich hydropower resources have made them complacent”, he says. China has abolished “a regulatory document to promote the healthy development of low calorie coal power generation” in a routine clean-up exercise of outdated policies, says energy news outlet International Energy Net. China’s unused homes have become a “major environmental issue”, releasing an estimated 56m tonnes of CO2 annually, according to a new study covered by science news website ZME Science. 

In other news, China’s “own war against deserts” is what motivated it to help “Africa build a Great Green Wall across the Sahara”, says the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post. State-run newspaper China Daily posts an opinion article by Michele Geraci, a former undersecretary of state at the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, calling for China and the EU to “foster strong ties” in areas such as renewable energy and green technology. And the state-supporting newspaper Global Times says “as Chinese enterprises accumulate advantages in batteries, navigation and AI, analysts expect more China-EU corporate collaboration” in the automotive sector.

There is ongoing media coverage of the Trump administration’s decision to cancel billions of dollars of Environmental Protection Agency grants. The Guardian reports that Climate United – which coordinates investment in clean energy projects – sued to seek access to $7bn in EPA grants, which were first frozen and then cancelled by the new EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin. The newspaper says that Judge Tanya Chutkan told government lawyers that they had to produce “some kind of evidence” of wrongdoing to back up their actions. Inside Climate News says the judge “sharply criticised the agency for canceling the grants without presenting any evidence of wrongdoing, calling the administration’s justification weak and unsubstantiated”. It adds: “The judge stopped short of issuing a ruling on reinstatement of the funds, leaving grant recipients in limbo. If they don’t regain access to the funds, recipients said they may face layoffs and financial defaults by the end of the week.” Sky News and Politico also cover the story. The New York Times reports that, in a video posted on Twitter, Zeldin “boasted about the changes and said his agency’s mission is to ‘lower the cost of buying a car, heating a home and running a business’”. Separately, the Hill reports that the EPA “indicated this week that it will steer its environmental enforcement officers away from energy companies”. 

Meanwhile, the Financial Times covers warnings from insurers that mass-firings at science agencies, such as NOAA, “could threaten the critical weather and geospatial data that the industry uses to manage natural disaster risks and potentially raise prices for consumers”. The newspaper says that “top concerns included the live tracking of hurricanes, tornadoes and hailstorms, and the monitoring of drought conditions, using satellites and on-the-ground modelling, that can help raise the alarm for wildfires”. Time editor Jeffrey Kluger has published an article on “the true cost of Trump’s cuts to NOAA and NASA”. He notes that NOAA “owns or operates 13 weather satellites, manages more than 200 deep-water buoys and gathers weather and climate information from a storm of data provided by no fewer than 10,600 state, local and federal governments, as well as universities and private companies nationwide”. He adds that cutting NOAA staff does “precious little” to save money. He says: “Eliminate NOAA’s entire 13,000-person staff and you have cut just 0.43% of the federal government’s three million-strong workforce.” Meanwhile, the Hill reports that Donald Trump has said he will meet with the governor of New York “to discuss plans for an energy pipeline that would run through the Empire State”. Bloomberg also covers the story. 

In other US news, the Press Association reports that “the company behind an $8.9bn carbon-capture pipeline proposed for five midwestern states says it wants to indefinitely delay its plans after South Dakota passed a law limiting its ability to acquire land for the project”. The Guardian reports that nearly 200 advocacy groups have “urged Congress to reject fossil fuel industry immunity efforts, fearing long-term damage to climate lawsuits”. According to the newspaper, advocates “fear” that the industry will pursue “total immunity from all existing and future climate lawsuits”. Reuters covers a new report which finds that US bird populations are “experiencing alarming declines due to factors such as habitat loss and climate change”. According to the newswire, the report assessed 718 bird species, and identified 112 that have reached a “tipping point”. CBS News and Scientific American also cover the study. 

There is widespread media coverage of the “backlash” against Elon Musk’s EV manufacturing firm Tesla. CBS News says: “Since Tesla CEO Elon Musk joined the Trump administration, the effects on his car company have been dramatic, with the stock price significantly down. Tesla vehicles and dealerships have also been the target of vandals.” Vox reports that there have been reports of people burning Tesla chargers and vandalising cars, as well as “very spirited peaceful demonstrations all across the US in front of Tesla dealerships, with protesters voicing their dislike of Elon Musk, Donald Trump and his policies – and the government cuts being enacted by Musk’s DOGE group”. The Daily Telegraph reports that protests have spread to the UK, with protests held in London and Manchester. The Financial Times reports that Tesla “has warned that President Donald Trump’s trade war could make it a target for retaliatory tariffs against the US and increase the cost of making vehicles in America”. The i newspaper, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg and Reuters also cover the news. 

In other EV news, Bloomberg reports that Mercedes is launching “its most affordable electric sedan yet as the German manufacturer seeks to challenge EV makers such as Tesla”.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) says that global oil supply could exceed demand by around 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year, due to growth led by the US and weaker than expected global demand, Reuters reports. The IEA projects that world oil demand will rise by 1.03m bpd in 2025 – down 70,000 bpd from last month’s forecast – the newswire says. Bloomberg adds: “Global demand will average 103.9m barrels a day in 2025 and Asia will account for almost 60% of this year’s growth, it projects. The expansion in demand will be eclipsed by another 1.5m barrel-a-day surge in oil supplies, led by the US, Brazil, Canada and Guyana. As a result, world markets are headed for a surplus even if OPEC+ [the group of oil-producing countries and its allies] exercises its option to cancel the rest of its scheduled production increases, the IEA said.” Reuters reports that oil prices fell by more than 1% yesterday – although Bloomberg reports that oil prices have since risen slightly “as the US tightened sanctions against Iran and Russia”. Another Reuters article says that OPEC+ has “exported a record amount of refined products, blunting the impact of the group’s crude output curbs”. 

Elsewhere, Reuters reports: “Spanish energy minister Sara Aagesen said on Thursday she did not see any risk in Europe’s growing reliance on liquefied natural gas from the US amid threats by President Donald Trump to escalate a wider global trade war.” Reuters says that Qatar is set to provide Syria with gas via Jordan “in a move that a US official said had Washington’s approval”. The New York Times says: “Facing Trump tariff threats, governments and companies are proposing major investments in American liquefied natural gas projects.” And the Daily Telegraph reports that Russian state-owned gas producer Gazprom “has been forced into a fire sale of luxury property following the collapse of its European business”. 

Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions fell by around 3.4% year-on-year in 2024, reports Reuters, “putting the country on track to meet its 2030 climate targets”. According to Germany’s federal environment agency, the country’s CO2 emissions fell to 649m tonnes last year, the newswire says, which is below both a preliminary figure of 656m tonnes published by a thinktank in January and the 2024 legal target of 693.4m. The newswire continues: “Reduction in fossil energy drove Germany’s 2024 emissions decline, thanks to a sharp rise in renewable energy expansion, which accounted for around 54% of the country’s gross electricity consumption. But emissions cuts in the transport and building sectors remained modest last year, at 1.4% and 2.3% on the year respectively, missing their legal targets.”

Elsewhere, CDU/CSU leader Friedrich Merz, Germany’s new chancellor since February, is unlikely to fully repeal the Building Energy Act (GEG), which mandates that new heating systems use at least 65% renewable energy, reports Focus. During his election campaign, Merz vowed to repeal the Act, the article says, noting that the CDU/CSU manifesto criticised its “bureaucratic burden”. The law, often referred to as the “heating hammer”, was pushed by Green Party leader Robert Habeck, “sending his approval ratings plummeting”, explains the article. However, it reports that full repeal is unlikely due to the EU’s 2024 Building Directive, which imposes stricter efficiency standards by 2030. In related news, Der Spiegel highlights that, despite their “poor reputation”, heat pumps can save homeowners “tens of thousands of euros”. The nonprofit consultancy co2online estimates 20-year gas heating costs at €71,900, while air-source heat pumps cost just €29,100 excluding CO2 pricing, which is set to rise “significantly”, notes the newspaper.

Meanwhile, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports Germany’s largest “green” hydrogen deal between TotalEnergies and RWE. Starting in 2030, RWE will supply 30,000 tonnes annually to TotalEnergies’ Leuna refinery for 15 years, notes the article. The hydrogen will be produced via electrolysis in Lower Saxony using renewable electricity, where RWE plans a 300-megawatt electrolyser on the site of a former nuclear plant. FAZ adds that it will be transported through Germany’s planned hydrogen core network, repurposing gas pipelines and adding new infrastructure. Reuters also covers the story. 

Finally, Handelsblatt reports that German energy company Uniper repaid €2.6bn in state aid, fulfilling EU conditions after Germany’s €13.5bn bailout prevented its collapse following Russia’s gas cutoff. 

UK energy secretary Ed Miliband writes in the Guardian that he is having meetings in Beijing this week to “urge continued action” on climate change from China. Miliband writes that “decisive action at home and abroad” is the “only way to respond” to the “existential threat” of climate change. He says that China is the world’s biggest emitter, but notes that he is the first energy secretary to visit since 2017, adding: “Frankly, I consider it to be negligence towards today’s and future generations not to engage China on this topic.” Miliband says that he and his Chinese counterparts will “sign a refreshed UK-China Clean Energy Partnership, updating our approach to engaging on these issues for the first time in a decade”. He adds: “My visit speaks to a wider truth: on climate, as on so much else, we can only fight for our national interest by being engaged on the international stage.” 

Separately, Guardian columnist Larry Elliott says that Labour’s spending plans “couldn’t fund a war and won’t boost growth”. He says: “The climate crisis poses a bigger existential threat to this country than Putin does – or ever will, so if money can be found for the military there’s no reason why it couldn’t also be found to accelerate the drive for self-sufficiency in clean energy. That might really do something for national security.”

In comment articles focusing on US politics, Daily Telegraph world economy editor Ambrose Evans-Pritchard says that “Trump’s oil triumphalism will end in American tears”. He writes about the “good health” of the “electro-tech revolution”, noting that soon “renewables will eat into fossil demand for power”. He concludes: “The US is taking a big risk by doubling down on fossils and combustion cars. It may find in the 2030s that it has achieved the worst of all words: left on the sidelines of the global electro-tech economy, while at the same dependent again on imported oil and gas. Will Trump end up being the man who blew America’s energy independence?” An editorial in the Wall Street Journal calls the recent changes in the EPA “a crucial step toward more rational energy regulation”. And Martin Samual, chief correspondent at the Times, writes that “Elon Musk leaves me with a nasty taste” and so, “when I buy my new electric car this year, I’m just saying it won’t be a Tesla”.

Elsewhere in comment, Daily Telegraph columnist Matthew Lynn criticises the Labour government’s proposals to increase the use of timber in construction. Climate sceptic columnist Ross Clark writes in the Daily Mail about the highway built through the Amazon for COP30, which he says “reveals staggering hypocrisy of all those COP climate jamborees”. And Ross Lydall – city hall editor and transport editor at the Standard – writes that London needs to ban e-bikes on public transport due to the risk of batteries causing fires. 

New research finds that editorials in UK newspapers increased in their support of taking action on climate change between 2011 and 2021. The study analyses editorials from 17 UK newspapers both quantitatively and qualitatively for content on climate change and energy. It finds that even among rightwing newspapers, there was “an identifiable increase in support for climate action”. However, it also identifies several “discourses of delay” – discussions that “accept the existence of climate change, but justify inaction or inadequate efforts” – prevalent in discussions of both climate and energy in opinion pages. The research stems from analysis by Carbon Brief, which was first published in 2022.

Intentional overfishing of the sea urchin in eastern Tasmania has resulted in a 50% reduction in the invasive species, which can devastate kelp ecosystems. Researchers model the population growth of the invasive urchin, along with the effects of fishing, based on dive surveys conducted between 2001 and 2021. They find that the urchin catch “increased markedly” after the government introduced a subsidy on the fishery in 2016-17. The study notes that while complete eradication of the urchin from Tasmania is unlikely – in part due to climate change expanding the urchin’s range – “functional eradication” can reduce the population “to a level that minimises ecological impacts”.