The UK’s new chancellor Jeremy Hunt will scrap prime minister Liz Truss’s scheme to cap all household energy bills for two years from April 2023, BBC News reports. The outlet says: “Jeremy Hunt said the support – which limits a typical household bill to £2,500 – would be reviewed so it cost ‘significantly less than planned’.” The Independent says the “shock move” is “aimed at reassuring markets the government can balance the books”. It adds: “Mr Hunt said the two-year energy price guarantee had been ‘the biggest single expense in the growth plan’.” Bloomberg notes that Truss’s original plan was expected to cost £130bn, but could cost more if wholesale gas prices rise further. The Financial Times reports that Hunt’s revised programme “is expected to help at least the 8 million low-income households on benefits, such as universal credit, tax credit and pension credit.” The Guardian says that, according to “the sector’s leading forecaster”, the “U-turn” on bills could see average household energy bills rise to £4,347 from April. The Times puts the new average cost of bills at “up to £5,000”. The Independent and the Times also estimate how high energy prices could jump from April. Hunt “shredded Liz Truss’s economic plans in one of the most astonishing U-turns in modern political history”, the Guardian says in separate coverage of the announcement. The paper adds that in a BBC interview on Monday night, Truss said: “I wanted to act to help people with their energy bills and to deal with the issue of high taxes, but we went too far and too fast.” Meanwhile, the headline of a piece in Politico reads “RIP Trussonomics: New UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt tears up Liz Truss’ entire agenda”. The Press Association and BusinessGreen also cover Hunt’s announcement.

Elsewhere, the Guardian says that the £40bn “energy markets financing” announced by Liz Truss last month has now opened for applications. The paper reports that the scheme, devised by the Treasury and the Bank of England, offers “a safety net to help energy firms facing short-term financing problems”. The Daily Telegraph says that energy suppliers using the scheme have to show how they will reach net-zero emissions by 2050. BusinessGreen adds that within six months of drawdown of funds, “firms must also deliver ‘proportionate climate-related financial information’ aligned with the recommendations of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures”. The Times adds: “Firms benefiting from the scheme ‘will not be allowed to issue dividends, share buybacks, return of equity, discretionary bonus payouts, or make changes to senior management pay packages’. Sources said this would effectively bar almost all participants from paying bonuses.”

Separately, the Daily Telegraph reports that energy companies are set to miss their targets for installing smart meters this year. Meanwhile, the Financial Times says: “National Grid’s chief executive has warned British households to prepare for blackouts between 4pm and 7pm on ‘really, really cold’ weekdays in January and February in the event of reduced gas imports from Europe.”

The V20 – a group of the 20 vulnerable countries facing the worst impacts of climate change – set out proposals yesterday for how rich countries should pay for “loss and damage”, the Guardian reports. The paper continues: “Its demands are likely to be a key issue at the COP27 UN climate summit, which starts in Egypt on 6 November… Shauna Aminath, the minister of environment for the Maldives, told the Guardian it was the failure of the world’s richest nations to help poor countries build their resilience to extreme weather, for instance through constructing seawalls or preserving natural flood barriers, that had forced them to address loss and damage.” (See Carbon Brief’s in-depth explainer on loss and damage.) Meanwhile, EuroNews reports that “eleven European Union countries on Monday launched a new group to bolster the bloc’s climate diplomacy and place it at the heart of the EU’s foreign and security policy”.

Germany will extent the lifespan of its three remaining nuclear power plants until 15 April next year, according to a letter obtained by Politico. In the letter, German chancellor Olaf Scholz “ends weeks of infighting within his governing coalition over whether to extend the lifespan of the country’s three remaining nuclear power stations”, the paper says. It adds that Germany initially planned to shut down the plants on 31 December this year. In the letter, Scholtz also announced “a new law to increase energy efficiency, and the construction of new hydrogen-capable gas plants to ensure security of energy supply”, the outlet reports. The Financial Times says that “Scholz’s move is a bitter pill for the Greens to swallow”, adding that “the Greens had rejected the FDP demand to let the plants run till 2024 because that would have forced the operators to acquire new fuel rods — a development the Greens said was unacceptable”.

In other European news, the Guardian outlines the measures taken by different European countries to cut power consumption. It notes that the EU aims to shave 15% off energy consumption by next March, while the UK “has blocked a £15m campaign encouraging the public to conserve energy, with the government arguing that the country is ‘not a nanny state’.” Meanwhile, Bloomberg says: “The European Union is unveiling a new emergency package to tackle the energy crunch, betting on steps to bolster solidarity among member states. But the bloc will refrain from immediate gas-price caps amid political divisions and concerns over security of supply.”

A cross-party group of MPs has released a 10-point wishlist for climate and nature – including tripling the capacity of floating offshore windfarms, restoring 30% of the UK’s saltmarshes and seagrass meadows, and expanding the existing energy company obligation to make more homes efficient – the Guardian reports. It continues: “Most of the measures could be taken easily and with support across parliament, their new report, published on Tuesday, suggests. Some are technical, such as expanding the Treasury’s tax breaks on investment to cover skills and non-physical capital, and cutting VAT on public electric vehicle charging points from 20% to 5%.” The Press Association focuses on the groups call for the government to treble spending on insulation.

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph reports that a group of MPs called the One Nation Tories “will pile pressure on Liz Truss to either water down or abandon plans that would see some environmental protections ditched in an attempt to boost growth”. And the Independent covers a warning from the head of Natural England, that “‘trampling over nature and its protections’ will not deliver a healthy or sustainable economy”.

“The Biden administration plans to sell oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a bid to dampen fuel prices before next month’s congressional elections”, Reuters reports. It adds: “The sale would market the remaining 14m barrels from Biden’s previously announced, and largest ever, release from the reserve of 180 million barrels that started in May.” Bloomberg reports that, this week, the administration is also set to “provide details on plans to replenish the emergency stockpile”.

In other US news, the Washington Post reports that temperatures in the Pacific Northwest have reached 88F (31C) – breaking its “long-standing record for the hottest day this late in the season”. Elsewhere, the Guardian covers new research, which finds that the US Atlantic coast is “a breeding ground for supercharged hurricanes”. The Independent adds that hurricanes are “intensifying rapidly” due to global warming. DeSmog carries pictures of the Hurricane Ian’s aftermath. which is says “illustrate the coasts’ growing climate risks”. Meanwhile, the Guardian covers a new study which “for the first time links extreme hail, dangerous deluges, and the growing risk of flash floods in states like Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Nebraska to the growing intensity of wildfires in the west”. And new research covered in the San Francisco Chronicle finds that “smoke from California’s wildfires in 2020 — the worst modern wildfire season on record — put twice as much greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere as the state’s total reduction in such emissions from 2003 to 2019”.

Flooding caused by “an unusually heavy rainy season aggravated by climate change and the discharge of excess water from a dam”, has hit 33 of Nigeria’s 36 states, the Financial Times reports in continuing coverage of the floods. According to the paper, more than 600 people have died and 1.3 million have been displaced. It adds that the Nigerian government says “some states and local governments did not heed warnings to make bigger preparations to assist people in the worst affected areas”. The New York Times calls the flooding the worst in a decade, adding that in some states, more than a month of floods is likely still to come. “Nigeria LNG Ltd declared force majeure on shipments from its Bonny Island liquefied natural gas facility after supplies were cut off by flooding”, Bloomberg notes.

In other news of flooding, the Guardian reports that an atmospheric river’, La Niña, negative Indian Ocean dipole and climate change are all drivers of the ongoing flooding in Australia. Associated Press reports that “around 34,000 homes could be inundated or isolated in Victoria state as a flood emergency continues across parts of Australia’s southeast”. The Washington Post also covers Australia’s floods, and their link to climate change.

Ren Jingdong – the deputy director of the National Energy Administration (NEA) and member of the administration’s Communist Party of China (CPC) leadership group – is quoted by state-run newspaper Global Times saying that “as a large producer and consumer of energy, ensuring energy security is always the priority of the country”. He was speaking yesterday at the first press conference hosted during the CPC’s ongoing 20th National Congress in Beijing. He stressed that “China will strive to increase domestic fuel production and supply, aiming to bring annual domestic energy production capacity to more than 4.6bn tonnes of standard coal by 2025”, adding that “the government will give full play to the role of coal as a ‘ballast stone’ with supportive role in maintaining domestic energy security, while enhancing oil and gas exploration and development”. The newspaper also notes that China will “promote the development of clean energy, including wind power, solar power, hydropower and nuclear power, striving to make non-fossil fuels account for around 20% of China’s total energy consumption by 2025 and around 25% by 2030”.

China Energy News covers the same meeting. The state-run industry newspaper cites questions raised by journalists on energy topics and answers given by officials. In response to Bloomberg’s question, “How can the Chinese government reduce its dependence on foreign imports of resources, such as iron ore, crude oil, natural gas, and soybeans, in order to achieve a more self-sufficient economy?”, Zhao Chenxin – deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and member of the commission’s CPC leadership group – says: “There are some voices at home and abroad that believe that a major domestic cycle means that China should shrink significantly in opening up to the outside world, or even engage in self-sufficiency, which is a misunderstanding. President Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed that building a new development pattern is an opening dual domestic and international cycle, not a closed domestic cycle.” Singapore-based newspaper Lianhe Zaobao asks: “Given the increase in extreme weather, how can China strike a balance between energy transition and securing a stable energy supply to avoid a repeat of similar power shortages?” Ren from the NEA says that China will “focus on five areas” of work, two of which is to “strengthen the construction of coal and electricity production capacity” and “vigorously develop clean energy”.

Elsewhere, the South China Morning Post writes that, “as the G20 gathers in Indonesia this November, presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping are likely to meet on the sidelines. Together, they have a historic opportunity to demonstrate leadership at a time of converging global crises that threaten us all.” Finally, the Global Times runs an article titled: “China, EU need cooperation, not rivalry, in developing NEVs [new energy vehicles].”

Just Stop Oil protesters climbed to the top of Queen Elizabeth II bridge [which spans the Thames between Kent and Essex], forcing police to close it during the Monday rush hour, the Independent reports. Just Stop Oil announced that its two supporters expected to remain on top of the bridge for 24 hours, BBC News reports. The protesters were identified as a 33-year-old London teacher and a 39-year-old bridge engineer, the Daily Telegraph says.

New research finds that mountain goats and bighorn sheep are fighting over once-buried salt licks, which are becoming revealed as the Glacier National Park in Montana recedes, according to the New York Times. The paper adds: “In Glacier National Park, months of observation reveal an undisputed victor in the Salt Wars: The goat.” Bloomberg says that “goats dominated in over 95% of interactions observed by scientists”. The Guardian also covers the study.

There is widespread comment on Jeremy Hunt’s reversal of Liz Truss’s £2,500 energy price guarantee. After back-pedalling on a growth strategy built on tax cuts, Truss has “effected a restoration of the failed ideology of book-balancing austerity”, writes an editorial in the Guardian. “This is bad news for Britain”, the editorial continues: “Cutting public services will damage the country’s prospects, already hampered by a shrinking workforce as well as rising energy bills and mortgage costs.” The U-turn leaves the energy market in “chaos” writes Financial Times business columnist Helen Thomas, “with total uncertainty about who will be supported, at what prices, or in what way come next spring”. By abandoning the energy price freeze, “Truss has just removed one of her biggest remaining arguments for staying in power”, writes Sky News deputy political editor Sam Coates. Truss “has probably sealed her own fate”, argues Jessica Elgot, Guardian deputy political editor. Meanwhile, Guardian environment correspondent Fiona Harvey looks at new chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s green credentials. Hunt “proclaimed himself a proud green Tory in March this year when he joined the Conservative Environment Network of MPs”, she writes. “Now is his chance to put his words into action”.

Elsewhere, comments made by Rees-Mogg earlier this year indicate that “the government has no strategic concern about reducing consumption, solely because we have energy traders who can always source more from somewhere in the world”, writes Andrew Warren, chairman of the British Energy Efficiency Federation for BusinessGreen. It is “arrant nonsense” that saving energy is a “decision for individuals”, he concludes. And for the Financial Times, Willem Buiter, a former external member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, writes: “It’s not the Bank of England’s job to help ailing energy companies.” The Energy Markets Financing Scheme (EMFS), which offers “short-term financial support to wholesale [gas and/or electricity] firms” and opened for applications on Monday, “threatens the BoE’s operational independence”, Buiter says. “In a free market, energy suppliers would pass on rising costs to households, companies, and other final consumers of energy’, he adds.

In continuing reaction to Just Stop Oil activists throwing tomato soup at a Vincent van Gogh sunflowers painting in London last week, the Guardian’s Australia columnist, Jeff Sparrow, writes: “No one has been injured. No art has been damaged. Yet conservatives everywhere have lost their collective minds.” He continues: “Stunts by small groups or individuals reinforce a sense of working people as a passive constituency dependent on others to protest for them. That’s why mass, collective actions are preferable to stunts directed largely at the media… Nevertheless, with a chunk of Australia once again under water, it’s far, far better to speak too loud than to remain silent, just as demonstrations of any kind are preferable to apathy or cynicism.” In the Conversation, Oli Mould – a lecturer in human geography – lists three reasons why “this kind of provocative activism deserves our unwavering support”. And Daily Telegraph columnist and assistant editor Michael Deacon says “these self-righteous, soup-chucking eco-vandals deserve a taste of their own medicine”. He concludes: “The next time a gang of sanctimonious eco-yobs superglue themselves to the wall of an art gallery, let’s just leave them there.”

Meanwhile, Greta Thunberg told BBC News in an interview set to be broadcast later this week that she will not pursue a career in politics, because it is too “toxic”. The Independent also covers the interview, adding that Thunberg says she and other young activists are “bearing too much responsibility in the face of the climate crisis”.

The Guardian has published a “long read” by activist author Naomi Klein under the subheading: “Sisi’s Egypt is making a big show of solar panels and biodegradable straws ahead of next month’s climate summit – but in reality the regime imprisons activists and bans research. The climate movement should not play along.” She discusses some of the many climate activists who have been imprisoned in Egypt, and outlines why COP27 “has proved nothing short of a bonanza for Sisi”. She concludes: “It isn’t hard – but it does take courage. The message activists should bring to the climate summit, whether they travel to Egypt or engage from afar, is simple: unless political freedoms are defended, there will be no meaningful climate action. Not in Egypt, nor anywhere else. These issues are intertwined, as are our fates.”

Ice-like methane hydrates held in marine sediments beneath temperate and tropical oceans are probably not large sources of atmospheric methane emissions at present, a new study suggests. The researchers assess the concentration and origin of methane dissolved in water from the seafloor to the sea surface at “seep fields” along the US Atlantic and Pacific margins. The researchers find “no evidence” of seep methane reaching surface waters at depths greater than 430 metres. As gas hydrates “exist only at water depths greater than ~550 metres in this region”, this suggests that “the source of methane escaping to the atmosphere is not from hydrate decomposition”. An accompanying News & Views article says that the findings “provide the welcome reassurance that, at the moment at least, although seepage from decomposing hydrates is widespread, negligible amounts of methane are being released into the atmosphere at mid-latitudes”.

Intensifying wildfires and drying soils over 2003-20 have made post-fire dust events around the world an average of one day longer, a new study says, especially over extratropical forests and grasslands. Using satellite measurements of active fires, aerosol abundance, vegetation cover and soil moisture from 2003 to 2020, the researchers “show that 54% of the examined ~150,000 global large wildfires are followed by enhanced dust emission, producing substantial dust loadings for days to weeks over normally dust-free regions”. As regional wildfires and droughts are expected to intensify in the coming decades, the results “indicate a future enhancement of sequential fire and dust extremes and their societal and ecological impacts”, the authors warn.