The UK government is expected to announce £600m in support to help the country’s two biggest steelmakers “go green”, BBC News reports. It explains: “The funding for British Steel and Tata Steel UK is likely to be unveiled by the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, this week. Each is expected to receive around £300m of grants to help pay for a switch away from coal-fired blast furnaces and help with energy costs. It will also protect thousands of jobs in Britain’s industrial heartlands.” The Financial Times first broke the story. It comes as the Unite union warns that UK steelmaking is “a whisker away from collapse”, according to a second BBC News story. In a letter to UK business secretary Grant Shapps, the union accused the UK government of taking “little meaningful action” to help the industry, leaving the sector “at breaking point”. The letter also said that UK steelmaking faces problems from “crippling energy costs, carbon taxes, lost markets, lower demand, and open market access for imported steel”.

In other UK industry news, the Guardian reports that “green jobs” have fallen sharply since David Cameron decided to cut policies he described as “green crap”, “with fewer vacancies now available as a share of the economy than in 2012”. An analysis of online job adverts found that the share of green employment opportunities dropped from 1.8% of all openings in 2012, to a low point of just 1.1% by 2018. “It then increased to 1.6% in 2021, but remained below the level seen almost a decade earlier,” the Guardian says.

It comes as the director of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is today expected to warn in a speech that the UK “is lagging behind its economic rivals in the green growth industries of tomorrow”, the Times reports. CBI chief Tony Danker “will say that in the past two years the UK has lost £4.3bn in green-technology market share and the high-skill jobs that go with it”, according to the publication. A second Times piece interviews the chief executive of Kia, a South Korean car company, who warns that “a mass market in affordable electric cars will not happen soon because of the difficulty of producing them on a commercially viable basis”.

In addition, the Press Association reports that Labour has announced it would introduce a voucher scheme to help small businesses “go green”, if in power.

The UK’s electricity generators “have been forced to warm up coal-fired power stations for the second time this winter after a sustained period of cold weather and lower wind generation”, the Guardian reports. It says that National Grid’s electricity system operator (ESO) said early on Sunday it had asked Drax to start “warming” two of its coal units at its North Yorkshire site and EDF to do the same for one at its Nottinghamshire plant to ensure supplies on Monday. “It would be the first time this winter National Grid uses the reserve,” says Bloomberg. It adds: “It will also use a new tool that pays homes to reduce consumption between 5-6pm Monday, when forecasts show margins will be tighter than normal. The so-called demand flexibility service was tested during a cold spell in December.” According to Bloomberg, National Grid said on Twitter: “This does not mean electricity supplies are at risk and people should not be worried. These are precautionary measures.” BBC News, the Daily Mail and Times also report on National Grid’s demand flexibility service.

In other UK energy news, the Times reports that critics have claimed that taxpayers will effectively pay oil and gas firms to build wind farms to supply their North Sea platforms because of generous new tax breaks. It explains: “The government has been urged to ditch the proposed investment relief that will enable firms to claim a £109 tax break for every £100 they spend on decarbonising their assets. The new tax break is due to be introduced through legislation promised in the spring.”

It comes as Bloomberg reports that the UK’s next auction of renewable-energy contracts will be “make or break for the country’s burgeoning offshore wind industry”. It says: “Wind power has been getting cheaper for years, but that may have to change as the industry copes with rising manufacturing and financing costs. Unless prices increase from last year’s record low, developers may be reluctant to accept the long-term agreements.”

Elsewhere, the Daily Telegraph reports on “the savvy net-zero homeowners storing up cut-price energy to slash their bills”.

The Financial Times reports that top banks and business leaders “were united in praise” for “Washington’s huge green energy package” (known as the Inflation Reduction Act) last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos and said that “[US president Joe] Biden has leapfrogged Europe in its handling of the climate crisis”.

Elsewhere in Davos, Colombia announced that it will not approve any new oil and gas exploration projects as it seeks to shift away from fossil fuels, the Guardian reports. According to the publication, Irene Vélez, the minister for mines, told delegates: “We have decided not to award new oil and gas exploration contracts, and while that has been very controversial, it’s a clear sign of our commitment in the fight against climate change. This decision is absolutely urgent and needs immediate action.”

Also reporting from Davos, Reuters says that businesses are reckoning with the need to take faster action on climate change. It reports: “Several bankers and executives said they were looking for ways to speed up the transition to a greener future. Increasingly, they said conversations in C-suites and with financiers had turned to the risks that climate change presented to businesses…While there is agreement on the need for change, people were divided on the pace. Climate activist Greta Thunberg made the journey up the Swiss Alps to call on the global energy industry and its financiers to end all fossil fuel investments. Privately, bankers said the energy crisis in Ukraine had shown that they needed to fund a transition to renewable energy, which would take time.”

German transport minister Volker Wissing has ruled out using government measures to reduce road traffic in favour of climate protection, reports Berliner Zeitung, referring to an interview he gave to Bild am Sonntag. “The solution cannot be that we restrict road traffic in Germany…Driving a car means freedom, flexibility and privacy”, said the minister, noting that Germany must “enable climate-neutral traffic on the road, with more e-cars and CO2-neutral fuels” instead. Tagesschau notes that Wissing “would like the construction and expansion of roads in the future to be in the overriding public interest”. However, it adds that the German environment ministry is against it and the heads of the coalition government will discuss the issue this week. Ntv quotes Greens’ representative Julia Verlinden saying: “When transport minister Wissing talks about freedom when driving, I wonder if he has grasped the extent of his task in climate protection.”

Additionally, economy minister Rober Habeck wants to make “fuel-guzzling” cars more expensive using taxes to increase the demand for e-cars, reports Der Spiegel. Habeck has the support of the opposition party CDU in his dispute, adds the outlet quoting CDU’s representative Andreas Jung: “Those who save emissions, save taxes; those who emit more, pay more.” However, Wissing and finance minister Christian Lindner are against it, partly because their party in the coalition has spoken out against tax increases, notes the outlet.

Meanwhile, France and Germany want to extend the planned hydrogen pipeline called H2Med between Barcelona and Marseille to Germany “to facilitate hydrogen transportation throughout Europe”, reports Der Spiegel. The newspaper adds that both countries want to set up a “high-level working group” on hydrogen at ministerial level to develop “strategic decisions” by the end of April 2023. It also says that Germany “wants to use green hydrogen” produced with renewables, while France will “rely on so-called red hydrogen”, which is produced with nuclear energy. Deutsche Welle quotes French president Emmanuel Macron after he hosted German chancellor Olaf Scholz in Paris: “We started to talk about a strategy for what we want to do from an energy point of view.” The outlet also quotes Scholz noting that the government “wants hydrogen to be available in large quantities and at affordable prices as the gas of the future”. The Financial Times also covers the meeting, saying that the Paris declaration “laid out commitments to reinforce Europe’s energy independence and accelerate the fight against climate change”.

Elsewhere in German media, Stern reports that Germany’s third floating terminal for liquid “natural” gas (LNG) in Schleswig-Holstein is ready. Schleswig-Holstein prime minister Daniel Günther emphasised that “the infrastructure in Schleswig-Holstein will support independence from fossil fuels in the future”, says the outlet.

Finally, Deutsche Welle reports that after losing the battle against the lignite mine in the village of Lützerath, many Green party supporters “are feeling betrayed”. Among those disappointed is Luisa Neubauer, leader of the Fridays for Future climate movement in Germany. DW quoting her saying: “I don’t know if the Green party leadership is aware of what it has done.”

The South China Morning Post reports that the country’s “latest” move to “tackle emissions data quality” in the power sector will “greatly improve the development of its national carbon market, a crucial tool in China’s efforts to fight climate change”, citing analysts. China’s ministry of ecology and environment (MEE) has issued “detailed technical guidelines” on the reporting and auditing of greenhouse gas emissions from power companies covered under China’s emissions trading scheme (ETS). According to the MEE, these guidelines are “likely to improve the data quality” under the ETS as “inconsistencies” have been found in “about 80%” of the power companies’ reported and actual emissions, the outlet adds. It highlights that the guidelines are, by far, “one of the most important developments” in China’s ETS policy framework, citing Qin Yan, lead carbon analyst at data provider Refinitiv.

Meanwhile, Xinhua quotes Lian Weiliang, the deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), saying that China has “sufficient energy reserve and management mechanisms to help cope with peaks in energy use amid cold waves and the Spring Festival holiday”. Lian adds that, “even in extreme cases, when residents’ energy needs exceed expectations, we can activate the emergency plan to prioritise residential energy use to ensure that the people’s livelihoods are not affected”. Reuters writes that China’s exports of refined oil products could start in 2023 with “a drop of 40% in January from December’s figure”, as Lunar New Year travel “demand boosts domestic consumption of transport fuels”, citing trading sources and analysts.

Elsewhere, Caixin Global carries analysis by the thinktank Caixin Insights, which focuses on the price of lithium, a “key raw material in most electric car companies”. It writes: “Companies along China’s electric vehicle (EV) supply chain, from miners to battery-makers and car companies, have been riding high on an EV-buying spree.” It adds that the price of lithium has “soared in tandem”. The outlet carries another article which explains the speech by Chinese vice premier Liu He last Tuesday at the World Economic Forum and the “clues” it provides about “China’s policy directions as the country emerges from three years of strict lockdown”.

An editorial in the Financial Times reflects on how competition between the EU and the US on pro-climate measures for businesses dominated conversations at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week. Explaining why the EU has accused the US of a “trade war” with its Inflation Reduction Act, the FT says: “The biggest bones of contention over the IRA are subsidies and tax credits for US-manufactured products ranging from solar panels to electric vehicles. The domestic content requirements appear to run counter to the World Trade Organization’s rules on trading without discrimination. They skew the competitive playing field, encourage self-sufficiency and risk inspiring a retaliatory subsidy race in kind.” However, it adds: “The US and EU need to be working together and not engaging in a wasteful battle to draw business and investment away from each other. (The EU also needs to ensure a level playing field within its own internal market.) A fallout on trade risks stifling EU and US collaboration on issues of global importance, including climate change, debt distress and the stance towards China.”

Elsewhere, an editorial in the Observer says that “free-market thinking” has “resulted in the collapse of Britishvolt, the electric vehicle battery maker and hoped-for saviour of the UK car industry”.

In the FT, author Andrew Martin reflects on the UK’s recent cold snap. He writes: “In the long-running psychodrama of the British weather, cold has played a secondary role of late. Our anxiety has been about the hot weather that might, as a function of global warming, permanently displace that changeability, for which we do have an exasperated affection…Recent cold snaps, though, have been freighted with their own drama, on account of high energy prices.”

It comes as the Daily Mail publishes two extracts from a book by climate-sceptic journalist Ross Clark. In the first, Clark “challenges the consensus [on climate change] and argues that the hysteria and doom-mongering that now surround any debate risk doing more harm than climate change ever could”. The second, in the Mail on Sunday, baselessly claims that “we all want to save the planet but the government’s barely debated and uncosted fantasy of achieving net-zero by 2050 will leave us all poorer, colder and hungrier”. The Daily Mail also publishes a comment piece by right-wing commentator Andrew Neil, which criticises Labour’s pledge to end new oil and gas exploration. It comes as the Daily Telegraph publishes a long feature titled: “The green revolution is fuelling environmental destruction.” The article ignores the impact of mining and burning fossil fuels.

New research finds that negative perceptions over fracking for oil and gas could drive “widespread negative perceptions of deep geothermal energy”. The authors investigate “perception spillover” between fracking and two low-carbon energy forms – deep geothermal systems and “green” hydrogen – using a nationally representative UK survey and two focus groups. “We argue that perception spillover is multi-faceted, and we conceptualise and test spontaneous, prompted and primed forms, examining how and why particular types occur,” the authors say. The study adds that “​​a minority of participants expressed more positive perceptions of green hydrogen because they deemed it dissimilar to fracking”.