The Labour party is calling on Conservatives to support their move to end fracking “once and for all” in the UK, Sky News reports. A debate today will give the opposition party the chance to put forward a motion which, if it gains enough support, would guarantee time in parliament for a bill to ban fracking, the piece states. This follows the current government’s controversial decision to lift a moratorium on the practice in England, going against a Conservative manifesto pledge from 2019 (for more on fracking, see Carbon Brief’s recent factcheck). According to the Guardian, the motion being submitted by Labour “is drafted to make it very difficult for the government to ignore the vote or allow mass abstentions” – as they would normally do in response to motions raised by the opposition. The newspaper notes that fracking faces strong pushback from many Conservative backbench MPs, with dozens having already written to energy secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg expressing their concerns. It adds that Labour will ‘attempt to exploit the divisions” with its debate. The Sun has an article claiming that Conservative rebels will “face a major backlash” if they back the Labour effort to end fracking. However, the piece is based on the remarks of one climate-sceptic Tory MP and a representative from the UK Onshore Oil and Gas lobby group.

Meanwhile, an “exclusive” story in the Independent reports that Rees-Mogg is facing legal action from environmental and community groups over the decision to lift the moratorium on fracking in England. They have argued that it was “unlawful” to do so without fresh scientific evidence to prove it is safe, the article states. Another “exclusive” story about fracking, this time in the Guardian, cites analysis of House of Commons Library data by the Liberal Democrats, which finds that fracking “caused an earthquake every day at the UK’s only active site at Preston New Road in Lancashire”. Specifically, it notes that when it was active between 2018 and 2019, the site near Blackpool “was responsible for 192 earthquakes over the course of 182 days”.

In more UK news, the Financial Times reports that the decision by the newly installed chancellor Jeremy Hunt to limit the “energy price guarantee” scheme to six months rather than two years will leave 11m British households in fuel poverty from next April “unless the government ensures all of them receive targeted support”. The Times carries a similar story.

Finally, the Independent says wildlife groups have accused the government of an “alarming lack of progress” on a key pledge to protect 30% of the land and sea for nature by 2030. Analysis in the Times considers the likelihood of blackouts in the UK this winter, and considers the different scenarios that lie ahead. And a more positive angle to the energy crisis comes from a frontpage Times story, which uses new analysis of government figures to show that as fuel prices rise, 50% more people now cycle regularly than before the pandemic.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russian attacks on his country over the past eight days have destroyed 30% of its power stations, causing “massive blackouts across the country,” according to Axios. The president describes attacks on energy and critical infrastructure as “another kind of Russian terrorist attacks,” adding that there is “no space left for negotiations with Putin’s regime”, the news website continues. BBC News reports on blackouts in 1,162 towns and villages following the attacks, which have also killed dozens of people in Ukraine. It says that following “painful defeats on the battlefield” in recent weeks, Russia has increased its attacks on electricity infrastructure in Ukrainian cities away from the front lines. Le Monde quotes the Russian defence ministry, which has claimed that it is targeting “Ukrainian military commands and energy systems with long-range air and sea-based high precision weapons”. Bombing with missiles and Iranian-made drones has caused problems for a power grid which was already struggling after the Zaprorizhzhia nuclear power plant was shut down, the Guardian reports.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that rather than trying to cut emissions, both Ukraine and Russia are clashing over who gets to claim the greenhouse gases of Crimea and other Ukrainian territory that has been occupied by Russians. “It is the latest method by which Russia is trying to establish dominion over a nation its leaders are bombarding…Ukrainian policymakers, meanwhile, have been forced to expend effort on defending their territory as their own, including in UN emissions tallies,” the article states.

China Energy News, citing a report by the state broadcaster CCTV, reports that, over the past decade, China has “significantly improved” its capacity for “ensuring energy autonomy”, built the world’s “largest” clean power generation system, and continuously “optimised” its energy structure, which has “strongly guaranteed the stable operation of the national economy”. The state-run industry newspaper adds that, until now, China has built “34 AC and DC ultra-high voltage lines”, and the scale of power transmission is “more than twice that of ten years ago”. The state-run English-language news channel CGTN says that clean energy is “generated continuously” from the sun and the wind in the Inner Mongolia region for “onward transmission across the country”, marking “another feather in China’s ongoing efforts to cut carbon emissions”. Xinhua says that China’s energy supply system has “withstood the tests of the Covid-19 epidemic and major natural disasters”, plus “effectively cushioned the impact of volatile international energy prices”, citing Ren Jingdong, deputy director of the country’s top energy regulator the National Energy Administration (NEA). Bloomberg has published a graph which shows how fast the world is switching to renewables. It says that China is making one of the fastest transitions to wind and solar.

Meanwhile, Time carries an article focusing on Xi’s speech on Sunday at China’s national congress. The magazine says that the speech made China’s path to decarbonisation clear – it won’t stop burning fossil fuels “until it’s confident that clean energy can reliably replace them”. Qin Yan – lead analyst with Refinitiv, a data provider – is quoted saying that the speech shows “more emphasis on energy security and the significant role of coal in China’s energy supply given the resources endowment”.

Elsewhere, US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said that the US and China should work together on climate and health, reports the South China Morning Post, adding that “observers say words [are] not matched by deeds”. The outlet highlights that the G20 summit and COP27 climate conference in November will be “test of cooperation between Washington and Beijing”, citing a “politics expert”. Finally, Shanghai-based Sixth Tone writes that “little rainfall, a record drought, and the earliest dry season” in China’s largest freshwater lake Poyang Lake area – all “exacerbated by climate change” – have “threatened the food supply and habitat of wintering birds”, citing a national media report.

BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, has told told a UK parliamentary committee that its role was not to “engineer a specific decarbonisation outcome in the real economy” and, as such, it will not stop investing in coal, oil and gas, Reuters reports. The response was one of dozens given to the Environmental Audit Committee, as part of its investigation into the role of financial institutions in addressing climate change. This specifically includes UK signatories to the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), a list which includes BlackRock. The Financial Times notes that the world’s second biggest asset manager and another GFANZ member, Vanguard, also made it clear they will continue to invest in fossil fuels. Reuters adds that another responder, HSBC, emphasised the importance of continued investment in oil and coal – the latter particularly for Asian and developing economies where more people depend on coal.

Meanwhile, several outlets, including the Daily Telegraph, report on the news that HSBC has been accused of misleading consumers and “greenwashing” in a ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) watchdog. The ASA received 45 complaints that accused HSBC of selectively promoting its green initiatives at bus-stop advertisements in London and Bristol, while failing to disclose information about its financing of fossil fuels, according to the newspaper. The Times notes that the rebuke by the ASA marks the first by the authority over greenwashing by a UK bank.

At the same time, the Guardian reports on new findings by climate campaign Insure Our Future, which concludes that new coal power projects are becoming “effectively uninsurable” outside China because so many insurance companies have ruled out support for them.

The Independent reports that a quarter of companies that have previously set net-zero targets are “quietly shelving reports about their progress” in a process climate analysts South Pole have dubbed “green-hushing”. Separately, BusinessGreen notes that the most recent analysis by the Net Zero Tracker group has found that only 32 of the world’s 100 largest private firms have set net-zero targets, compared with 69 of the world’s 100 largest publicly-listed companies.

Finally, another Reuters story reports on data fro non-profit environmental disclosure platform CDP that shows the number of corporate climate disclosures increasing again in 2022. It says companies worth “half of total global market capitalisation” are now disclosing environmental data following a 42% increase since last year.

Following reporting on the plans earlier this week, the Associated Press confirms that US president Joe Biden will today announce the release of 15m barrels of oil from the nation’s strategic reserve. The move, which could be followed by more releases this winter, is part of a response to recent production cuts announced by OPEC+ nations, and an effort to keep prices down ahead of next month’s mid-term elections, the article notes. It adds that the action “marks the continuation of an about-face by Biden, who has tried to move the US past fossil fuels”. Reuters says the plan being announced on Wednesday is intended to add enough supply to prevent oil price spikes, while also assuring the nation’s fossil fuel companies the government will enter as a buyer if prices plunge too low.

In more US energy news, the Hill reports that the Biden administration has announced the first offshore wind lease sale off the west coast of the US – consisting of five lease areas with a total of 4.5 gigawatts (GW) of wind off the coast of California. Bloomberg notes that the region’s deep waters will require floating turbines, a more expensive technology that has yet to be used commercially in the US.

Reuters reports that the US government will provide $2m to Cuba for emergency relief efforts following the devastation caused by Hurricane Ian, while the Hill reports that the US Treasury Department is looking to assess whether “climate change-fuelled extreme weather” is raising property and casualty insurance costs on US soil.

At least AUS$20bn ($12.6bn) could be raised with a windfall tax on the profits of Australia’s gas industry, according to new analysis by thinktank the Australia Institute. The measure, which the thintank says would be supported by around two-thirds of Australian voters, would come after the Australian liquified natural gas (LNG) sector received windfall profits of between AUS$26-40bn ($16.4bn-25.2bn) from the Ukraine conflict. The Guardian says that the analysis comes amid mounting pressure from industry groups on Australia’s Labor government to do more to lower high energy costs, particularly in eastern Australian states.

Another Guardian story reports on the first chunk of the government’s “rewiring the nation” commitment, which aims to get more renewable power generation plugged into the national grid. The new AUS$1.5bn ($950m) agreement includes plans for the federal government and the Victoria state government to jointly fund renewable energy zones, wind power projects and interconnectors, and fast-track regulatory processes to support the “rapid” development of the state’s offshore wind industry.

Meanwhile, Associated Press reports on what Australian and Singaporean leaders have described as a “world-first agreement” – dubbed the Green Economy Agreement – to cooperate in transitioning to net-zero emissions. According to the news outlet, this includes 17 components that cover facilitating trade and investment in green services, harmonising standards and building green growth sectors.

The Netherlands has became the latest country to announce it will withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), a controversial deal that protects fossil fuel projects by allowing investors to sue governments in closed tribunals over policies directed at cutting emissions, according to Politico. The move brings a “full-blown European revolt” closer to reality, with Spain and Poland moving to withdraw, and Italy already out of the treaty, the news website reports. It notes that the Netherlands has already been affected by the ECT – facing two lawsuits from coal plant operators pursuing the government for lost profits due to the country’s plan to phase out the fossil fuel. Dutch newspaper NRC quotes climate minister Rob Jetten, stating that the treaty hinders the Paris Agreement climate goals rather than contributes to them.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports that the European Commission has announced a raft of new emergency measures to curb energy prices, including “a controversial cap on the price of gas traded on the EU’s main exchange for the fuel”. The moves, which Politico says are intended to help EU member states to better coordinate joint gas purchasing and set up a new trading benchmark for liquefied natural gas, are mean to ensure the bloc has enough gas to prevent another energy crisis next winter. The Daily Telegraph reports that concerns about shortages are being eased already as European gas prices have hit their lowest level in four months following high storage levels and hopes for a mild winter.

Pakistan intends to ask international lenders for billions of dollars worth of new loans to help rebuild the country after floods displaced 33 million people and “pushed its cash-strapped economy even closer to insolvency”, the Financial Times reports. Prime minister Shehbaz Sharif tells the newspaper that the nation would not try to reschedule its external debt, worth about $130bn, but it did need “huge sums of money” to rebuild roads, bridges and other infrastructure. The article notes that the flooding was the worst natural disaster in the country’s 75-year history, adding that scientists have linked the event to climate change. The newspaper notes that the devastation has prompted activists to call for loss and damage finance – which it refers to as “climate reparations” – that would be paid by richer countries. It quotes Sharif saying: “We are only asking for climate justice, we are not using the word ‘reparations’ at all.”

An editorial in the Times calls for the UK government to release information and incentives to reduce energy demand across the UK. This comes after prime minister Liz Truss reportedly scrapped plans for a public information campaign. The editorial adds that measures such as encouraging people to turn their thermostats down would be welcome. “Helping curb demand is not a throwback to the rigours of the 1970s. It is integral to sound economic and environmental policy, and to national security, to wean households and businesses off energy imports,” it concludes.

Meanwhile, a Daily Telegraph editorial says Labour leader Keir Starmer must spell out his plans for the economy, stating that “Sir Keir seems to think that growth can be magicked out of nowhere if you invest enough in green energy”. A comment piece Patrick Maguire in the Times also comments on the Labour leader’s caution in making his policies known, while noting that the party “remains committed to £28bn a year to invest in green energy”.

There is continuing reaction to the range of climate protests taking place across the UK. In the Guardian, George Monbiot reacts to the negative reaction of protestors throw soup over a Van Gogh painting: “Everywhere I see claims that the ‘extreme’ tactics of environmental campaigners will prompt people to ‘stop listening’. But how could we listen any less to the warnings of scientists and campaigners and eminent committees? How could we pay any less attention to polite objections by ‘respectable’ protesters to the destruction of the habitable planet? Something must shake us out of our stupor.”

Meanwhile, in the Daily Telegraph, climate-sceptic columnist Ross Clark writes that the police response to the recent Just Stop Oil protests in the UK “says much about what is wrong with Britain today”. He bemoans the impression that climate activists will have left on people in other countries, and says that the images of the activists will be “far stronger” in people’s minds than the sight of UK ministers’ economic U-turns. “Just Stop Oil has become a potent symbol of our national decline,” he says, harking back to the Cold War, which he says Western countries won because “people denied the living standards that we enjoyed were not going to stand for it”. He says that now Britain is “a decadent country where economic growth has come to a near halt, and where police appear to be tolerating, even aiding, a bunch of activists who actively want to shrink the economy and make people poorer”. Clark is frustrated that “we scorn a prime minister who wants to make it her priority to promote economic growth” and says that what he perceives as an anti-growth agenda will make it hard to built “viable green energy projects”, as well as new airports and gas reserves.

A Sun editorial runs through the newspaper’s usual script when discussing climate activists, denouncing those blocking roads as “eco-loons” and calling for more punitive measures from the police. The Daily Express carries similar messaging in its editorial, criticising the “so-called eco protesters” as attention-seekers, while referencing the imagined “sensible people” across the country who would endorse harsh measures to deal with them. The Times has a piece from freelancer writer Jawad Iqbal who says: “The right to protest is vital in any free society but the juvenile stunts of the eco-warriors make a mockery of such freedoms by treating with contempt the rights of others to go about their lawful work and business.”

Meanwhile, writing for the New York magazine’s Intelligencer, Eric Levitz says that Just Stop Oil’s recent protest in which activists threw soup at a Van Gogh painting “certainly succeeded in generating headlines about climate change at no actual cost to our collective artistic heritage”. However, he adds that “it’s not clear that such headlines will do much to advance decarbonisation at this point in time”. According to Levitz, the current energy crisis has exposed what he sees as “hard limits on how much theatrical agitation against fossil-fuel extraction can accomplish”, noting that reducing fossil fuel production as per Just Stop Oil’s objective would have “disastrous” social consequences.

A new study finds that hurricanes on the US Atlantic coast have intensified at “significantly increased” rates over 1979-2018. Using both observational data and climate models, researchers analyse how hurricane intensification rate – measured by changes in wind speed – has changed in different parts of the US since the late 1970s. They find that over a 40-year period, the intensification rate in the near-coast Atlantic increased by 1.2 knots per six hours, but no significant changes occurred along the Gulf coast. They state that this difference is “consistent” with “increasingly favourable” thermodynamics along the Atlantic coast, and project a “continued enhancement” of hurricane intensification in the region in the future.