The UK will run just one coal-fired power plant, Uniper’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar plant in Nottinghamshire, over the coming winter, reports the Guardian. This follows talks between National Grid ESO and both Drax and EDF to restart their coal units, the newspaper adds. Talks ended yesterday, with Drax concluding “that due to a combination of technical, maintenance and staffing reasons, the extension of coal over this winter was not possible” and it would, therefore, continue with the decommissioning of its plant near Selby, writes the Times. Following requests from ministers, the ESO had also looked to extend the life of coal units at EDF’s West Burton A plant in Nottinghamshire, but the operator ruled this out as decommissioning had already begun, continues the Times. The closures significantly reduce the coal fleet from its five contingency units on call last winter as the energy market “reeled” from the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine, notes Sky News. Fears of a new winter energy crisis are “mounting”, reports the Daily Mail, although it notes that last year they were warmed up seven times but used only one, with the overall cost coming to around £400m. The UK is targeting the closure of its coal-fired power plants by October 2024, notes Reuters, as part of efforts to meet its 2050 net-zero target. 

In other UK news, offshore wind farms are helping to drive record profits for the Crown Estate in the UK, which saw its profits jumping to £442m in the last financial year, up by almost £130m from the year before, reports the Guardian. This 42% surge has been driven by the profits of wind farms, with the bulk coming from fees paid by developers who won the rights to build new offshore wind farms in January, adds the Financial Times. These offshore wind farms – three of which are in the North Sea and the others off the coasts of Cumbria, Lancashire and North Wales – have the potential to power seven million homes, adds the Times. The six projects are set to earn the Crown Estate about £1bn in rental income each year, it continues.

As the UK continues switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy, households have paid as much as £15,000 in “green taxes on energy over the past 13 years”, reports the Daily Telegraph. Using “analysis” from the climate-sceptic, right-wing lobby group known as the Institute of Economic Affairs, it estimates that between 2010 and 2022 households paid £15,540 through a combination of direct taxes and taxes that are passed on by businesses, as well as stating the government is expected to add a further £165 a year on to energy bills through “green levies”. The newspaper concludes: “A report by Carbon Brief last year found that David Cameron’s decision to ‘cut the green crap’ in 2013, when he was prime minister, has added £150 a year to household energy bills.”

Meanwhile, the Times reports that the opposition Labour party may see a reshuffle in the next month. However, shadow climate change and net-zero secretary Ed Miliband is likely to be retained in his current role. This is despite his decision to “water down” a pledge to borrow £28bn a year for green infrastructure, it continues, noting that Miliband – who was energy secretary in Gordon Brown’s government – is “in the room” with party leader Sir Keir Starmer for key decisions.  And the Financial Times reports that a “Labour government would seek to unlock at least £10bn a year of extra money from banks and insurers to invest in Britain’s clean energy industry, shadow City minister Tulip Siddiq has revealed”.

A European Parliament committee has backed new EU renewable energy targets, reports Reuters, but has criticised last-minute changes that offer France and other countries possible “carve-outs” for ammonia plants and a greater recognition of nuclear energy. It significantly raises the EU’s renewable energy targets, requiring 42.5% of energy to be renewable by 2030, an increase of more than 10% on current targets, it continues. The EU’s 27 member states are now due to submit their updated national energy and climate plans by the end of the month to demonstrate how they intend to contribute to this target, reports Energy Monitor. France’s energy outlook is “much more favourable” going into the later half of 2023, reports Reuters, following the significant strain it suffered due to outages in 2022 seeing nuclear power output fall to its lowest level in 34 years. The newswire adds that RTE national grid operator has assured that, even in the event of a heatwave and drought, sufficient supply could be ensured through imports and points to the “significantly lower” spot market prices being experienced in France, in comparison to neighbouring countries such as Germany, the UK and Italy.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a $7bn competitive grant program to help provide access to residential solar panels to those in low-income communities, Reuters reports. This will be made up of 60 awards to community groups around the country and form part of the $27bn greenhouse gas reduction fund established by the “transformational” Inflation Reduction Act, it continues. The EPA grant will guarantee savings of at least 20% of electric bills for households, adds the Hill, helping to ensure that “overburdened communities on the front lines of the climate crisis” are not “left behind and locked out of clean energy investments”. In addition to residential solar, the Bildan administration has raised $105m for solar developers at a lease auction covering 23,675 acres of desert in Nevada, making it the highest-yielding federal onshore renewable energy auction to date, reports Reuters. Under the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration will also provide grants totalling up to $2bn to help fast-track the electric vehicle transition, including accelerating domestic manufacturing and resuscitating plants that are struggling, reports Reuters.

In other US news, jobs in the energy industry grew by 3.8% last year due to clean energy, reports Reuters. According to the Department of Energy’s US Energy and Employment report, wind, solar, nuclear and grid technologies and battery storage saw 3.9% growth, adding 114,000 jobs, the newswire continues. While jobs in gas fuels rose 24.1% adding 51,100 jobs, and petroleum jobs rose 12.5% adding 58,100 workers, the million strong workforce remained nearly 117,100 below 2019 levels before the pandemic cut demand, adds Reuters. Overall, jobs in the battery electric vehicle field had the most growth, expanding by 27% from 2021 to 2022, reports the Hill. Similar growth in “green jobs” is being seen around the world, with the China Dialogue reporting that the “green employment” sector i China is expected to employ a million people by 2025, while Radio Free Asia reports that 180 million jobs could be created in the Asia Pacific region by 2050 if countries seize decarbonisation. 

Mountain regions will get more extreme rainfall than previously thought as the climate warms, reports the New York Times. A new study published in the journal Nature looks at how much increased extreme precipitation will fall as snow and how much as rain, finding that for every one degree celsius the planet warms, higher elevations can expect 15% more extreme rainfall, the newspaper continues. The study used rain and snow measurement since 1950 and computer simulations to calculate the increase, reports Associated Press, noting that heavy rain in mountains causes problems such as flooding, landslides and erosion. The study found that the biggest increase in rains was noticed at about 10,000ft (3,000 metres), including much of the US west, as well as parts of the Appalachian Mounts, the Himalayas, Tian Shan, Hindu Kush mounts and the Alps, reports the Guardian. New Scientist, the Washington Post and others also cover the story. 

Wind and solar are “booming” in China and “may help limit global carbon emissions far faster than expected”, BBC News reports, citing a new study from Global Energy Monitor. It says: “Solar panel installations alone are growing at a pace that would increase global capacity by 85% by 2025.” The Guardian, also covering the report, says China is set to reach its 2030 target for wind and solar capacity five years early. Bloomberg says China is on track to double wind and solar capacity by 2025, according to the report. Reuters also has the story.

Separately, according to a report by the World Economic Forum (WEF), China ranks 17th in the Energy Transition Index (ETI) among 120 countries and regions, making it one of the only major emerging economies in the top 20, along with Brazil (14), reports Yicai. Citing the report, the Chinese financial outlet highlights that the country’s efforts to improve the favourable environment for energy transition are moving “in the right direction”. The Economic Daily quotes Xin Baoan, president of State Grid, a Chinese state-owned electricity utility corporation, speaking at the WEF “summer Davos” meeting in China and saying that increasing the proportion of electricity in final energy consumption is crucial for advancing energy transition. Xin says China’s share of electricity in final energy consumption has already reached 27% and is “expected to further increase in the future”, the outlet adds. 

Meanwhile, an ultra-high-voltage direct current (UHVDC) transmission line between Baihetan hydropower station and east China’s Zhejiang province recently entered into full operation, writes CGTN. The state media adds that this project will help guarantee power supplies in Zhejiang province and across eastern China during the upcoming summer season. State news agency Xinhua writes that Sichuan province is accelerating the construction of “key power generation projects” that promote “multiple complementary energy sources” and a “resilient interconnected power grid”, citing a local official. 

In other news, the South China Morning Post says that sales of electric vehicle (EV) in China are expected to “pick up” in June “after months of slow demand”. The Financial Times profiles “the Chinese carmakers planning to shake up the European market”, namely BYD, Nio and Cherry. Modern Diplomacy focuses on another report recently published by the World Economic Forum, which “outlines a roadmap to fast-track China’s green hydrogen industry”. Also reporting from the WEF meeting, Xinhua reviews China’s 20bn yuan ($2.8bn) “South-South climate cooperation fund”, established in 2015, saying it has initiated 100 climate mitigation and adaptation projects. Finally, Voice of America has an article titled: “South Africa looks to China to shed light on power crisis”. 

An editorial in the Guardian says that UK prime minister Rishi Sunak’s approach to net-zero is a “cowardly retreat” and that history will judge him “harshly for abandoning urgency over the climate emergency”. Environmental policy has “slid down the agenda”, it states, with Sunak focused on shorter term priorities, ensuring that “Britain, having been a leader in the field, is becoming a slacker”. The Guardian points to high public concern over climate issues, but highlights that the only climate content in Conservative campaigns is the “cynical caricature of fanatical ‘eco-warriors’ wielding a pernicious influence over Labour policy”. 

Following on from the Climate Change Committee’s progress report (see Carbon Brief’s summary), Prof Piers Forster argues in the Conversation that the UK is no longer a world leader when it comes to climate change. To meet the UK’s commitment to reduce emissions by 68% by 2030, the rate of reduction would have to nearly quadruple, increasing from 1.2% per year to 4.5% per year, he writes. “Every year that the government fails to up the pace, it becomes harder the next year – and the scale by which action needs to multiply becomes larger,” continues Forster, who is also a Carbon Brief contributing editor. He argues that the UK is not giving industries the support they need to electrify, needs to focus on developing skills across the workforce, and set out plans for farming and land use, writing the “answer isn’t dramatic or drastic (yet) – it’s about delivery and planning and step by step progress.”

Elsewhere, the Daily Telegraph’s Robert Taylor argues that net-zero is “slowly strangling” the UK. And an editorial in the Daily Telegraph focuses on the UK’s water security which it says is “under pressure from a growing population in the South East and from the apparent impact of climate change”.

A new study finds that climate change is decreasing snowfall and increasing rainfall at high altitudes in the northern hemisphere. To assess the impact of climate change on precipitation patterns, the authors combine climate observations over 1950-2019 with projections from earth system models up to the year 2100. They estimate that at high elevations in the northern hemisphere, extreme rainfall will be amplified by 15% for every degree of warming. “Our findings pinpoint high-altitude regions as ‘hotspots’ that are vulnerable to future risk of extreme-rainfall-related hazards,” the paper says. (See above for news coverage.)

The cooling effect of short-lived halogens has increased by 61% since 1750, and is projected to increase by a further 18-31% by the end of the century, according to new research. The authors find that short-lived halogens – chemicals including chlorine, bromine and iodine with a lifetime of less than six months in the atmosphere – currently exert a “substantial indirect cooling effect” on the climate. They conclude that “the indirect radiative effect due to short-lived halogens should now be incorporated into climate models to provide a more realistic natural baseline of Earth’s climate system”.