Former energy minister Chris Skidmore is quitting as an MP in protest at the UK government’s plans to drill for more North Sea oil, reports the Financial Times, “in a move that leaves the government facing another difficult by-election”. The newspaper continues: “Skidmore, who had already announced that he would not stand in the next election, said he was now quitting ‘as soon as possible’ as MP for Kingswood in Gloucestershire and leaving the Tory party. In his resignation letter, he said it was ‘a tragedy that the UK has been allowed to lose its climate leadership’ under prime minister Rishi Sunak…Skidmore said he was quitting in protest at the government’s Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill, which will be introduced in the House of Commons [this] week. The legislation requires the North Sea regulator to hold annual licensing rounds for drilling for oil and gas.” Skidmore’s letter said: “I cannot vote for the bill next week. The future will judge harshly those that do,” the article adds. BBC News notes: “Skidmore, who signed the UK’s 2050 net-zero commitment into law as an energy minister under Theresa May, said the bill would send a ‘global signal that the UK is rowing ever further back from its climate commitments’.” Politico says Skidmore’s move comes “amid wider Tory unease about the North Sea oil and gas plan”. It notes: “Earlier on Friday Alok Sharma, a Conservative MP and former minister who served as president of the COP26 UN climate summit in 2021, told Politico that ministers should ‘reflect on the consistency of their message and credibility internationally when just a few weeks ago at COP28 the UK signed-up to ‘transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems.’” Sharma also told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning that he will not be voting for the Rishi Sunak’s oil and gas bill, reports the Guardian, criticising it as a sign the government was “not serious” about meeting its international climate commitments. The Observer says that there are “signs of increasing coordination on green policy issues among MPs of different political persuasions”, noting that “Skidmore and another former Tory minister Lord Goldsmith have signed an all-party letter to Claire Coutinho, the energy secretary, calling for the bill to be dropped.” The Press Association, Sky News, i newspaper, HuffPost, Independent, BusinessGreen and Sun all have the story. The Guardian says that Skidmore has not said yet what he plans to do after stepping down, adding: “[He] was thought to be in the running to be the chair of the climate change committee. However, as this position is selected by Sunak, his appointment is thought to be unlikely.” 

The New Statesman republishes a column written by Skidmore in September last year, in which he says: “Rishi Sunak’s decision to row back on key net-zero policies risks locking in higher energy bills, costing jobs and leaving the UK trailing behind in the green industrial revolution.” John Rentoul, the Independent’s chief political commentator, says that “Skidmore’s resignation is another step towards the total disintegration of the Conservative Party”. Steerpike, the Spectator‘s gossip columnist, calls the resignation a “hissy fit”, arguing that the carbon intensity of domestic fossil gas is “73% less carbon intensive than the LNG gas imports”. [BusinessGreen’s Cecilia Keating points out on Twitter that “this argument doesn’t stand up”, because “most of what is left in the UK North Sea is oil” and “most of the UK’s imported gas is piped from Norway, produced with significantly less CO2”.] And, in the Daily Telegraph, climate-sceptic columnist Ross Clark accuses Skidmore of “flouncing off and causing a by-election”.

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that Prof Piers Forster, the interim chair of the independent Climate Change Committee (CCC), has criticised chancellor Jeremy Hunt over his comments that the government can still meet its climate targets while extracting more oil and gas from the North Sea. Hunt told BBC’s Today programme on Saturday: “The independent panel for climate change that we have for this country are very clear that even when we reach net-zero in 2050 we will still get a significant proportion of our energy from fossil fuels, and domestic oil and gas is four times cleaner than imported oil and gas,” the newspaper explains. Forster responded to Hunt yesterday, tweeting: “Our earlier advice is still current. UK oil and gas consumption needs to fall by over 80% to meet UK targets. This and [the COP28] decision [to transition away from fossil fuels] makes further licensing inconsistent with climate goals.” The newspaper adds: “The independent body is not the source of the claim, as suggested by Hunt, that UK gas is four times cleaner than imported gas. This figure comes from the oil and gas industry and has been disputed because it does not account for the emissions caused by burning gas, which account for nearly all of its carbon footprint. The CCC has previously advised against exploring for new fossil fuels, saying: ‘An end to UK exploration would send a clear signal to investors and consumers that the UK is committed to the 1.5C global temperature goal.’” At the same time, the Daily Express reports comments from current energy secretary Claire Coutinho, who also argued that “we’ll still need oil and gas for decades to come, even when we reach net-zero in 2050, as data from the independent Climate Change Committee shows”. The Press Association reports on analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) that shows “oil from new licences granted to North Sea producers and sent to UK refineries would account for less than 1% of the fuels used here in 2030”. And DeSmog reports that scientists and campaigners have warned that “a climate test in the new North Sea oil and gas bill is ‘misleading’ and greatly overplays the UK’s climate leadership”. Finally, the Herald on Sunday reports in a frontpage story that fossil fuel lobbyists have been accused of “polluting politics” after meeting with members of the Scottish parliament almost 800 times in two years.

In a frontpage story, the Guardian reports that widespread flooding across England over the past week has provoked “a bitter political row over funding for the country’s most vulnerable areas”. The outlet continues: “Labour accused Rishi Sunak of being ‘asleep at the wheel’ over flood warnings at the end of a week in which at least 1,000 properties were flooded and some villages were totally cut off, with parts of Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire worst affected. The Environment Agency (EA) in England blamed the floods on the climate crisis as it advised people in flood-risk areas to turn off gas, water and electricity supplies, take possessions upstairs, and move family, pets and cars to safety.” In response, “Sunak insisted his government had a grip on flooding after Labour said it would convene a Cobra-style flood resilience taskforce to help protect vulnerable areas, with Sir Keir Starmer vowing to make flood defences ‘fit for purpose’,” the article says, adding: “It was ‘not about extra money’, but ‘ensuring that the budget already committed to flood defences is used to maximum effect’, said Labour. Sunak rejected the criticism, saying: ‘The Environment Agency have people in the ground everywhere, absolutely recognise the urgency of what is happening and they are responding appropriately and with all due haste.’” The Financial Times, which also puts the story on its frontpage this morning, notes: “On Saturday, the government announced that households hit by flooding could apply for a grant of up to £5,000 to help make their homes more resilient, while small and medium-sized businesses could receive up to £2,500. Farmers who have suffered uninsurable damage to their land from exceptional flooding meanwhile will be able to apply for up to £25,000 towards repair and reinstatement costs.” Sky News also has the story.

In other coverage of the flooding, the Observer says that “warmer winters and more flooding will be the norm in the UK”. Dr Linda Speight, a hydrometeorologist at the University of Oxford, tells the outlet: “Climate change is warming the atmosphere…A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture so that when it rains, the rainfall is heavier and more likely to lead to flooding. In particular, we know that climate change is leading to warmer and wetter winters in the UK. We will unfortunately experience more winters like this one in the future.” In another frontpage story, the i newspaper also speaks to scientists who make similar warnings, while the outlet also has an explainer on “why Britain floods so much, and how climate change is making it worse”. The Guardian reports the comments of Rev Canon Nick Davies, the canon of Tewkesbury Abbey, who said: “Tewksbury has been flooded since Roman times…But what we’re seeing now with climate change is that those extreme weather events are becoming more frequent…And for me, this isn’t just about floods in Tewkesbury. It’s a wake-up call for the nation. We cannot be surprised every time there is a storm that does this.” Finally, the New York Times reports that heavy rain also “brought similar scenes” of flooding to parts of France and Germany.

China has once again become the “world’s biggest buyer of liquefied natural gas”, with shipments to China rising 12% in 2024 to “nearly 71m tonnes”, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. The “surge in shipments…risks upending the gas market’s careful balance”, the newspaper adds. Meanwhile, Reuters says that the oil trade between China and Iran has come to a stand-still, with Tehran holding back shipments and demanding “higher prices” from its primary customer. It is “not clear how extensive Iran’s cutbacks to China are”, the newswire adds. In other news, Caixin reports that the leading environmental watchdog in China has reported a significant rise in “environmental emergencies” involving tailings ponds, which are used to store the waste generated in the process of separating minerals from rocks. A senior emergency response official “told Caixin that tailings pond leaks have become one of the main causes of environmental emergencies, especially massive leaks that are ‘extremely difficult’ to deal with and can easily cause regional water pollution”.

Separately, the state-run newspaper China Electric Power News reports that Chinese premier Li Qiang has chaired a state council meeting which discussed a draft energy law and approved the draft of the interim regulations on carbon emission trading. The state-run newspaper China Daily covers premier Li’s signing of an amendment to China’s regulation on ozone-depleting substances (ODS), as the country “strives to implement the Montreal Protocol”. The amendment includes that enterprises that generate ODS as by-products “should dispose of them in an environmentally friendly manner”, it adds. Chinese industry outlet BJX News reports that premier Li also “affirmed [Chinese companies’] efforts to focus on recycling and utilisation of used batteries and build a circular economy”. 

China Energy Net reports that the national development and reform commission (NDRC), the country’s top economic planner, announced at its first meeting in 2024 that China will “encourage and attract more private capital to participate in major national projects such as railways and nuclear power”, and “address shortcomings in projects related to energy, water conservancy, and ecological environmental protection”. China News says that China’s total newly installed capacity for wind and solar power nationwide reached around 200 gigawatts (GW) this year and that four units of nuclear power projects are to be “completed and put into operation, contributing to an additional installed capacity of around 5GW” in 2024, according to announcements at the national energy work conference held in December. The Financial Times says that China’s stock exchanges “have launched an additional blue-chip equity benchmark”, which aims to “spur the creation of investment products that grant greater weightings for sectors such as renewables”. Finally, Reuters covers comments by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi that “the most urgent task for Sino-US relations is to establish a correct understanding and cooperation between the two sides”, and the South China Morning Post reports that China’s “sponge cities” are struggling to soak up flooding from severe storms, “despite billions in investment”.

Azerbaijan, which is hosting this year’s UN climate talks, plans to increase its fossil fuel production by a third over the next decade, reports the Guardian. According to forecasts by analysts Rystad Energy, the COP29 host will grow its annual gas production by about 12bn cubic metres (bcm) over the next 10 years, the newspaper explains: “Azerbaijan owns one of the world’s largest gasfields, Shah Deniz in the Caspian Sea, and the country is expected to extract 411bcm of gas over the next 10 years…This would emit 781m tonnes of carbon dioxide – more than two times the annual carbon emissions of the UK.” The article notes that “the conservative analysis does not include gas reserves that are understood to be present but have not yet been proven by drilling, which could still be developed within the next 10 years. It also excludes Azerbaijan’s forecast production of gas condensate, which is a liquid form of the hydrocarbon”. 

Meanwhile, there is continuing coverage of Azerbaijan’s decision to select Mukhtar Babayev as president-designate of the COP29 talks in Baku this November. As BBC News notes, “Babayev spent decades working at the national oil company before becoming environment minister in 2018”. The New York Times, Guardian, Politico, Bloomberg, Reuters and BusinessGreen all have the story.

Farmers in Germany are demonstrating against plans by the government to suspend agricultural subsidies, reports Deutsche Welle. The conservative opposition coalition CDU/CSU and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) support the protests, notes the outlet. It adds that the government has announced that it wil “walk back” some of the planned cuts to subsidies, which the German Farmers’ Association (DBV) considers to be “an insufficient measure”. EurActiv explains that the three-party coalition has “now agreed that the motor vehicle tax exemption for agricultural and forestry vehicles will remain in place as before”, German agriculture minister Cem Özdemir is reported saying, adding that “the agricultural diesel subsidy will be reduced over several years”. However, the protests are still taking place, with a convoy of tractors reaching Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate last night, reports Berliner Zeitung. German finance minister has “sharply” criticised the protests, urging farmers to “turn around”, reports Der Spiegel. Meanwhile, Tagesschau notes that, starting today, there will be a major demonstration in the capital, with other “mobilisations” taking place nationwide. Elsewhere, Die Zeit reports that protestors last week blocked the ferry by which the German vice-chancellor Robert Habeck was returning from his vacation on the North Sea coast, forcing the ship to turn back. 

Meanwhile, “exclusive analysis” by the Handelsblatt Research Institute reveals that the energy transition in Germany needs €1.1tn to achieve the goal of climate neutrality in the energy sector by 2045, reports Handelsblatt. However, according to the analysis, the federal government will not be able “to bear this sum alone”; it will also have to be borne by companies, financial institutions and citizens. The outlet details that most of the money will need to flow into the expansion of renewables, but the expansion of electricity storage and grids will also require “substantial” sums.

UK energy secretary Claire Coutinho is “prepar[ing] to approve a multibillion-pound CO2 capture scheme” for Drax power station in North Yorkshire, reports the Daily Telegraph. The scheme will “bolt two massive carbon capture plants onto Drax’s four generating units, potentially stripping out almost all their CO2 emissions”, the article explains: “Drax claims the scheme will allow it to remove more CO2 from the atmosphere than it produces – making it the world’s first carbon negative thermal power station.” However, “greens claim it will destroy forests and cost consumers billions of pounds”, the article says, and have accused Drax of “clear-cutting of forests in North America” to provide the biomass pellets for the wood-burning power station. The article adds that “Coutinho is also due to launch a consultation into how best to extend the subsidy system under which Drax last year received £617m from consumer bills. The scheme terminates in 2027 so Coutinho will propose extending it into at least the 2030s, keeping Drax in business for at least several years”.

There is continuing reaction to the Labour party’s plan, should it win this year’s election, to borrow up £28bn a year for green capital investment, which leader Sir Keir Starmer –` in comments over the weekend reported by the Times – has accused the Conservative party of seeking to “weaponise”. An editorial in Saturday’s edition of the Times describes the plan as “pie in the sky”. The newspaper criticises the party for not offering “a credible explanation of how the spending would be financed, saying only that it would pay for itself by creating jobs and boosting economic growth – a mix of back-of-the-envelope scribbling and wish-fulfilment which undermines Labour’s fiscal credibility”. The editorial continues: “Labour claimed that by 2030 it would mean that all electricity would be generated by a combination of wind, solar and nuclear. But at the most basic level, experts say it would take until 2030 at the earliest for the necessary cable infrastructure to be laid before a single lightbulb is turned on.” The newspaper concludes that Labour’s plan is “neither properly costed nor achiev­able”, adding: “Labour knows this, but having made such a hullabaloo about it for so long, it cannot bring ­itself to admit it.”

In other commentary around the plan, Nick Timothy – who served as chief of staff to Theresa May when she was prime minister – writes in his column for the Daily Telegraph that “it is not feasible – amid global instability, high energy prices, sluggish growth across Europe, and with no real growth plan from Labour – that [the green investment] would magically achieve high growth, reduce the debt, cut tax, increase investment and spend more on public services”. And climate-sceptic columnist Andrew Neil writes for the Daily Mail that “the primary purpose of the green investment is to make British electricity generation carbon neutral by 2030. Frankly, we have a better chance of going to the moon.” 

An editorial in the Guardian comments on the move in some European cities – including Montpellier in France and Tallin in Estonia – to make public transport fare-free. It says: “Such experiments and innovations have a particular relevance in the context of Covid and the cost of living crisis. But they should not merely be seen as a policy option in hard times. Flourishing and accessible public transport systems are an essential feature of sustainable 21st-century living.” The editorial adds: “For larger European cities, which are generally more heavily dependent on ticket revenue, a move to totally fare-free services would be challenging in the short term. But for places like Montpellier, where fares generally finance a smaller proportion of the running costs of the transport network, it is both eminently doable and transformatory. In Dunkirk, where bus services have been funded by tax revenue since 2018, the result has been a boom in usage and perceived service quality, along with a widespread sense that the new system enhances the town’s image.” 

Elsewhere, an editorial in the Mail on Sunday describes trial hire schemes using e-scooter and e-bike as “a great mistake”. It says: “The mere fact they were electric seemed to give them a free pass, as if their batteries did not need to be charged from the mains. Like all battery-powered vehicles, they are only as green as the power stations they rely on. Yet the then transport minister, Grant Shapps, appears to have swallowed the claims of their operators that they would be good for the planet and persuade people out of their cars…These are officially banned on public roads, but are ridden all over them, and on pavements too. Limiters, supposed to keep them to a reasonable speed, can also be easily bypassed. We simply do not have the kind of police force to enforce the rules, and wrongdoers know it.”

Native heathland has more than twice the soil carbon stock of “restored” heathland, a new study finds. The authors compare the soil carbon content in agricultural pasture, native heathland and “restored heathland” – which was converted from heathland to agricultural land, and later restored – across Europe. The paper finds that after 18 years of work to restore heathlands, their fauna and vegetation resemble those of native heathlands. However, native heathland has “significantly higher contents of stable soil organic matter” compared to restored heathland. The authors say their research has “ramifications for carbon-sequestration proposals, given the urgency required for climate mitigation tools”.