Senior figures in climate diplomacy are urging the UK to maintain its climate pledges and resist the lobbying from the “net-zero scrutiny group” of Conservative politicians which is seeking to link the cost of living crisis to carbon reduction measures, the Guardian reports. The online version of the story runs under the subheading “climate experts fear attacks falsely linking net-zero to energy price rises are undermining UK emissions targets”. In print, the frontpage article is headlined: “UK urged to defy ‘culture war’ attacks on net-zero.” The piece says: “The UK will continue to lead the [COP] talks until Egypt takes over at the next summit, COP27, this November…But British diplomats will be hamstrung if rows at home over net-zero overshadow their efforts, and if support from key cabinet ministers – including the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, who has barely mentioned COP26 although it was the biggest diplomatic event on British soil since the second world war – continues to be lukewarm or nonexistent.” The article quotes appeals from figures including Laurence Tubiana, chief executive of the European Climate Foundation (which funds Carbon Brief), and Fatih Birol, the International Energy Agency executive director.

Meanwhile, the Independent reports that three months after COP26, “net-zero targets are already backsliding”. The online newspaper says the climate conference “was supposed to be a watershed moment”, but that “a toxic combination of political intransigence, an energy crisis and pandemic-driven economic realities has cast doubt on the progress made in Glasgow”. It goes on to discuss individual countries, including the US, Japan and China. Regarding the UK, it says: “Even the UK risks regressing, with Boris Johnson on the ropes and some members of the Conservative Party pushing back against his green agenda.”

In other UK news, Reuters reports that the UK’s National Grid “will be able to obtain grid stability services from renewable power generators for the first time, in the path to decarbonising the power sector and as more fossil fuel generators go offline”.

Medical institutions and more than 600 individual health professions have signed a letter calling on the UK government to halt new oil and gas exploration to avoid damage to the nation’s health, the Financial Times reports. According to the outlet, the letter calls for an end to new North Sea oil and gas licences, and demands that ministers withhold approval of new offshore fossil fuel developments – including the proposed Cambo oilfield.

Meanwhile, the Times reports that the pressure group “Just Stop Oil” has delivered an ultimatum to the UK government, warning that it will intervene if its demands are not met. The new group was formed by Roger Hallam – “the mastermind behind Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain” – the paper says. It continues: “The ultimatum called for the government to make ‘a statement that it will immediately halt all future licensing and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK’. It continued: ‘If you do not provide such assurance by 14 March, it will be our duty to intervene — to prevent the ultimate crime against our country, humanity and life on Earth.’” The Guardian understands that “the intention [of the group] is to take direct action against Britain’s oil infrastructure – from petrol stations to fuel depots and refineries”.

In other UK news, the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian report that petrol prices have hit record-high levels amid fears over the ongoing Russia-Ukraine tension, adding further to the UK’s cost of living crisis.

China’s latest instructions on its so-called “energy-intensive” industries to drive emissions reduction “will spur industry consolidation”, the South China Morning Post reports, citing “analysts”. The article says that “higher energy efficiency bars have been set for companies in sectors ranging from oil refining to non-ferrous metals smelting” by the “joint circular” published last Friday. S&P Global Platts also picks up the directives. According to the outlet, the benchmark levels of energy efficiency needed to be achieved by China’s primary aluminium industry have been raised. It adds that the guideline requires more than 30% of the industry’s installed capacity to follow new energy standards by 2025.

Separately, the South China Morning Post examines if China’s new carbon-peaking timeline for the steel industry would “cloud” the nation’s overall climate goals. (Last week’s China Briefing newsletter by Carbon Brief analysed the same document.) In another article, the Hong Kong-based newspaper reports that China’s plan to build a unified power market could be an “uphill task”, according to “analysts”.

Meanwhile, the Australian Financial Review reports that the Australian state of Queensland has found “new coal markets” to “replace” China since Beijing unofficially banned Australian coal in October 2020. The publication says that India, Japan and South Korea “have picked up the shortfall”. Furthermore, two editors of the recent book “Foundations for a Low Carbon Energy System in China” have a piece in the National Interest, explaining the “major challenges” China faces in fulfilling its climate commitments.

The ongoing “mega-drought” in the US Southwest marks the region’s driest period in 1,200 years, according to new research covered by the Independent. According to the online paper, a mega-drought is one that lasts for 20 years or more. The Wall Street Journal says that 42% of the drought can be attributed to climate change. It continues: “Exceptionally dry soil in 2021 allowed the current drought to overtake the 1500s mega-drought as the driest 22-year period in the region since 800 AD, the study said.” The New York Times also covers the study, adding: “The drought, which began in 2000 and has reduced water supplies, devastated farmers and ranchers and helped fuel wildfires across the region, had previously been considered the worst 500 years, according to the researchers. But exceptional conditions in the summer of 2021, when about two-thirds of the West was in extreme drought, ‘really pushed it over the top,’ said A. Park Williams, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who led an analysis using tree ring data to gauge drought. As a result, 2000-21 is the driest 22-year period since 800 AD, which is as far back as the data goes.”AP News notes that this study is an update of one conducted a few years ago by the same team. Meanwhile, the San Fransisco Chronicle adds that, according to researchers, the drought will last at least another year – and perhaps many more. It adds that, on average, 2000-21 was 1.6F (0.9C) hotter in western US than 1950-99 . The study is also covered in the Los Angeles Times and the Hill. Meanwhile, Los Angeles Times journalist Jacques Leslie has penned an op-ed entitled: “Forget December’s snowstorms. California isn’t doing enough to address its hot, dry reality.”

In other new research, the Independent reports that “unless emissions are sharply brought down, by the end of the century, parts of the Arctic could see the rate of erosion more than double – losing up to three metres of coastline a year.” The online paper says that the warming climate is leading to permafrost thaw. “The warming of the soil can lead to slumping and ruptures, allowing erosion to speed up, putting coastal populations at risk and also leading to the emission of greenhouse gases previously stored in the earth”, it adds. Elsewhere, the Guardian reports that “Antarctica’s two native flowering plants are spreading rapidly as temperatures warm, according to the first study to show changes in fragile polar ecosystems have accelerated in the past decade”. And Reuters covers a new study which finds that “corn-based ethanol, which for years has been mixed in huge quantities into gasoline sold at US pumps, is likely a much bigger contributor to global warming than straight gasoline”.

Financial Times business writer Cat Rutter Pooley has a comment piece in the FT on the Glencore coal demerger, under the subheading: “Major coal miner is under pressure from an activist over what form ‘responsible’ divestment should take.” This follows from a news article in the paper yesterday, which reported that activist shareholder Bluebell Capital Partners has set out plan for how the company could best run down coal-producing assets. Pooley says: “[Glencore] insists that it is the best owner of its coal mines; that running them down over the next 30-ish years is the ‘responsible strategy for both our business and for the world’. Bluebell last year called that ‘morally unacceptable and financially flawed’ in a missive to the board. Elsewhere, the Financial Times reports that Glencore “expects to resolve bribery and corruption investigations in the UK, US and Brazil this year and has set aside $1.5bn to cover potential fines and costs.” And Bloomberg says the company will invest £40m into Britishvolt Ltd to develop “Britain’s first large-scale electric-vehicle battery plant.

In other UK comment, the Sun has published yet another editorial in support of fracking under the subheading: “The latest [UK] government anti-fracking excuse is a smokescreen for its cowardice.” The editorial says the environmental damage of drilling for shale gas is “vastly exaggerated” and that “producing cheap gas from shale is our best bet until, in a few decades, we can achieve the net-zero dream and solely use wind, solar and nuclear power”.

In a “Matters Arising” paper, a group of researchers respond to a Nature Ecology & Evolution paper – published last year – that concluded that “the global extinction risk of most coral species is lower than previously estimated”. The researchers “find problems with the suitability of the data” used in the previous analysis that “call into question these conclusions”. The study “requires additional and contemporary data collected using methods that avoid bias towards the most abundant species”, the researchers say, noting that “~500 species not assessed are likely to include those most at risk”. Most importantly, they write, “the rate of population change is required to predict the trajectories of populations and associated risk, thus conclusions regarding risk are premature due to a lack of suitable data”. In a reply, the authors of the original paper say the response “present[s] no evidence to support this claim and the studies that they cite in support of this assertion are based on semiquantitative or qualitative abundance estimates”.

The production of corn-based ethanol in the US “has failed to meet the policy’s own greenhouse gas emissions targets and negatively affected water quality, the area of land used for conservation, and other ecosystem processes”, a new study says. The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which specifies a minimum volume of biofuel to be blended into transport fuels, “increased corn prices by 30% and the prices of other crops by 20%”, and led to an expansion of cropland by 2.4%, the study finds. These changes “increased annual nationwide fertiliser use by 3 to 8%, increased water quality degradants by 3 to 5%, and caused enough domestic land use change emissions such that the carbon intensity of corn ethanol produced under the RFS is no less than gasoline and likely at least 24% higher”.

The period 2000-21 in North America was the “driest 22-yr period since at least 800”, new analysis shows. The “Brief Communication” paper updates a 2020 study on an emerging megadrought in the region. The authors detail the “exceptional drought severity in 2021”, around 19% of which “is attributable to anthropogenic climate trends”. The authors add that the drought “will very likely persist through 2022, matching the duration of the late-1500s megadrought”.