A decarbonised UK electricity system is in sight, but the government has yet to offer a coherent strategy on how to get there, according to a new Climate Change Committee (CCC) report covered by the Press Association and several other outlets. The newswire quotes the CCC saying decarbonising the grid by 2035 is “the central requirement for achieving net-zero”. It adds that the committee calls for “urgent changes” to regulatory, planning and consenting regimes for new infrastructure. The outlet explains that, according to the CCC, the UK will get the bulk of its electricity in the future from offshore wind, but will also need “hydrogen and gas capacity…in case there are periods with low wind”. Reuters says the UK “lacks strategy to meet target of decarbonised power by 2035”, according to the CCC. The Times leads its coverage of the report with the headline: “‘Lost year’ of British politics ‘will scupper zero-carbon target’.” The paper says the CCC accuses the government of being “asleep at the wheel” on its target of a decarbonised grid by 2035. The Guardian covers the report under the headline: “UK ‘must act now on renewable energy or risk being left behind’.” Sky News focuses its coverage on the long-standing CCC recommendation that the UK should move away from burning biomass to generate electricity, unless it is coupled with carbon capture and storage. BusinessGreen and City AM also have the story. BusinessGreen carries reactions to the report. Carbon Brief has in-depth coverage of the report’s modelling, findings and recommendations. Related comment in the Times from chief leader writer Simon Nixon calls for updates to the government’s national policy statements on energy and water in light of the UK’s net-zero target, as promised in 2020, saying these are “vital to the fast-tracking of infrastructure projects through the planning process”.

Separately, City AM reports that access to the electricity grid is the biggest roadblock to new onshore wind, according to energy firm Octopus. A comment for BusinessGreen by the Aldersgate Group’s Laith Witwham is titled: “Grid infrastructure is vital to unleash the UK’s booming renewables sector.”

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that National Grid Electricity System Operator “paid some of the highest prices this winter for gas-generated power on Tuesday night as it scrambled to keep the lights on during one of the coldest weeks of the year”, with still weather reducing wind output. In the Daily Telegraph, chief city commentator Ben Marlow says the use of reserve coal plants during this period “is testament to the government’s failure to secure our energy supply”. Marlow writes: “If it’s not Jeremy Hunt’s tax grab that is preventing the UK from becoming more independent, it is red tape. Warnings from the boss of Scottish Power that the sclerotic planning system could jeopardise Britain’s massive natural advantage in wind power will resonate with chief executives from other industries.”

The European Commission has set out plans to bring back its “stability and growth pact” and has urged member states to start phasing out energy subsidies in response, the Financial Times reports. The pact, which governs budget deficits and debt ratios, had been suspended in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the paper explains, and member states used this flexibility to “provide support to people and businesses struggling to pay their bills” in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the global energy crisis. “But the commission said the measures should now be unwound as the cost of energy drops and deficits need to be reduced,” the paper reports.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports: “Germany plans to provide its industry with a double-digit billion euro amount to enable it to convert conventional industrial plants to climate-friendly operations, the economy ministry said on Thursday.” Another Reuters article says: “France eyes tax incentives for green industry investment – minister.”

A comment for the Financial Times by Sergey Vakulenko, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, begins: “Russia’s war against Ukraine has many fronts, not least energy. And as with the Kremlin’s plans for a swift victory in Ukraine, both sides in the energy conflict have seen their dreams of rapid triumph collapse amid grinding and attritional trench warfare.”

A coalition of charities and campaigners is calling for higher energy efficiency funding in the UK’s upcoming budget, reports a Guardian “exclusive”. The paper says a group of 20 organisations has written to the chancellor Jeremy Hunt requesting at least £6bn a year in funding, instead of the £6bn currently allocated to be spent during this parliament. A comment in the Guardian by economics editor Larry Elliot is titled: “British voters are ready for a green, game-changing budget. What they’ll get is more austerity.” Separately, City AM reports on calls from Citizens Advice for a shift in energy bill support for low-income households, using better data to target funds at those that need it. Another article in City AM says North Sea operator Harbour Energy made “bumper profits” in 2022 but these were “nearly wiped out by the windfall tax”.

Investment in large-scale renewable energy and storage in Australia accelerated in the final three months of 2022, creating the largest quarterly investments for more than four years, reports the Guardian. Picking up on a new report by the Clean Energy Council, an industry group, the newspaper highlights that the “pace remains inadequate” to reach the government’s 2030 target of reaching 82% renewable energy on the national electricity market. It adds: “Developers made financial commitments to renewables and storage totalling A$4.29bn in the December quarter, a 10-fold increase on the previous three months. The year-end spurt lifted investment commitments to A$6.2bn for 2022, a 17% increase on the previous year.” Reuters also covers the report’s findings, adding: “The national energy market operator warned Australia’s east could face blackout risks from the middle of this decade if renewable projects are not accelerated as the country switches off coal-fired power.”

In other Australian news, the Guardian reports that “a coalition of independents hoping to hold the balance of power in the next New South Wales parliament will demand action to slow or halt coal and gas projects from the major parties in the case of a hung parliament”. Separately, the Australian says “the Coalition and the Greens are threatening to team up and refuse to deal with Labor’s signature climate policy in the upper house, unless secret modelling is urgently released”. Relatedly, the Guardian reports that “a majority of Canberrans support a ban on new coal and gas projects in federal law, adding pressure to the independent senator David Pocock to withhold support from Labor’s safeguard mechanism bill”.

The Guardian also carries a comment piece by Adam Morton under the headline: “The time for a climate trigger in Australia has hopefully, finally, belatedly come.” He adds: “It could be part of the solution to the impasse between Labor and the crossbench over the policy known as the safeguard mechanism…A climate trigger…could kick in for developments expected to emit above a certain level – the Greens have proposed 100,000 tonnes of CO2 a year – or set an emissions intensity threshold based on how dirty production is regardless of scale. Or both.” The climate-sceptic comment pages of the Australian runs an editorial under the headline: “Safeguarding energy from extreme Green demands. Fossil fuels hold key to a nature-based climate solution at scale.”

There is continuing coverage on the “two sessions” political gathering in Beijing. China Daily reports that president Xi Jinping has visited “national political advisors from the China National Democratic Construction Association and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce”, who are attending the “first” session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Xi participated in their “joint panel discussion and heard their comments and suggestions”, notes the state-run newspaper China Daily. It adds that, during the joint panel discussion, CPPCC members Zeng Yuqun, Xie Dong, Liu Zhendong, Chen Xiaoping, Xie Ru and Sun Dongsheng “made remarks regarding topics on developing a globally competitive new energy industry, providing financial support for scientific and technological innovation, [and] creating a better environment for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises”. China Electric Power News, a state-run industry newspaper, carries interviews with three party deputies on the coal industry, energy security and China’s “dual carbon” goals.

Separately, the Global Times writes, citing industry observers, that as one of the “strategic energy categories” of China’s “green transformation, hydrogen is playing a bigger role…yet the management mechanism of the energy source and relevant infrastructure still need to catch up quickly to boost the nascent sector”. The state-run newspaper quotes Xue Jiping, a deputy to the 14th National People’s Congress, who is also the legal representative of a hydrogen company. Xue said that “it is time that the clarification of hydrogen’s management should speed up to promote the industry’s rapid development”.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg carries the views of Liu Hanyuan, chair of Chinese clean energy firm Tongwei Group, who says the US should “scrap decade-old import tariffs on solar power equipment after years of protectionism” which have “failed to boost its domestic manufacturing base”. Liu adds: “Easing such measures will allow more technology sharing and will also help the US speed up its shift away from fossil fuels.” Another Bloomberg article says that one of the European Union’s “strongest critics of a massive US climate law is warning that Washington’s subsidies and China’s policies are drawing billions of dollars of clean-tech investments away from the bloc”. Finally, the South China Morning Post has an editorial focused on the new Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang’s first annual briefing at the “two sessions”. The briefing still “revolves around the fraught and complicated relationship with the US, which Qin accused of irrational and hysterical behaviour and of wanting to suppress China’s rise at any cost”.

Clean-energy tax incentives are “poised to speed investment on American soil while putting the European Union’s energy transition at risk by luring away money and talent, executives at the CERAWeek energy conference said this week”, Reuters reports. Bloomberg also reports from the conference, saying: “Energy executives and Biden administration officials in Houston had a simple message for Europe and other regions griping that US climate spending will starve them of investment: Stop complaining and put up the cash to enact measures of your own.” Another Reuters article says the EU and US are to launch talks “on free-trade-like status [for the EU], easing EV trade dispute”, citing “sources”. Politico reports from CERAWeek on the oil industry “vibe shift” around climate technologies: “Demand for oil and gas remains robust, but the growing acceptance that companies will need to address climate change and the huge pot of money the US government has made available are transforming their mission.”

An editorial in the Financial Times reflects on Germany’s last-minute opposition to the planned 2035 EU ban on combustion engines. The article says: “What was meant to be a simple rubber-stamping by ministers this week of measures agreed last year by member states and recently approved by the European parliament has instead been indefinitely postponed. Not only does Germany set a terrible example to other countries tempted to hold legislation hostage to national interests, it also threatens the credibility of Berlin on the green transition, and that of the EU.” It continues: “The bloc’s proposed ban is a key component of its target to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. That journey has now hit a roadblock.” The editorial says that the transition away from fossil fuels will involve “painful trade-offs, including job losses in polluting industries”. It concludes: “Transitioning to carbon neutrality by 2050 will be fiendishly difficult. But given that member states agreed to targets, it is now incumbent upon them to do all they can to meet them.”

In related news coverage, Politico reports: “Germany’s effort to save the combustion engine gains allies.” Another Politico article says: “Top Scholz ally slams German government over blockade on EU car engine law.” Reuters reports that the Czech Republic has “invited transport ministers from 11 European Union counties to meet in Brussels on Monday to discuss emissions-cutting policies, amid a dispute over the bloc’s landmark policy to shift to electric vehicles”. Meanwhile, the Sun reports that the UK “is losing race to build electric car revolution to Germany, Labour says”. The Times says BMW is to bring production of electric Minis “back to Oxford” after a £75m grant from government. City AM reports the UK “risks energy tech exodus without more funding, battery boss warns”. Another Times article is titled: “Electric cars with fully charged battery lose up to third of range in cold.” 

In his weekly newsletter for the New York Times, David Wallace-Wells writes that “the partisan landscape may be finally changing, indeed somewhat significantly”, when it comes to clean energy. He says: “The biggest piece of climate legislation in American history produced no discernible backlash, and there was practically no fear-mongering talk of a Green New Deal or climate socialism to come, no mention of the end of airline travel or burger bans, and not even any meaningful grandstanding about environmentalism run amok beyond some griping over gas prices.” Wallace-Wells continues: “The Inflation Reduction Act is a spigot of spending designed to produce a decarbonisation boom…A hugely disproportionate share of that money is going to places we think of as politically and culturally ‘red’ but which, thanks to their abundance of land and wind and sun, we may want to start thinking of also as ‘green.’” He concludes: “When the government is pouring money into your backyard, it’s hard to play the NIMBY for long.” (Reuters reports: “Legislation pending in the US state of Kansas to stop the use of environmental, social or governance (ESG) considerations by public contractors would reduce state pension system returns by $3.6bn over 10 years, a new fiscal analysis shows.”)

“Enhanced Asian warming contributes 22% of the wintertime amplified warming over the Barents–Kara Seas,” according to new research. Using simulations, the authors find that warming over Asia affects poleward atmospheric heat and moisture transport, which “trigger local feedbacks concerning sea ice-albedo feedback and changes in longwave radiation and evaporation, thus facilitating Barents–Kara Seas warming amplification”. The authors conclude that their findings “illuminate a new factor from remote lower latitudes affecting Arctic climate change.”