The US government has nominated Indian-American businessman Ajay Banga to lead the World Bank, citing his experience in mobilising finance to tackle climate change, reports Climate Home News. In a statement released by the White House, US president Joe Biden said the former Mastercard executive “has critical experience mobilising public-private resources to tackle the most urgent challenges of our time, including climate change”. Climate Home News says that “Banga is currently an advisor to General Atlantic’s climate-focused fund, BeyondNetZero, has sat on the boards of big corporations like Dow Chemicals and has worked with US vice-president Kamala Harris on her Central American policies…The US is the bank’s biggest shareholder and traditionally picks its president so it is likely that Banga will replace David Malpass when he steps down in or before June.” Banga’s nomination is the first to be made public, notes Reuters, but the bank will accept nominations from other member countries until close to the end of March. It adds that “Germany, another major shareholder, this week said the job should go to a woman since the bank has never been headed by a woman in its 77-year history”. The newswire quotes Scott Morris, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and a former US Treasury official, who said: “I think the speed of the nomination, less than 48 hours after the World Bank board launched the process, reflects a desire to discourage any challengers and wrap it up quickly.”

The nomination comes as US treasury secretary Janet Yellen “is pushing an evolution of the development lender from its traditional focus on country-specific lending to focus on global goods like fighting climate change and pandemics”, says Bloomberg. However, the Guardian notes that “anti-poverty groups are expected to question Banga’s commitment to fighting the climate crisis using private sector funds”. The New York Times says “his selection could disappoint some climate activists who have been calling on the Biden administration to nominate a president with a strong background in environmental issues. His lack of direct public-sector experience could also be viewed with scepticism by some development experts”. And a second Bloomberg quotes Collin Rees, US programme co-manager at Oil Change International, who said that the World Bank needs a leader “who will prioritise the urgency of the climate crisis, not another big business executive”. He added: “Banga’s long career at predatory banks and corporations does not inspire confidence that he would transform the World Bank into an institution that can work for people and the planet.” The Washington Post, BBC News and Deutsche Welle also have the story.

In related news, Climate Home News reports on a Reuters story that says India is likely to propose forming an expert G20 group to look into reforms at the World Bank and to increase lending capacity of the institution for climate financing in middle and low income countries.

Labour leader Keir Starmer has set out his party’s plans to place climate action at the heart of its economic strategy, reports BusinessGreen, “confirming that a commitment to turn the UK into a ‘clean energy superpower’ will form one of the key planks of the party’s next manifesto”. Speaking at an event in Manchester yesterday, the leader of the UK’s opposition party unveiled five overarching “missions” for the next Labour government that would, if elected, deliver a “relentless focus on a clear set of priorities”, promising to secure the highest sustained growth in the G7, build an NHS fit for the future, make Britain’s streets safe, break down barriers to opportunity and make Britain a clean energy superpower, the outlet explains. Confirming that these missions will form the backbone of the Labour manifesto at the next election, Starmer explained that the clean-energy pledge had been translated into a specific target to deliver a zero-carbon electricity system by 2030, the outlet explains. Starmer said: “Make no mistake – this goal would turn Britain into a clean-energy superpower…It puts us ahead of any major economy in the world.” He added that the target would then be backed by a raft of measures to deliver cheaper bills, enhance energy security and enact “an industrial strategy that can win the race for jobs in the green industries of the future”.

There is widespread coverage of the five missions, including the Guardian, Press Association, BBC News, Sky News, Evening Standard, Bloomberg, Reuters and Politico. BBC News has also factchecked the five missions, noting that “Sir Keir is right that no other major economy is matching the 2030 target. The G7 group of big economies, for example, has pledged to ‘predominantly’ decarbonise electricity by 2035”. In the analysis piece, Henry Zeffman, associate political editor at the Times, writes that “the question of how the UK would decarbonise at such a rapid pace raises all sorts of other questions which Starmer must answer”. Zeffman continues: “He has said before that he wants to double onshore wind, triple solar energy and quadruple offshore wind, but all those come with planning challenges in the short term. What role would hydrogen turbines play? And, in the longer term, will Starmer build nuclear power stations, and if so how many?”. An editorial in the Guardian says that “the line of attack” that Starmer had faced from the media was “why had he broken the pledges he made in his leadership campaign?”. The paper says: “The answer, inevitably, is that when the facts change, then policies must change too. Since those pledges there have been Covid, Ukraine and the Liz Truss ‘kamikaze’ budget. Voters may hate U-turns and flip-flops, but they may be convinced by his reply: with energy prices through the roof, would you spend a small fortune compensating shareholders by nationalising energy companies, or choose his windfall tax on excessive profits and his green Great British Energy company, which would work alongside the private sector?”

Elsewhere, the chief executive of Heathrow airport has dismissed any concerns that a change of government would stand in the way of a third runway, the Daily Telegraph reports. John Holland-Kaye said that “the majority of Labour MPs supported the third runway in a free vote, even though the leadership at the time, [which included] John McDonnell, our local MP, was opposed to it”. He added: “We have a plan. It has been approved by the majority of both Labour and Conservative MPs. We had to pause that during the pandemic and to deal with legal appeals. But our plan is that we would restart that. We are just going through [the mechanics] of how we would do that.”

Former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has warned that the world’s largest fund to help developing nations cope with climate change remains an “empty shell”, despite decades of promises by rich nations, the Guardian reports. The South Korean diplomat, who served from 2007 to 2016 as eighth UN secretary general, said: “We need to see a massive acceleration in mobilising trillions of dollars needed to keep the world from climate collapse.” The paper explains: “International climate finance from rich to poor countries is between five and 10 times short of what is needed, according to the UN. In 2020, money set aside to help poorer countries adapt to climate breakdown amounted to $29bn – far below the $340bn a year that could be needed by 2030. The largest such fund, the Green Climate Fund, stands at $11.4bn. Rich countries have also been accused by NGOs of misleading accounting and issuing loans instead of grants.” Ban Ki-Moon described the agreement on loss and damage at COP27 in Egypt last November as a “great success”, but warned: “I have been urging political leaders: raise your political ambition levels and then find a way to provide the financial support. It is their moral responsibility…As we move towards COP28 in the United Arab Emirates, our efforts in climate mitigation and adaptation must accelerate.”

Energy firm Drax has warned that its £2bn project to build the world’s biggest carbon-capture power station in the UK is at “serious risk” without urgent government action as Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act makes investing in the US more attractive, reports the Times. The FTSE 250 company has been working for several years on plans for a bioenergy with carbon-capture and storage (BECCS) plant at its site near Selby in North Yorkshire, the paper explains. However, Drax said that “following the introduction of the US Inflation Reduction Act, we are increasingly excited about the opportunities to deploy BECCS in the US”, and urged the UK government to accelerate its own policies in response. The legislation “increased the subsidies on offer for carbon-capture and storage projects from $50 to $85 per tonne of carbon dioxide”, the paper says. Will Gardiner, Drax chief executive, told the Times: “That effectively makes the opportunity to build a BECCS power station in the US that much more attractive, so we’re doing a lot of work on that.” He added that Drax needed to start negotiations over subsidies with the UK government soon to enable a final investment decision to be made in the first half of next year. If that did not happen, Gardiner said it would “accelerate” its plans in the US while the UK would “become less of a priority over time”.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Financial Times, John Podesta, Joe Biden’s senior clean energy adviser, says that the US will make “no apologies” for prioritising American jobs in its bid to lead the global clean energy contest. He adds: “We hope that the European industrial base will succeed, but it’s up to Europe to do some of the work…We’re not going to do that all for them.” (For more on the implications of the act, see Carbon Brief’s recent media reaction article.)

Also on Drax, the Guardian reports that the UK government is under pressure to cut subsidies to Drax after it reported an 84% increase in annual profits, helped by high electricity prices. Drax, which owns the UK’s biggest power station in North Yorkshire, posted underlying profits of £731m for 2022, up from £398m a year earlier, the paper explains, adding: “Drax, which has faced criticism over its use of biomass, has benefited from soaring power prices over the past year. Electricity prices are linked to wholesale gas costs, which have risen sharply since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.” Sky News says that Drax’s bioenergy operations makes it eligible for government subsidies, receiving £617m in 2022, according to Ember. The thinktank’s chief operating officer Phil MacDonald said that “these results show that Drax would not be profitable without public support…The scale of these subsidies just don’t add up”. The outlet quotes Sally-Ann Hart, a Conservative MP, who says: “Burning imported wood pellets for electricity is not cheap for bill payers. Given the growing environmental concerns, ministers shouldn’t commit to new subsidies for this energy source.” The Daily Mail and City AM also have the story, while Sky News and BBC News report that legal action against Drax over concerns that dust from its wood pellets allegedly posed a risk to employees’ health has been dropped. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said a causal link between the occupational asthma and handling of the biomass could not be established to the criminal standard.

Klaus Müller, the head of Germany’s Federal Network Agency, has said in an interview with the Associated Press that he’s “optimistic” this winter will end without a further gas crunch, especially after Germany cut its gas use by 14% in 2022 by lowering thermostats, switching to other fuels or halting energy-intensive industrial production. “But, at the same time, we’re focused already on winter 2023-24 and we know that Germany, and large parts of Europe, will have to get through the next winter without Russian pipeline gas…and the risks are in plain sight”, Müller tells AP. Tagesschau reports that a year since Russia attacked Ukraine, energy prices in Germany have risen sharply, with the most noticeable rise in the price of gas. The outlet notes that last month, gas prices were 50% more than a year ago, shortly before the outbreak of war, while there has been a 27% increase in electricity prices.

Relatedly, the Economist carries an editorial which says: “When it comes to energy, Germany has had little choice but to act [since Russia invaded Ukraine]. Even before Europe got around to discussing a gas embargo, Vladimir Putin turned off the gas taps. But Mr Scholz’s government has acted with agility, building [liquid “natural” gas] terminals, increasing gas reserves, acquiring new suppliers and adapting faster than anyone predicted. Germany is also busy building clean-energy infrastructure. Renewable power generation hit a record level in 2022 and the new target is for its share of total generation to reach 80% by 2030. Auctions for offshore wind sites in the North Sea and Baltic Sea are under way and, even before the invasion, some 2% of Germany’s land was to be reserved for onshore wind farms.” Reuters reports that economy minister Robert Habeck has said that Germany would be fine with a Europe-wide ban on Russian gas, but other countries would not, meaning it was better to focus on sealing gaps in the sanctions regime rather than expanding it.

Meanwhile, Die Zeit reports that the federal administrative court in Leipzig is currently hearing a case whereby the Russian state-owned Rosneft oil and gas company is complaining that the German federal government illegally took control of its two German subsidiaries Rosneft Deutschland and RN Refining & Marketing in September 2022. Another Die Zeit article states that the procedure could impact consumers in Germany because, if the court upholds Rosneft’s lawsuit, the Russian company will regain influence over the PCK refinery in Schwedt, Brandenburg – and, thus, “over the oil market in Germany”. The verdict is expected in two weeks at the earliest, notes the newspaper.

Elsewhere in German media, Stern reports that German economy minister Robert Habeck “wants state aid for companies to expand capacities in Germany for the production of wind turbines or solar systems”. EurActiv adds that after a public consultation was held from April 2022 to February 2023, the German government now has a three-step plan: to help companies invest and support the operation of renewable manufacturing facilities, to de-risk onshore wind and electricity grid expansion “temporarily” and to launch a new round of EU-approved innovative funding schemes called “important projects of common European interest” and extend them to solar.

Finally, Der Spiegel reports that German environmental groups Greenpeace and the Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND) have called for all highway projects in Germany to be stopped. They state that not only is the use of roads harmful to the climate, but “the construction, operation and maintenance of the motorways and federal roads also makes a decisive contribution to the worsening of the climate crisis”.

New data shows that more than four in every 10 cars produced in the UK last month was an electric or hybrid vehicle, reports the Times. The latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that the total number of electric or hybrid vehicles produced in January was 28,329 – rising by almost 50% compared with a year ago, the paper explains. The trade body said total car production was “stable” last month, but supply chain shortages were still affecting some manufacturers, the paper says. BusinessGreen quotes Mike Hawes, chief executive of the SMMT, who said: “Automotive manufacturing can drive long-term growth for the low-carbon economy but the sector needs competitive conditions to attract investment. Recent global developments, however, suggest increasing protectionism that, if not challenged or mitigated, could put the UK at a disadvantage.”

Elsewhere, Financial Times chief data reporter John Burn-Murdoch unpacks data on road deaths to show that “America’s obsession with big cars has fatal consequences”. He says: “The US has the ideas and ambition to lead on the energy transition, and can learn from local schemes where traffic calming measures, such as in New York City, can reduce road deaths. Ultimately, though, solving environmental and public health challenges requires prioritising the collective good. The evidence suggests that when it comes to cars, that’s just not the American way.”

China’s supreme court has issued the country’s “first legal guidelines on facilitating peak carbon emissions”, reports China Dialogue. The article notes a report by the state news agency Xinhua on Tuesday, which quotes Liu Zhumei, head of the supreme court’s Environmental Resources Court, saying “the opinions [issued by the supreme court] on the provision of judicial services to promote carbon emissions peaking and neutrality provides guidelines for courts at all levels on adjudicating cases involving carbon.” China Dialogue highlights that, for the “green transition”, the guideline mentions “prioritising ecological restoration when adjudicating cases regarding greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution control, including asking infringers to purchase carbon sink products to compensate for damage”.

Separately, the “information office” of the State Council has stated that Chinese central state-owned enterprises (known as “central enterprises”) are “now undertaking more than 90% of the country’s oil and gas supply, more than 60% of the electricity supply, more than 25% of the coal supply, and have built a large power grid and telecommunications network covering the whole country”, reports China Electric Power News. The state-run industry outlet notes that “in recent years, in the face of energy and electricity supplies, central enterprises have made every effort to deploy resources to ensure supply and price stability, and maintain the safety of the power supply, gas supply and heating for the people”.

In other China news, the Diplomat has a comment piece by Chin Hsueh at Georgetown University, titled: “China’s three pathways to green steel.” Hsueh writes: “First, they could try to replace traditional, coal-based blast furnaces with electric arc furnaces, which utilise renewable electricity and high-quality steel scrap, making steelmaking more environmentally friendly.” A second option would be to “install carbon-capture equipment at existing steel plants”, he says, adding that “the final pathway is the adoption of green hydrogen-based technologies”. Caixin Global writes that China saw a “spike in the number of published patents related to the auto industry in 2022, driven largely by heightened competition in the development of new-energy [electric] and internet-connected vehicle technologies”. The South China Morning Post writes that flooding in China’s Yellow River “became 10 times more frequent in the last 1,000 years than in several previous millennia, and it cannot be blamed on climate change”, citing a new study.

Finally, a CNN article says that China buying Russia’s energy is “a boon for both sides. It adds: “For Russia, it desperately needs new customers as its fossil fuels are shunned by the West; for China, now focused on getting its economy out of a slump, is in need of cheap energy to power its huge manufacturing industry.” And Quartz reports that at least five workers are dead in northern China after a coal mine collapsed under a landslide yesterday. It says that “the accident happened in the Inner Mongolia province, the country’s top coal-producing region” and that “reports from Chinese state media indicate more than 40 workers remain missing”.

Producers in one of the UK’s biggest growing regions have warned that a shortage of some fruit and vegetables could last until May, reports BBC News.The Lea Valley Growers Association (LVGA) “said that while weather conditions in Spain and Morocco are the main reason behind the current shortages, the situation is being made worse by UK producers delaying planting crops this season”, the outlet reports, adding that growers “have been put off by high energy costs for greenhouses, and low prices offered by supermarkets for their produce”. Lee Stiles, secretary of the Lea Valley Growers Association (LVGA), tells the outlet: “Half of our growers didn’t grow last year, and half of our growers are not growing this year, and that’s because they couldn’t secure an increased price from the supermarkets to cover the increased cost of energy and fertiliser, and inputs that they needed in order to make a profit and make a living on the produce grown.” The warning contradicts UK’s environment secretary Therese Coffey, who told MPs yesterday that the “temporary” shortages were expected to last “about another two to four weeks”, reports the Daily Mail. Coffey said that consumers might want to turn to British “specialisms” at this time of year, such as turnips, to support domestic farmers.

Elsewhere, the MailOnline reports that England has had its driest February to date for 30 years – “raising fears of another drought this year”. It says: “The National Drought Group (NDG), which advises the Government, has warned that Britain may need further hosepipe bans and restrictions on water. The water shortage is likely to impact on the availability of vegetables – as two key agricultural regions in the UK are still in drought – East Anglia and Devon.”

With the World Bank in the process of replacing its president, the Economist asks what a “green twist” to the Bretton Woods twins of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) would look like. The first “vexed” question is “who coughs up to pay for the lender?”, the outlet asks, adding: “The summit divided the world into two groups, the Annex II countries and the rest. Because of their historic emissions, the mostly rich Annex II countries were given the responsibility of paying up. The problem with the division is not the principle – that polluters should pay – but that it is stuck in the past. Israel, Singapore and Qatar are now affluent, and more responsible for emissions than many of the original Annex II gang. According to analysis by the ODI, another thinktank, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and South Korea are also candidates for a revamped Annex II-style grouping. The new climate lender should establish a clear threshold for historic emissions per person. Once a country breaches this, it should have no choice but to pay up.” The next question is “how to get the most out of the Green Bank’s balance sheet”, the outlet says. The bank “should focus on ‘unlocking private finance’”, it suggests: “The Green Bank could offer concessional loans. Or perhaps the new lender could even take on a bit more risk, by taking stakes in projects. This would mean accepting the ‘first loss’ if things did not work out, but also gaining some of the upside if they went well. Financiers are often frustrated that the World Bank has not done more to seize the opportunity of such ‘blended finance’, which combines high-minded philanthropy with a degree of old-fashioned money-grubbing.” However, the “most radical option” would be “to give up on the Green Bank entirely”, the outlet says: “When it comes to cutting out carbon dioxide, the perfect climate lender may well be no climate lender at all. For the benevolent social planner, who does not have to worry about political constraints, the most efficient way to get to net-zero would be some sort of global carbon tax…The proceeds of the tax would mostly flow to the populous poor world, which could use them to adapt to a warmer planet, if it desired.”

Meanwhile, Joss Garman on his “Climate Memo” SubStack has a post titled: “How will Sunak respond to Biden’s green investment bazooka? Five things we could see in the UK’s austerity net-zero plan.” Garman, who is an executive director at the European Climate Foundation (which funds Carbon Brief), writes: “Ultimately, when the updated plan arrives in the next few weeks the mood music may matter almost as much as the policies. They can rebadge the energy department to put net-zero back in the name – but if investors don’t truly believe the prime minister and chancellor are committed to real delivery – they will simply take their money to those countries who are putting clean energy at the centre of their economic futures. Careless green talk will cost Britain jobs.”

A new study finds that permafrost thawing in the Arctic, driven by rapidly warming temperatures, is causing lakes in the region to shrink earlier than expected. Scientists use observations from nearly 60 studies of changing lake sizes in the Arctic to determine overall trends. They find that the majority of sites contain shrinking lakes and that this size change is primarily due to permafrost thaw. The authors conclude: “The observed emergence of lake area trends projected to occur no earlier than the mid-21st century indicates that current models do not adequately represent the processes driving permafrost thaw and associated lake drainage.”