The Biden administration in the US has assigned $830m in grants to support 80 projects around the country aimed at strengthening the nation’s ageing infrastructure against climate change, according to the Associated Press. It explains that the funds come from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was passed in 2021, and are expected to improve bridges, roads, ports, rail, transit and other infrastructure across 37 states, Washington DC and the US Virgin Islands. Transport secretary Pete Buttigieg said the funding was part of the “first ever dedicated programme” where the federal government partnered with states and tribes to strengthen infrastructure, the Hill reports. The Guardian has an article framing the spending as part of a wider effort to commit large sums to climate action before the presidential election this year. “Joe Biden’s administration is shovelling billions of dollars into efforts it hopes will spur enduring cuts to planet-heating emissions, no matter the occupant of the White House,” the article says.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that the Biden administration has announced that the US surpassed its goal of permitting more than 25 gigawatts (GW) of clean-energy projects on public lands by 2025. The federal government has also finalised its “renewable energy rule”, which will reduce fees for solar and wind projects on federal lands by 80% “while streamlining the application process”, the newswire says. It describes these actions as “the latest effort by the administration…to leverage the nation’s 250m acres of federal land to reach [Biden’s] goal of decarbonising the US power grid by 2035”. Separately, Bloomberg reports that Biden is moving to block oil-and-gas development across roughly half of the 23m-acre north slope site in Alaska. “The initiative, set to be finalised within days, marks one of the most sweeping efforts yet by Biden to limit oil and gas exploration on federal lands,” the article explains.

Elsewhere, two new rules issued by the US Environmental Protection Agency aiming to limit pollution from chemical plants and cancer-causing chemicals in tap water are expected to prompt a “barrage of legal challenges from fossil fuel groups and Republican states”, according to the Financial Times. It notes that such lawsuits are “stacking up”, with many Republican states already challenging federal decisions to curb emissions from the oil-and-gas sector and pause approvals of new liquified natural gas facilities. And, finally, the Hill reports that the Senate has voted to overturn a Biden administration rule that would require local and state transit officials to set greenhouse gas emissions limits on the federal highway system. Every Republican and three Democrat senators – including Joe Manchin of West Virginia – opposed the rule, it notes.

The National Farmers Union (NFU) has warned that flooding and other extreme weather linked to climate change will undermine UK food production, BBC News reports. The article says this comes after “record-breaking rain over the past few months”, which “has left fields of crops under water and livestock’s health at risk”. The NFU is calling on the government to “do more to compensate flooded farmers and support domestic food production”, according to the news website. In response, the government says it is “looking to expand” the new farm recovery fund compensation scheme, which was launched this week to offer grants to farmers in England who are facing “uninsurable flooding damage” on their land, the piece continues. The Guardian reports that, under the terms of the fund, farmers “who have their entire cropping land submerged underwater” have been declared ineligible “because their farms are too far from a major river”. Farmers Weekly has an article about Henry Ward – the country’s most famous flooded farmer – whose farm near Lincoln is not eligible for the recovery fund. ITV News says the knock-on effects of the disruption to farming could include shortages on the supermarket shelves, a heavier reliance on imports and increased prices. 

In more extreme weather news, there is continued coverage of what Reuters describes as the “worst flooding seen…in nearly a century” in parts of Russia and Kazakhstan. A “deluge of meltwater” has forced more than 120,000 people from their homes in Russia’s Ural Mountains, Siberia and Kazakhstan, as major rivers breached embankments, the piece explains. Meanwhile, in Colombia, around 10 million residents of the capital, Bogota, are rationing water amid “crippling shortages due to a severe drought”, BBC News reports. “Climate change has also been deemed a major driver of drought, as well as rapid urbanisation and poor infrastructure,” the article explains.

Campaigners are taking the UK government to the high court, alleging that it has left the nation “completely underprepared” for the impacts of climate change, according to the Press Association. This comes after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) “ruled countries must protect their citizens from the consequences of climate change in a decision that sided with a group of 2,000 Swiss women against their government”, the article explains. The UK campaigners argue that the government is not doing enough under the Climate Change Act to adapt the country for higher temperatures, and this amounts to a breach of their human rights, it continues. The challengers include the NGO Friends of the Earth and two campaigners who have faced specific problems that they attribute to rising global temperatures. MailOnline reports on one of these campaigners, Kevin Jordan, who says he is a “climate refugee” because his home in Norfolk had to be demolished by the local council when it was at risk of falling into the sea. The second, Doug Paulley, is a disability rights campaigner living in a care home in West Yorkshire, according to the Times. The newspaper says Paulley has diabetes, nerve damage and a heart condition, which “make higher temperatures harder for him to live with”.

Focusing on the ECHR outcome, the Daily Mail has an article about Tim Eicke, the only British judge on the judicial panel that heard the case, who was also the only member of the panel who disagreed with the outcome. Eicke said that while he recognised the “need for urgency” in tackling climate change, he feared “that the majority has gone beyond what it is legitimate and permissible for this court to do and, unfortunately, in doing so, may well have achieved exactly the opposite effect to what was intended”.

Separately, the Economist has a briefing – and related editorial (see Comment section below) – about the “vast damage” climate change is doing to property around the world.

In a frontpage story, the Guardian reports that the UK Labour party is at risk of losing in a number of target seats “as previously loyal progressive voters turn away” due to core voters being “angered by its stance on Gaza and the climate crisis”. While the party remains “on track to win a landslide victory” in the general election this year, the article cites polling and interviews with senior party figures, which suggests the party could lose its grip in some constituencies due to the party’s alienation of traditional Labour voters in urban areas, in particular. “Among those voters’ chief concerns is the party’s decision to abandon its commitment to spend £28bn a year on green projects and Starmer’s defence of Israel’s military actions in Gaza,” the article states. Separately, the i newspaper has a frontpage interview with Keir Starmer, in which the Labour leader explains his approach to working with China. The newspaper quotes him saying that a Labour government “would have concerns and would meet the challenge of human rights abuses, surveillance, interference”, before adding: “On the other hand, when it comes to global issues such as climate change, we will have to work with other countries including China.”

In more Labour news, the Press Association reports that London mayor Sadiq Khan and shadow energy secretary Ed Miliband have launched a new climate action plan for London, including a 100% zero-emission bus fleet and more than 40,000 new public bike parking spaces by 2030. In his speech today, Khan is expected to brand Susan Hall, his Conservative rival in the upcoming race to be London’s next mayor, a “Trumpian” when it comes to climate change – referencing the climate-sceptic former US president, reports the Guardian. The newspaper says the new 10-point climate action plan includes a fund for putting solar panels on school roofs across the capital city.

The European parliament has voted for proposals to “make electricity prices less dependent on fossil-fuel prices, in a bid to boost renewable energy and shield consumers from price spikes”, according to Reuters. The European Commission first proposed changes to the electricity market last year, after EU power prices shot up to record levels due to Russian gas supplies being cut off, the article explains. The new rules “seek to shift to longer term, fixed-price contracts to protect consumers from volatile energy markets”, the newswire explains. EurActiv says the move “paves the way” for the new rules to become law. With parliament on board, they now just need final approval from EU countries, and the news website there is little opposition expected.

Another Reuters story says the European parliament also voted to pass rules that allow European governments to ban Russian liquefied “natural” gas (LNG) imports “by preventing Russian firms from booking gas infrastructure capacity”. This comes as the Times reports on analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, which finds that the shipping industries of countries backing Ukraine, including G7 members and the EU, “handled more than 90% of Russia’s exports of LNG in 2023, valued at €15.5bn”.

China’s commerce ministry “voiced strong opposition to the European Commission’s plan to investigate Chinese wind turbines over state subsidies”, and refuted an EU report issued on Wednesday that China has “significant state-induced distortions in [its] economy”, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reports. The EU’s investigations “severely damaged the confidence of Chinese enterprises” and “interfered” with industrial cooperation, it reports the Ministry of Commerce saying. Reuters also covers Wednesday’s report, which it says could open “the door to anti-dumping complaints from…clean-tech producers”. State newswire Xinhua says that “some politicians and media in…the west have joined hands to speculate on the so-called ‘China overcapacity theory’…in an attempt to distort and discredit China’s relations with the world”. The state-supporting Global Times quotes foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning saying: “We hope the EU will not keep stressing the importance of fighting climate change on the one hand and yet damage the global efforts to deal with the issue on the other”. 

Another Reuters article finds that “around 2.6 gigawatts (GW) of Chinese-made wind turbines are currently installed or planned to be installed in Europe”, although it adds that “the supply of Chinese wind turbines for EU projects is relatively small”. Reuters also examines the overcapacity debate, quoting one economist saying “I’m very sceptical about this idea of overcapacity…it means every country should only produce what it consume[s] itself”. Deutsche Welle covers a report finding that “Chinese subsidies for domestic green-tech firms” grew significantly in 2022. State newspaper China Daily quotes industry experts saying: “It is the US market’s high prices, not Chinese overcapacity, that hinder widespread [electric vehicle (EV)] adoption”. The Communist party-affiliated People’s Daily publishes a commentary arguing “the rapid growth” of China’s EV exports is due to both competitiveness in price and design. A China Daily op-ed argues that western tariffs and protectionism “will unwittingly raise EV prices” and “hinder innovation”. Finally, a commentary in Xinhua argues that western overcapacity arguments aim to “stifle China’s beneficial products, unfairly block China’s industrial progress, and ultimately maintain [the west’s] monopoly in the global economic system”. 

China’s central bank, alongside six government departments, issued guidelines to develop a “world-leading” financial support system for “green and low-carbon” development in the next five years, reports Beijing News. To do this, the guidelines call for “optimising the green financial standard system and strengthening information disclosure”, “establishing and improving carbon accounting methods”, “introducing unified carbon accounting standards”, “promoting environmental information disclosure” and “improving the quality of disclosure and assessment of environmental information”. Shanghai-based business outlet the Paper interviews an unnamed central bank official, who says the guidelines will help “promote the construction of the carbon emissions trading market…enriches the financial products and trading methods linked to carbon emissions rights and gradually expands the scope of entities suitable for inclusion in China’s carbon market”.

Caixin says that “Chinese companies of all shades – from startups and listed firms to government-backed enterprises – are exploring the field” of nuclear fusion energy. Business outlet 21st Century Business Herald carries an interview with Zhang Zhongxiang, director of the National Institute of Energy, Environment and Industrial Economics, who proposes that “the aluminium oxide, cement and steel industries should be prioritised for inclusion in the national carbon market”. Finally, another Caixin article covers a report recommending that Chinese manufacturers of energy storage batteries should accelerate their overseas expansion in the face of a “supply glut” and “fierce competition” in domestic markets. 

Staff at the UN-backed Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), one of the world’s leading climate-certification organisations, have called for the chief executive and board members to resign after they announced plans to allow companies to meet climate targets using carbon offsets, the Guardian reports. Until now, the newspaper explains, the SBTi has pushed back against the use of offsets, and instead emphasised the importance of companies directly cutting their own emissions. However, this changed on Tuesday when the board of trustees released revised plans for their net-zero standard, which would allow companies to use offsets in their supply chains, the article notes. The newspaper says staff and advisors responded with “fury”, issuing a letter calling for the statement to be withdrawn and the resignation of chief executive Luiz Fernando do Amaral. The letter pushes back against attempts to make the SBTi a “greenwashing platform where decisions are unduly influenced by lobbyists”, it adds. The Financial Times describes the SBTi, which is backed by a coalition of NGOs, as an “attempt to fill the void created by the absence of an official standard-setter on corporate climate change plans”. The newspaper says the use of offsets to meet climate plans is an approach supported by key SBTi financial supporter, the Bezos Earth Fund, citing “people familiar with the matter”. In response, the Bezos fund tells the FT it did not “make decisions” with the SBTi or have any involvement in its latest offsets statement. [For more on carbon offsets, see Carbon Brief’s week-long series from last year.]

Separately, Climate Home News has a comment piece by Silke Mooldijk from the NewClimate Institute, who is part of the core team behind the Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor. She says their recent analysis has unearthed a “leniency” within the SBTi. Specifically, 51 major global corporations – most of which have had their climate targets described as aligned with 1.5C of warming by SBTi – are in fact “falling short of what’s needed at the global level”, she explains.

The chief of Germany’s leading energy company RWE has warned that the country’s industry “is unlikely to recover to pre-Ukraine war levels” as increased prices from imported liquefied “natural” gas (LNG) have put “Europe’s largest economy” at a “disadvantage”, reports the Financial Times. Markus Krebber, chief executive of RWE, is quoted as saying: “Gas prices in continental Europe, especially in Germany, are structurally higher now because we, in the end, depend on LNG imports…The German industry has a disadvantage”. Meanwhile, Germany’s “influential industrial lobby”, the BDI, uses the situation to avoid green policies impacting manufacturers. The article also highlights that German companies, including clean energy giant RWE, have ramped up their investment in US projects, hitting a record $15.7bn last year, and despite potential shifts in US leadership, such as the prospect of Donald Trump’s presidency, RWE’s Krebber remains “optimistic”.

Meanwhile, Die Zeit reports that according to a study by Greenpeace, the phase-out of nuclear energy in Germany has not led to an increase in CO2 emissions in electricity production due to “growth in renewables and a decrease in electricity generation from fossil energy sources”. The outlet continues that since the last German nuclear reactors shut down in April 2023, CO2 emissions in the energy sector have decreased by 24%. However, Energy Monitor reports that a new study by thinktank Ember suggests that Germany “is massively underestimating its emissions from coal mining”. For example, while Germany mined 131m tonnes (Mt) of lignite coal from surface mines in 2022 – representing 44% of the EU’s total lignite coal production in 2022 – it only reported active coal mine methane (CMM) emissions of 1,390Mt, which accounts for just 1% of the EU’s total reported active surface CMM emissions in 2021, notes the study. 

Finally, a frontpage story in the New York Times reports on “what happened when a German car factory went all electric”. It says that the shift at Volkswagen’s plant in Zwickau to stop producing Golfs and switch to electric vehicles has “illuminat[ed] the risks and opportunities for factory towns and cities”. In addition, Handelsblatt reports that the Australian-German company Vulcan Energy has started to extract lithium, an essential metal for electric cars and the energy transition, in Germany for the first time. Reuters adds that the company uses geothermal energy for extraction purposes. 

The Times has an editorial on the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that the Swiss government has breached its obligation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and this failure can be seen as a violation of its citizens’ rights. The newspaper is not in favour of the ruling, describing it as “clearly unhelpful”. The editorial states: “This seminal decision opens the floodgates to litigation that has been brewing around the world, in national as well as international courts. It ­effectively seizes control of a whole area of public policy and places it under the control of judges, and foreign ones at that.” The newspaper says that while governments should be held to account, “that judgement should be made by an informed electorate at an election, not a court answering cases brought by a select few ­applicants with political axes to grind”.

Separately, the Economist has an editorial titled “global warming is coming for your home”. It says: “By one estimate, climate change and the fight against it could wipe out 9% of the value of the world’s housing by 2050 – which amounts to $25trn, not much less than America’s annual GDP. It is a huge bill hanging over people’s lives and the global financial system. And it looks destined to trigger an almighty fight over who should pay up.”

The timings of both floods and droughts in the Alps will shift under future warming, a new study finds – but the intensity of floods will remain roughly the same, while droughts will become increasingly extreme events. Researchers use a streamflow model to project changes in Alpine streams and rivers for three different warming levels, then identify flood and drought events. They find that droughts will “intensify, last longer, and slightly increase in spatial extent, with the magnitude of change increasing with the warming level”, while changes for floods will be “negligible”. The authors conclude: “These projected changes highlight the need to develop adaptation strategies in particular for droughts…and consider that extreme events become more widespread in a warming world.”