The Financial Times reports that countries are in turmoil over how to run the “loss and damage” fund agreed at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt last year, which was widely viewed as a historic step forward for climate justice. According to the FT, representatives from the negotiating bloc of G77 nations plus China, a large coalition of developing countries, were “considering abandoning” discussions under way in Aswan in Egypt amid a push from the US to allow the World Bank to be in charge of the fund. The newspaper reports: “Pedro Luis Pedroso Cuesta, the Cuban chair of the G77 plus China group, said the ongoing talks this week were deadlocked over critical differences, including the question of money and the governance arrangements of the fund. The G77 rejected proposals from the US and EU for the fund to be hosted by the World Bank, after ‘extensive’ discussions with the lender this week. The opposing nations had initially wanted an independent fund, but Pedroso Cuesta said the group was now open to it being hosted elsewhere, such as in a UN organisation or another multilateral development bank. However, he said the US was unwilling to negotiate on where the fund was based. ‘We have been confronted with an elephant in the room, and that elephant is the US,’ he said. ‘We have been faced with a very closed position that it is [the World Bank] or nothing.’” Christina Chan, a senior adviser to US climate envoy John Kerry, tells the FT it would be “inaccurate” and “irresponsible” to suggest that the US was being “obstructionist”. Politico reports developing nations say the US has “long exerted too much control over the World Bank at the expense of those receiving aid”. Michai Robertson, lead finance negotiator for a bloc of island states, tells Politico: “It’s just a question of logic. Why is there this pressure to push it back to this institution that we need to reform that was created in the 40s by mostly colonial powers at the time?”

Elsewhere, Reuters reports that US president Joe Biden’s administration on Wednesday announced $3.5bn in grants for projects “to protect the ageing US power grid from extreme weather and fires and to connect transmission systems with more electricity from renewable energy sources”.

UK treasury officials are pushing chancellor Jeremy Hunt to increase fuel duty for the first time in more than a decade, according to the Daily Telegraph. It reports: “Treasury analysts have told Hunt that raising fuel duty by at least 2p is needed to claw back £5bn the exchequer is losing each year after Rishi Sunak, who was then chancellor, cut fuel duty by 5p in March 2022. Officials have presented Mr Hunt with the plan ahead of the autumn statement on 22 November…Only last month, the prime minister said the UK is a “nation of drivers” and “all too often drivers feel under attack” when he extended the ban on new petrol vehicles to 2035 as well as other measures to appease motorists. The Telegraph understands that 19 Tory MPs signed a survey on Wednesday stating they wanted the chancellor to cut fuel duty, while 28 said they wanted another freeze.” A Treasury spokesperson refused to comment. [Successive Conservative prime ministers have frozen fuel duty since 2010, causing UK emissions to be 7% higher than they otherwise would have been.]

Elsewhere, Reuters reports that Greenpeace has lost a legal challenge against the UK government’s decision to authorise new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, with the High Court saying the decision was lawful on Thursday. Nation Cymru reports that Conservative members of the Welsh parliament have been criticised after posing for photographs with people holding anti net-zero banners.

US oil giant Exxon Mobil is considering joining a UN-led pact that would require disclosing more details of its global methane output, two people familiar with the matter tell Reuters. The newswire says: “The largest US oil producer is in discussions to join the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership (OGMP), an initiative coordinated by the UN and comprising nearly 100 companies that pump more than one-third of global oil and gas, the people said. OGMP members report their methane emissions using a standardised, measurement-based methodology designed to boost transparency and encourage companies to fix leaks or otherwise cut output of the powerful greenhouse gas.” Reuters adds that Exxon’s consideration of the pact follows its $60bn purchase of US shale giant Pioneer Natural Resources, which is already an OGMP member. It says: “One of the sources told Reuters Exxon felt it needed to join the OGMP because of the Pioneer deal.” Exxon declined to comment.

Separately, Reuters also reports that dozens of countries – including China, India and the US – are being asked to commit to a global pledge that would require at least a 68% reduction in air conditioning-related emissions by 2050. The “Global Cooling Pledge” is set to be announced at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, according to Reuters. It adds: “The COP28 Presidency held by the United Arab Emirates is leading the pledge alongside the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Cool Coalition.”

The Bank of China, a Chinese majority state-owned commercial bank, has listed its first batch of green bonds linked to the belt and road initiative (BRI) on the Nasdaq Dubai exchange, reports the People’s Daily. The Communist party-backed newspaper adds that the total value of the bonds listed reached $770m and will be used for green projects in BRI host countries. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post carries a comment piece by Jianyu Zhang, advisor at the BRI International Green Development Coalition, and Kevin Gallagher, a professor at Boston University. They write that there was a clear ask from attendees of the BRI forum held in Beijing to “please continue this productive finance in energy and infrastructure” but also for “more due diligence to prevent and mitigate risk”, which they note the new “green investment and finance partnership will address”. Meanwhile, energy news outlet IN-EN.cn interviews Zhang Jianhua, director of the national energy administration, who says that international cooperation on energy is a “key” element of the BRI. Climate Home News reports on the BRI’s “green reboot”.

Separately, Bloomberg writes that the EU will convene leaders from “around 20 countries” next week in an effort to “enhance its global infrastructure plan aimed at competing with China”, in a forum that includes panels on green energy, critical raw materials and other key topics. Reuters reports that California governor Gavin Newsom’s visit to China next week will focus on climate cooperation, and that he is expected to sign a new memorandum of understanding with Guangdong province on climate issues. The state news agency Xinhua reports that President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the China-Russia energy business forum and reiterated that China is “willing to work together with Russia to build a high-level partnership in energy cooperation”.

Elsewhere, Bloomberg columnist David Fickling writes that China’s return to coal seems to be “short-lived”. Energy news outlet BJX News writes that a report published by the University of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences finds that coal-fired power is still the “dominant source” of power supply in China. Elsewhere, China has pledged to further accelerate the establishment of a power spot market open to including all power sources, reports energy newspaper BJX News. 

Several publications report that climate activist Greta Thunberg joined a protest outside JP Morgan on Thursday to demand the bank stops funding fossil fuel projects, a day after she was charged with a public order offence for attending another London climate protest. BBC News says: “Fossil Free London says JP Morgan has been a major source of funding for fossil fuel projects since the Paris Agreement, when governments agreed to try to limit global average temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.” The Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and the Evening Standard are among those covering the news.

An investigation by Der Spiegel has uncovered “western involvement” in enabling Russia’s new gas extraction and liquefaction project in Siberia, Arctic LNG-2,. The German outlet alleges that the involvement included French energy giant TotalEnergies, with a 10% stake, and the former German company Linde, now headquartered in Ireland, with both playing “pivotal roles”. Even after the sanctions which followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, companies were striving to deliver the final materials to Russian construction sites, claims the outlet. Der Spiegel alleges that the “technology from Germany made a Russian prestige project possible”. ZDF also covers the story, quoting Svitlana Romanko from the Ukrainian non-governmental organisation Razom We Stand, which advocates for a complete oil and gas embargo against Russia: “It is shocking that, despite the insidious Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014, companies continued to collaborate with firms in Russia”. Der Standard and Le Monde have revealed other details, too, in the joint investigation. EurActiv carries a comment piece on the revelations by Oleh Savytskyi from Razom We Stand and Zoe Reiter, the co-founder of Anti-Corruption Data Collective. In addition, Reuters reports that Germany is building up liquified “natural” gas (LNG) import terminals. 

Meanwhile, Süddeutsche Zeitung reports that the German government has approved an additional €600m for the establishment of Swedish firm Northvolt’s battery factory, in an effort “to strengthen Germany’s transition toward a sustainable automotive industry”. The newspaper says that Northvolt plans to create 3,000 jobs and the annual production of batteries for one million electric cars. 

A team of journalists at the Financial Times has published an interactive feature examining how the UK countryside is “on the brink of the biggest upheaval since modern farming practices transformed the nation in the middle of the 20th century” amid policies to encourage farmers to use their land to plant trees and restore biodiversity. The feature includes new analysis examining “what it would take for the UK agriculture and forestry industries, as well as other land uses, to get to net-zero by 2050”. The FT says: “To even get close, almost a quarter of UK farmland will need to shift to other uses, the study finds. This would benefit nature, but also lead to significant changes in the amount and type of food produced.”

An editorial in the Guardian focuses on the need to protect the UK’s iconic trees, in the wake of the felling of the famous Sycamore Gap tree near Hadrian’s Wall in north-east England. It says: “Saplings cannot replace mature trees. Quite apart from the sentimental attachment that people feel towards older specimens, they are often more resilient. Large numbers of trees in cities worldwide are dying; it will take the commitment of residents as well as councils to ensure they are properly maintained. And it takes decades for urban trees to offset the carbon emissions required to grow, plant and maintain them.”

The Wall Street Journal has an editorial with a critical interpretation of a recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) warning that much investment will be needed in electricity grids to ready them for net-zero. It says: “Where are the materials going to come from? The report doesn’t say, but the most likely answer is China, which dominates global copper, steel and aluminium production, owing to its lax environmental regulation and low labour costs. Over the past 20 years, primary aluminium production has increased ninefold in China while declining 68% in the US. Metals manufacturing takes massive amounts of power, and coal accounts for 60% of China’s electric generation. In other words, the IEA’s path to a net-zero grid would involve emitting a lot more CO2, even assuming it wasn’t a political nonstarter, which it is.”

A new study finds that a marine heatwave in the eastern Bering Sea in 2018-19 played a key role in the rapid decline of the snow crab population, with more than 10bn snow crabs lost in the area over 2018-21. Using survey data and a population dynamics model, researchers examine potential drivers for the collapse of the snow crab population. They find that the elevated temperatures increased the crabs’ calorific needs and this, combined with the shrinking of their habitat range, led to mass starvation. The researchers postulate that the mass die-off “appears to be one of the largest reported losses” of sea creatures to a marine heatwave.

According to new research, tropical cyclones in the north Atlantic Ocean this century are intensifying at rates nearly 30% higher than they were a few decades earlier. A researcher uses data from the US National Hurricane Center and statistical analyses to determine the rates at which wind speeds intensified for hurricanes dating back to 1971. She finds that in the “modern era”, the likelihood of a hurricane intensifying by at least 50 knots in 24 hours is about the same as a hurricane intensifying by that amount in 36 hours over the period of 1971-90. This indicates that “intensification rates have already changed as anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have warmed the planet and oceans”, she writes.