Federal regulators on the US Federal Electricity Regulatory Commission (FERC) have approved a “long-awaited rule to make it easier to transmit renewable energy such as wind and solar power to the electric grid”, the Associated Press reports. It says the 1,300-page rule, on transmission grid planning and cost allocation, has been under development for two years and aims to boost grid resilience to extreme weather, cope with rising demand and accelerate construction of new lines. The New York Times says the rule marks “the biggest changes in more than a decade to the way US power lines are planned and funded” and “could boost wind and solar power”. It explains: “The new federal rule…requires grid operators around the country to identify needs 20 years into the future, taking into account factors like changes in the energy mix, the growing number of states that require wind and solar power and the risks of extreme weather. Grid planners would have to evaluate the benefits of new transmission lines, such as whether they would lower electricity costs or reduce the risk of blackouts, and develop methods for splitting the costs of those lines among customers and businesses.” The newspaper adds: “It could take years for the rule to have an effect, and the commission could face legal challenges from states concerned about higher costs.” Reuters notes that the Biden administration has a target of decarbonising the grid by 2035. E&E News says the rule was approved in a 2-1 vote with “Mark Christie, the lone Republican, voic[ing] strong opposition”. A New York Times feature begins: “The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission may be the most important climate agency you’ve never heard of.” The Washington Post says: “The nation’s power grid is overwhelmed. New rules aim to boost construction.” Bloomberg also has the story.

In related news, the Hill reports comments from Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer that it would be “virtually impossible” to reach a deal on permitting reform for energy projects. It explains: “Democrats have sought to expand the power grid as part of an effort to boost renewable energy, while Republicans have been more focused on speeding up all types of infrastructure projects – and especially bolstering fossil fuels.” Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports: “A large group of Republican attorneys general on Monday took legal action against the Biden administration and California over new emissions limits for trucks.” Separately, the Guardian reports that presidential candidate Donald Trump has pledged “to immediately halt offshore wind energy projects ‘on day one’ of a new term as US president”.

Three children have been rescued from mud in the aftermath of severe flash floods that have killed more than 300 people in Afghanistan, CNN reports. It says: “This latest natural disaster comes after drought in Afghanistan, and is being seen as an example of a climate crisis hitting those who have least contributed to rising global temperatures.” It quotes the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the country saying the floods “are a stark reminder of Afghanistan’s vulnerability to the climate crisis”. The Associated Press says: “The latest disaster came on the heels of a previous one, when at least 70 people died in April from heavy rains and flash floods in the country.” 

Meanwhile in Brazil, Reuters reports that the death toll from recent floods has reached 147, with several rivers and lakes in the region reaching their highest ever level. Another Reuters article is headlined: “Persistent Brazil floods raise spectre of climate migration.” It notes that, with half a million displaced people, the disaster “could touch off one of Brazil’s biggest cases of climate migration in recent history”. (BusinessGreen says separate findings from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre annual report show some 26 million people – the third highest on record – were displaced by floods, storms, wildfires and earthquakes last year.) BBC News says rivers in Brazil are on the rise again after more heavy rains over the weekend. It adds: “The flooding has been caused by torrential rains which started at the end of April. Meteorologists say that the beginning of May has been the wettest that Porto Alegre has experienced in the past 63 years. Researchers at ClimaMeter, who study weather extremes, have said that the cyclical rains this area is prone to have become more intense due to climate change.” A Bloomberg comment by columnist Juan Pablo Spinetto says the floods in Brazil show Latin American countries are “severely vulnerable to extreme weather events”. He adds that “while more environmentally conscious leaders…climate denial and indifference continue to resonate in certain political and business circles”. In the US, CNN reports that the south was facing the threat of flash floods.

An intense wildfire could reach the town of Fort Nelson in British Columbia, the Associated Press reports, with drought conditions in the Canadian province having persisted since last year and with no rain forecast. The newswire continues: “The blaze is one of several out-of-control wildfires in Western Canada threatening communities in provinces such as Alberta and Manitoba.” The Guardian notes that Canada saw a record number of wildfires in 2023. Bloomberg says that rain “in the heart of the Canadian oil-sands region is reducing the threat of a wildfire that prompted an evacuation alert on Friday”. A second Associated Press article says smoke from Canadian wildfires “has prompted health warnings across the Upper Midwest [of the US] and Montana for the second year in a row”. It adds: “Loretta Mickley, co-leader of Harvard University’s Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling Group, said her group did papers in 2013 and 2015 looking at fire activity and ecosystems with an eye toward the future. She said increasing fire activity is consistent with a warming climate.” The New York Times reports: “Air pollution from wildfires in the northern regions of the US has worsened over the past decade as a result of warming temperatures and drought, experts said.” However, it notes that poor quality in the US was “unlikely to be as bad as last summer”.

The Irish Star previews Pope Francis’s three-day climate summit hosted by the Vatican this week by noting that he has said that rising temperatures are bringing the planet “near breaking point”. The Catholic News Agency says the meeting, running from 15-17 May, will “featur[e] a series of roundtable discussions and culminat[e] in the signing of a new international protocol [on ‘planetary climate resilience’] that will be submitted to the UN”. It adds: “The protocol will be ‘fashioned along the lines of the Montreal Protocol’ and will ‘provide the guidelines for making everyone climate resilient’, the program states.”

Xinhua reports that China’s “new energy vehicles” (NEV) production in April totalled 870,000 units, up 35.9% year-on-year, while sales reached 850,000 units, up 33.5%, according to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). Finance outlet Yicai covers data published by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showing that passenger car sales in China decreased 5.7% year-on year in April, after consumers adopted a “wait-and-see approach” as prices fluctuated in the domestic auto market – but NEV cars bucked the trend. State newswire China News reports that the “first large-capacity sodium-ion battery energy storage station” in China has been completed and put into operation. Xinhua reports that China has “successfully developed” its “first 100-kilogram class vehicle-mounted liquid hydrogen system”, a new “breakthrough” in transportation. 

Meanwhile, state-run newspaper China Daily quotes Wang Yi, vice-chairman of China’s national expert panel on climate change, saying recent China-US climate talks sent a signal of the “sustained momentum of [bilateral] cooperation”. State-run newspaper China Youth Daily covers comments by foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin that the US “expresses willingness to strengthen cooperation with China in addressing climate change while…promoting the [narrative of] so-called excess capacity”. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reports that, according to an announcement on the Ministry of State Security’s WeChat account, two foreign organisations have allegedly “stolen environmental data” from China under the guise of “research” and “environmental protection”. 

Separately, a Xinhua feature argues that emerging clean-tech industries in China are “rising” because of the country’s “steadfast commitment to the path of green and low-carbon development”. Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily carries a commentary under the nom-de-plume Zhong Caiwen, which is likely linked to the party’s Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission, saying that the US pushes arguments about  “over-capacity” to protect its own “excess low-end production capacity”, adding that “China was the first country to define a national strategy for the development of NEVs…compared to the Western automotive industry, which has been hampered by difficulties making cognitive and strategic shifts, as well as by petrochemicals interest groups”. Guangming Daily, another party-affiliated newspaper carries a commentary which says China’s industrial policy “helps move the transformation of the manufacturing industry towards green, low-carbon and sustainable development”. Finally, the state-run newspaper Economic Daily publishes a commentary arguing that the rapid growth of China’s new energy industry is “not blind expansion”, but is based on the “urgent need to reduce global carbon emissions”.

EU rules that will cut carbon dioxide emissions from trucks and require new heavy-duty vehicles emissions to fall 90% by 2040 received final approval from member states on Monday, Reuters reports. It says the rules will mean manufacturers have to sell “a large share of fully CO2 free trucks – including electric vehicles and those running on hydrogen fuels”. Interim emissions reduction targets for new sales will be 45% by 2030 – up from an existing goal of 30% – and 65% by 2035, it says. The newswire adds that trucks are responsible for a quarter of road transport emissions in the bloc. It notes: “In Monday’s vote, only Italy, Poland and Slovakia opposed the policy, while the Czech Republic abstained, an EU official told Reuters. To win Germany’s backing, EU countries last month added a preamble to the law which said the European Commission would consider developing rules in future to count trucks running on CO2 neutral fuels towards the targets.” In other EU news, Reuters says that five Polish farmers have gone on hunger strike “over European Union environmental regulations they say are driving them out of business”.

Heat-related deaths per 100,000 people in Europe have risen by 31% between 2003-12 and 2013-2022, the Daily Telegraph says, covering a new Lancet report. The newspaper continues: “‘Climate change is here, in Europe, and it kills,’ the 2024 Europe Report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change said.” It adds that new diseases are spreading, the hayfever season is starting earlier and “risky hours for exercise have been expanding into hours beyond the hottest part of the day”.

The leaders of four major charities have accused every political party in the UK of failing to tackle the crisis affecting the country’s natural environment in a joint comment for the i newspaper, says a news story on the paper’s frontpage. Hilary McGrady, Beccy Speight, Craig Bennett and Darren Moorcroft, the heads of the National Trust, RSPB, The Wildlife Trusts and Woodland Trust, respectively, co-write in their article: “Without action to restore nature to help us adapt to climate change now, future governments will have to grapple with the escalating consequences for all of us, from plummeting food production to property damage from increased flooding.” Separately, BusinessGreen reports: “A group of over 30 Conservative parliamentarians have today backed wide-ranging proposals to boost tree-planting rates and expand woodland across the UK, as the tussle over which environmental policies will make it into the main parties’ manifestos intensifies.”

UK prime minister Rishi Sunak is to set out his plans today for improving food security and reducing reliance on imports, Reuters reports. The newswire notes: “Britain’s ability to feed itself is set to be reduced by nearly a tenth this year as farmers across the country reel from one of the wettest winters on record, non-profit think tank ECIU said on Monday.” In other news from the UK, the Guardian reports on the Net Zero Teesside project to build a new gas-fired power station fitted with carbon capture and storage technology to capture up to 95% of its emissions. It explains: “According to evidence submitted to the government, even if the project’s claims for its carbon capture and storage facility prove accurate, the gas power station would still be responsible for more than 20m tonnes of carbon pollution over its lifetime.” This figure includes upstream emissions from the extraction and transportation of the gas needed to fuel the plant, the newspaper says.

Separately, BusinessGreen reports on new recommendations from the Confederation of British Industry under the headline: “CBI: ‘Ambitious’ tax reforms can help UK achieve net-zero and drive £57bn in green growth.” It also carries a comment from CBI chief Rain Newton-Smith saying: “Smarter taxation can help the UK reclaim its lost ambition for green growth.” Elsewhere, the Daily Telegraph reports: “Plans for a large nuclear power station on the Welsh island of Anglesey risk being derailed by government rules that will add an estimated £20bn to the national debt, insiders have warned.” Meanwhile, the Times says Ardesier port near Inverness has secured £100m in government-backed loans to redevelop as a hub for offshore wind. Another Times article says a “green hydrogen” facility is being planned on the site of the soon-to-close Grangemouth refinery near Falkirk.

In the New Statesman, the UK opposition Labour party’s shadow climate minister Kerry McCarthy says the upcoming general election “will be the most crucial yet when it comes to climate change”. She writes: “The choice is between Conservative climate delayers and deniers and a Labour government which can deliver the biggest investment in home-grown clean energy in British history.” McCarthy continues: “I’ve been incredibly disappointed by the Conservatives’ decision to opt for culture wars over climate consensus. Cross-party collaboration is crucial, as the Conservatives’ net-zero tsar Chris Skidmore noted when he resigned as an MP in January.” She adds: “[A]s we see a global commitment at COP28 to ‘transition away from fossil fuels’, the [Conservative] UK government has doubled down, committing instead to drilling every last drop of oil in the North Sea, watering down climate targets and blocking the roll-out of home-grown solar and onshore wind projects: the cheapest, cleanest forms of new energy. What message does this send to countries looking to the UK for leadership?” McCarthy concludes: “The world is at a critical juncture and the time for complacency has long passed. Labour is ready to deliver change, and it’s time we got the chance to do it.”

In the Financial Times, deputy opinion editor Miranda Green writes: “[Conservative prime minister] Rishi Sunak is languishing in the polls, after watering down net-zero policies and seeing England’s rivers and coasts despoiled by sewage. And the Tory party may have to count the cost in rural regions that have always been a deep shade of blue – a swath of voters is jumping ship, attracted by the pro-nature pitch of the Green party.” She continues: “Analysts have started to spot a pattern in British Election Study data, noting that Tory to Green switchers are over-represented in the east and south of England.” In related news, BusinessGreen reports on a Conservative councillor in Gloucester defecting to the Greens.

In the New York Times, independent journalist Jonathan Mingle says that utility firms across the country are “predicting a dizzying surge in power demand from new industrial facilities, electric vehicles and, most of all, the data centres that store our digital photos and will enable large-language models for artificial intelligence”. Mingle continues: “To keep the lights on, many utility companies are proposing to build dozens of new power plants that burn natural gas…There is a better way. But to get there, legislators will need to overhaul the incentives driving utilities to double down on natural gas, so that they can turn a profit without cooking the planet.” He explains: “The real reason the utilities want to build these plants is quite simple: The more stuff they build, the more money they make. Regulators let utilities charge their customers enough money to cover what they spend on assets like combustion turbines and wires, plus a generous rate of return (up to 10%) for their investors. This long-standing arrangement incentivises power providers to build expensive things whether society needs them or not, in lieu of lower-cost, cleaner options, and to invoke their duty to keep the lights on as a post hoc rationalisation.” Mingle concludes: “The US has very little chance of reining in its emissions without investor-owned utilities putting their expertise and deep resources to work. We can’t build a carbon-free energy system without them – or without regulators and lawmakers willing to compel them to accelerate, rather than postpone, the clean energy transition.” The Daily Telegraph, meanwhile, gives space to climate-sceptic fossil fuel industry veteran David Blackmon to write under the headline: “Soaring demand from power-hungry AI is derailing Biden’s green energy transition.”

“Green grabbing” – the large-scale appropriation and control of (undesignated) public lands, both formally legal and illicit, for the development of wind and solar photovoltaic power – is having a large impact on the Brazilian landscape, new research suggests. The research finds that, from 2000 to 2021, global investors and owners, mainly from Europe, were involved in 78% of wind and 96% of solar photovoltaic parks, occupying 2,148 km2 and 102 km2 of land, respectively. The researchers say: “We conclude that green grabbing is a persistent, critical phenomenon in Brazil, requiring transparency and vigilant monitoring of land claims and tenure modifications.”