The American Petroleum Institute (API) and environmental groups are both taking legal action against US president Joe Biden’s decision to “severely restrict offshore drilling”, the Financial Times reports. According to the newspaper, the US interior department unveiled plans to hold just three offshore lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico over 2025-29. The newspaper reports: “The record-low number of planned sales in nearly a half century of federal offshore leasing was a fraction of those in an original proposal for 47 made under former president Donald Trump.” It continues: “The lawsuit from the American Petroleum Institute, a lobby group, accused the US government of using ‘every tool at its disposal’ to restrict access to resources in federal waters. It said it needed to act to prevent consumers from having to rely on foreign supplies and safeguard their energy security…Separately, environmental groups argued in their own legal action that the Biden administration failed to adequately consider the public health impacts on frontline communities by approving lease sales. Earthjustice, an environmental group, said it is concerned the lease sale programme would jeopardise the health of already overburdened communities.” The Hill notes that 2024 is set to be the first year in nearly 50 years without an offshore lease sale. It adds: “The Inflation Reduction Act requires the administration to lease at least 60m acres for offshore gas and oil development on top of its offshore wind leases.”

In other US news, the Financial Times reports that American oil and gas company Diamondback Energy has agreed to buy out one of its competitors, Endeavor Energy Resources. The newspaper notes that the combined company will produce 816,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. According to Reuters, the company will be the third-largest oil and gas producer in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, behind Exxon Mobil and Chevron. The Guardian adds: “The merger frenzy has been prompted in part by higher oil prices since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago in early 2022. Companies are rushing to use their huge profits to increase output, despite analysis by the International Energy Agency (IEA) that said new fossil fuel developments would push the world beyond the safe limits of global heating. The quickest way to increase output is to buy rivals with rights to proven reserves. The spate of acquisitions has included deals by US super majors. In October, Chevron agreed a $53bn (£42bn) deal to buy Hess, while ExxonMobil agreed to buy the shale group Pioneer Natural Resources for $59.5bn (£47bn).” Forbes reports that shares of Diamondback have risen since the merger. Separately Reuters reports that US oil output from top shale-producing regions will rise in March to its highest level in four months. The newswire continues: “Oil output in the Permian basin, the largest US shale field spread across West Texas and New Mexico, was due to rise by about 14,000bpd [barrels per day] to 6.1m bpd, the second highest monthly output on record after November, the Energy Information Administration said.”

Elsewhere, the Guardian reports that “certified natural gas – or methane gas that is purportedly produced in a low-emissions manner” is a “dangerous greenwashing scheme”, according to a letter from a group of “progressive senators” to federal regulators on Monday. According to the newspaper, the gas sector has “long branded itself as climate-friendly, noting that when burned, the fuel generates less planet-heating carbon dioxide than other fossil fuels”. However, it adds that “gas – called ‘natural gas’ by fossil fuel interests – is made of methane, a greenhouse gas 80 times more planet-heating than carbon dioxide in the short term”. It continues: “Amid increasing public concern about gas usage and the climate crisis, a new industry of third-party gas ‘certifiers’ has cropped up. These companies develop standards that they use to proclaim that certain producers are reducing emissions from their fracking wells, pipelines and storage facilities, and therefore generating gas sustainably…Gas certifiers’ standards have not appeared to stand up to closer scrutiny.” Senators are now demanding the Federal Trade Commission to investigate gas certification processes, according to the newspaper. It adds: “They also call for the agency to issue guidance for third-party natural gas certification regimes in its revised Green Guides, which are set to be released this year.” The Hill says: “The senators charged that by simply calling gas ‘natural’ or describing it as a ‘bridge’ between dirtier fuels and renewables, the industry was making deceptive claims about its role in warming the climate. They framed the effort to portray it as ‘certified’ or ‘responsible’ as a further step down this line – and argued it presented a ‘brazen conflict of interest’.” Elsewhere, Reuters reports that “dozens of former officials from the past two Republican US administrations on Monday urged Congress to reverse the Biden administration’s pause on approvals of liquefied natural gas exports, saying the shipments promote global stability”. 

There have been more than 1,000 “huge leaks” of methane from landfill sites since 2019, the Guardian reports, citing analysis by Kayrros. The newspaper notes that landfills emit methane when organic waste decomposes in the absence of oxygen, adding that decomposing waste is responsible for around 20% of human-caused methane emissions. It continues: “Analysis of global satellite data from around the world shows the populous nations of south Asia are a hotspot for these super-emitter events, as well as Argentina and Spain, developed countries where proper waste management should prevent leaks…A total of 1,256 methane super-emitter events occurred between January 2019 and June 2023, according to the new data. Pakistan, India and Bangladesh lead the list of nations with the most large leaks, followed by Argentina, Uzbekistan and Spain.” Separately, the Guardian reports that Delhi, the capital city of India, has had at least 124 “super-emitter events” from city landfills since 2020. It continues: “The rubbish dumps, located in the neighbourhoods of Ghazipur, Bhalswa and Okhla, are where more than 10,000 tonnes of Delhi’s waste ends up every day…Due to the widespread culture of cooking using fresh produce, an unusually high proportion of the waste generated in India is ‘wet waste’, such as food scraps and vegetable peelings. More than 50% of the rubbish dumped daily in Ghazipur, Bhalswa and Okhla is biodegradable. With no strictly implemented system of rubbish segregation in Delhi – a city of 32 million people – the wet waste is mostly unsegregated and left to rot.”

“More than a fifth of the world’s migrating species are at risk of going extinct as a result of climate change and human encroachment,” Reuters reports, covering the findings of the United Nation’s first-ever report on migrating animals. The newswire continues: “Of the 1,189 species covered by a 1979 UN convention to protect migratory animals, 44% have seen numbers decline, and as many as 22% could vanish altogether, the report added. The numbers were based on assessments and data provided by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as well as the Living Planet Index, which collates population numbers for more than 5,000 species from 1970 onwards.” BBC News reports that the decline is being driven by “excessive hunting and killing of animals, habitat destruction, climate change and the expansion of towns and cities bringing noise and light pollution”. The Guardian adds: “As much as 97% of sharks, rays and sturgeons on the list are facing a high risk of extinction, with populations declining by 90% since the 1970s.” The Hill, Yale E360, the Associated Press, BusinessGreen, Axios and New Scientist also cover the report.

Members of the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) have written a letter to energy secretary Claire Coutinho, asking the government for more details on the costs and benefits of small nuclear reactors, the Times reports. The paper continues: “The MPs have urged the government to set out the contribution that small modular reactors are expected to make in gigawatts to the electricity generation mix by 2035 and the readiness for deployment of the designs that were selected to compete for funding, given that none is yet commercially available or licensed by any nuclear regulator. The government also has been asked to what extent will the cost of constructing and operating small modular reactors be borne by electricity consumers and if the amount that bill-payers are asked to contribute will be capped. The MPs have given the government a deadline of 21 March to respond to their concerns.” The Guardian reports that the committee, which is made up of MPs, “said that ministers’ approach to developing factory-built nuclear power plants ‘lacks clarity’ and their role in hitting a goal of moving the grid to clean energy by 2035 was unclear”. The piece is headlined: “Planned UK nuclear reactors unlikely to help hit green target, say MPs.” BusinessGreen reports that the government’s recently published civil nuclear roadmap sets an ambition for the UK to have up to 24 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear capacity by 2050. However, the EAC says that based on current politics, the UK may have as little as 12GW by mid-century, the outlet adds.

“Later this month, the first of the roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ships” ordered by Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer BYD will land in the Netherlands and Germany, reports Nikkei Asia, carrying “more than 5,000 EVs”. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post says that Chinese scientists have developed a “calcium-based battery” which could be “cheaper and safer than lithium-ion batteries”. Meanwhile, the state-run China Energy News reports that in 2023, the sales revenue of industries related to the “new three” – EVs, lithium-ion batteries and solar cells – increased by 22% year-on-year. The Wall Street Journal says that China has emerged as the predominant force across every phase of the long, complex manufacturing process for solar panels, calculating that “China can make solar panels 44% cheaper than the US can”. Meanwhile, the South China Morning Post reports that exporters of “certain carbon-intensive products” have six more months to establish systems to “collect, calculate and report emissions data to help their European customers meet disclosure requirements” for the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanisms (CBAM), with one expert saying the process “can be overwhelming and burdensome for Chinese exporters in the short term”.

Separately, another Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article reports that China’s rapid expansion of renewable energy is gaining momentum, with analysts now anticipating the country’s greenhouse gas emissions will “peak earlier than anticipated – possibly as soon as this year”. The article cites analysis for Carbon Brief, by Lauri Myllyvirta of the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), finding that “coal-fired generation – which accounts for 70% of overall emissions for [China] – is set to decline in the years to come”. Reference News summarises the WSJ reporting, in an article reshared by state broadcaster CCTV. Caixin publishes an explainer of China’s progress in spot power market reforms, which says “unifying the power market system…could hedge against growing external risks and dramatically reduce China’s carbon emissions”. Finally, the state news agency Xinhua carries a commentary by a researcher at the Xi Jinping centre for the study of socialist thought with Chinese characteristics in the new era, who writes that the concept of “new-type industrialisation” includes a need to “strengthen the role of scientific and technological innovation in supporting the development of green and low-carbon industry”.

“The quest to buy prime assets in the US Permian Basin resembles a game of musical chairs,” says the Financial Times Lex column, commenting on the latest merger between two American oil and gas companies. The paper continues: “Large acquisition targets have become scarce commodities. One fewer seat remains. On Monday, Diamondback Energy swooped in to buy Endeavor Energy Resources for $26bn, including debt…The Midland-based company is acquiring a high-quality asset that will transform it into the third-largest producer in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico. The two companies combined produced 816,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day during the fourth quarter of last year, behind Exxon and Chevron.” The column concludes: “Diamondback has snagged a chair of its own. That means the music can only play so long for the remaining shale consolidators such as ConocoPhillips.” Also commenting on the merger, Bloomberg columnist Javier Blas writes that Diamondback has “done a spectacular job of expanding and buying rivals”, noting that “on an oil-equivalent basis, Diamondback is targeting 2025 production roughly 1,000 times higher than when it was founded less than two decades ago”. However, Blas notes that the merger “will saddle Diamondback with a mountain of debt”. He concludes: “The Permian has a lot to give, but companies need to pace themselves by slowing production growth now, and focusing on returning money to shareholders.” In other US comment, author Joel Kotkin writes in the Daily Telegraph under the headline: “Biden’s climate change reparations will bankrupt America.” The article – apparently railing against plans to make companies report on greenhouse gas emissions including in their supply chains – fails to describe any plans for “climate change reparations”.

In other comment, freelance journalist Arthur Neslen writes in the Guardian about “investor-state dispute settlements (ISDS)”, which he calls “litigation terrorism”.  Neslen writes: “ISDS is a corporate tribunal system, where a panel of unelected lawyers decides whether a company is owed compensation if the actions of national governments leave its assets ‘stranded’. In hearings, which are often held behind closed doors, ISDS documents, claims, awards, settlements – even the content of cases – need not be made public, regardless of any public-interest considerations.” He gives examples including a US-based subsea mineral extraction company using an ISDS panel to sue Mexico for $2.4bn, after the government moved to prevent it dredging off the Pacific coast. He concludes: “What is clear is that ISDS is a colonial zombie apparatus whose useful time, if it had one, has passed. It grew up riding legal shotgun against bids to suborn fossil fuel capitalism to social, national, environmental or human rights concerns. Now its legal guns are turned on any government seeking to meet the Paris climate agreement’s 1.5C target without first paying a multibillion-dollar ransom.” Elsewhere, Clyde Russell – an Asia commodities and energy columnist at Reuters – writes that “Asia’s imports of seaborne thermal coal eased from record highs in January as top buyers China and India saw arrivals ease”. Russell discusses the increase in imports from Japan and South Korea and concludes: “Given that supply from top exporters Indonesia and Australia appears to be holding up, this makes it likely that prices will come under downward pressure.” 

Introducing green roofs in cities can have a cooling effect, leading to lower energy use for aircon, according to new research conducted in Seoul, South Korea. Green roofs are roofs on buildings that are covered by a range of plants, the paper explains. To investigate how green roofs could help to address urban heat and air con use, the new study uses a “a comprehensive framework integrating urban climate modelling, urban building energy modelling and statistical analysis with empirical data” using Seoul as a case study. It finds that the cooling effect of urban green roofs can reduce monthly urban building energy use intensity by up to 8%. The authors conclude: “The insights from this research have broad implications for cities around the world experiencing the challenges imposed by urban heat.”