Donald Trump’s administration has issued an order to stop the construction of a major offshore wind project that aimed to power 500,000 homes in New York state, in its latest move against the wind industry, the Associated Press reports. Interior secretary Doug Burgum told the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management yesterday to halt construction on Empire Wind, a fully-approved project headed by the Norwegian energy company Equinor, the newswire says. “He said it needs further review because it appears the Biden administration rushed the approval,” it continues. The Financial Times says the move “marks the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s offensive against the country’s offshore wind sector, which has prompted leading developers, including Shell and TotalEnergies, to reduce or slow down their American ventures”. Another Associated Press story says the US Army Corps of Engineers has decided to fast-track building a protective tunnel around an ageing oil pipeline that runs beneath a channel connecting two Great Lakes, “stoking environmentalists’ fears that the project will escape scrutiny, damage the sensitive region and perpetuate fossil fuel use”.

Elsewhere, E&E News covers a pair of analyses from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) and BloombergNEF finding that the US energy transition will slow, but will not stop entirely, if Trump is successful in repealing climate regulations. Both analyses “project rising renewable electricity generation, even in scenarios where Trump’s deregulatory agenda is successful”, the outlet says. The EIA analysis finds that, under any future policies, coal and gas consumption will fall in the next few decades, but the fossil fuels “are predicted to fare better in scenarios where Trump succeeds in rolling back regulations”, E&E News adds. Reuters reports that more than 100 staff are set to leave the EIA after accepting resignation offers from the Trump administration, putting “crucial energy data at risk”. A separate E&E News story reports that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is appealing a federal judge’s order made yesterday that prevents the agency from blocking $20bn in climate grants. Scientific American recounts “five key climate and space projects that are on Trump’s chopping block”. Bloomberg looks at how Trump’s trade war is “heating up the fight for critical minerals”.

The Times reports that UK prime minister Keir Starmer is offering to align with EU carbon levies as part of efforts to forge closer relations with Brussels, something the newspaper describes as “threatening to drag the UK into a trade stand-off with Trump”. The newspaper says Starmer will host a UK-EU summit next month and is proposing more co-operation with Brussels on the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), a tax applied to certain goods the bloc imports based on their emissions. The Daily Telegraph also has the story and quotes Nick Timothy, a climate-sceptic Conservative MP, claiming the move could drive up energy bills for “millions” of households. Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that China has accused UK politicians of “arrogance, ignorance and a twisted mindset” over its handling of British Steel, which is owned by Chinese company Jingye.

Elsewhere, the Guardian reports on research finding the number of homes overheating in summer has quadrupled to 80% over the past decade. Reuters says the UK’s electricity grid (which does not include Northern Ireland) could experience its lowest-ever demand this summer as “renewables generation and cheap power imports from Europe keep the system well supplied”. BBC News reports that a largescale “battery farm” (energy storage unit) near a West Yorkshire village has been recommended for approval, despite some local concerns about the impact on traffic, fire risk and noise. The Daily Telegraph reports that a UK windfarm is “facing an investigation into claims it overcharged customers to switch off its turbines”. The Daily Telegraph, which routinely attacks net-zero policies, also reports that, according to the head of the Automobile Association (AA), electric vehicles have a breakdown rate that is “slighter higher” than petrol cars. The i newspaper reports that EVs with Chinese parts are to be banned from military sites over spying fears. Politico reports on “worries” that politicians are not doing enough to prepare oil and gas communities for the changes that will be brought by the transition away from fossil fuels.

Separately, the Guardian says the UK is experiencing one of its “worst wildfire seasons on record”, with blazes tearing through protected areas important for wildlife and carbon-rich peat bogs. The newspaper adds that one of the driest Marches in decades combined with higher than average temperatures in April has aided the spread of fires in Abergwesyn Common in Powys, Wales, where a 1,600-hectare fire burned a site home to the area’s last known population of golden plovers, as well as the Mourne mountains in Northern Ireland, which support mall heath butterflies, rove beetles, skylarks and peregrine falcons. The Guardian also reports on a government plan to give ancient and culturally important trees in England new legal protections, shortly after the felling of an ancient oak in north London caused outrage earlier this week.

The leader of the biggest political group in the European parliament has said the EU should scrap its total ban on the sale of new cars with combustion engines after 2035 “to help preserve its vehicle industry”, the FT reports. Manfred Weber, who heads the European People’s party of Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, tells the newspaper that people should be able to buy petrol and diesel cars as long as they pay for the carbon to be offset. [The carbon-offset industry is beset by issues.] It comes after the UK watered down its electric-vehicle targets earlier this month, the newspaper notes. While the UK’s pledge to phase out the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2030 remains in place, the government will now allow companies to sell full hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles until 2035.

Elsewhere, Reuters reports that the EU has cut the paperwork for countries associated with its new anti-deforestation law, which comes into force in December. Euractiv reports that the EU’s energy investment treaty is “under fire” amid new claims against countries from companies.

Making sodium-ion batteries may become “more appealing” in the US as tariffs on China add “uncertainty [around] the supply of materials needed to make lithium-ion batteries”, Bloomberg reports. It adds that “sodium-ion batteries are a way to circumvent [the China-dominated mineral] supply chain” as they “often use hard carbon…for their electrodes”. Donald Trump has “ordered a probe into potential new tariffs” on all US critical minerals imports, Reuters reports, adding that the move is a “major escalation in his dispute with global trade partners and an attempt to pressure industry leader China”. The New York Times examines how “dependent” the US is on China for a broad range of critical minerals. Jens Eskelund, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, has called on China to “revise its industrial policies if it wants to avoid further backlash and build economic ties internationally”, Bloomberg reports. State-run newspaper China Daily publishes an editorial arguing that “dependence” on US energy is “one of the major reasons that the EU is vulnerable to the Trump administration’s pressure tactics”. Another China Daily article quotes new analysis from Moody’s: “China’s role as the world’s leading clean energy manufacturer remains intact despite rising trade tensions and shifting climate policies, thanks to its broad export base, cost competitiveness and technological edge.” (The article also cites recent analysis published by Carbon Brief.)

China Environment News reports that China’s ecology and environment minister, Huang Runqiu, has met with COP30 president André Corrêa do Lago, adding that Huang confirmed China will “fully support Brazil in hosting a successful COP”.

In other China news, BJX News reports that China’s thermal power generation in March dropped 2.3% year-on-year while wind and solar power increased by 8.2% and 8.9%, respectively. Reuters also covers the story, saying China’s total power generation growth rebounded last month after “dipping by 1.3% in the first two months of the year as an unseasonably warm winter weighed on demand”. An unbylined commentary in state news agency Xinhua argues that China’s “new energy industries and green transition…remain important growth drivers”, with “energy conservation and environmental protection” technologies and electric vehicle (EV) sales all posting “double-digit growth” in the first quarter of the year. Securities Times says China’s green transformation of its manufacturing sector is “steadily advancing”, with “significant results” in carbon reduction. Xinhua says that silicon carbide shows “enormous market potential” in fields such as EVs and smart grids. The Communist party-affiliated People’s Daily reports that public security authorities in China are cracking down on “various crimes that damage the ecological environment and endanger biosafety”. The Financial Times carries a “big read” headlined: “Europe helped teach China to make cars. Now the tables are turning.”

Elsewhere, Chinese president Xi Jinping has called for cooperation between China and Malaysia in “future industries such as…[the] green economy”, Xinhua reports. Another Xinhua article says that China and Vietnam have issued a “joint statement” pledging to facilitate “scientific and technological cooperation” in fields such as nuclear energy and “green agriculture”.

In Brazil, wildfire occurrence decreased during the first quarter of this year, as the forest area burnt fell by 70%, following 2024’s record highs, O Globo reports. According to MapBiomas’s wildfire monitoring, from January to March, 913,000 hectares of forests were burnt, accounting for 2.1m fewer hectares burned than last year. The Amazon saw 84% of Brazil’s fires, due to a “historic drought”, the newspaper adds. Meanwhile, La Nación in Argentina investigates the burning of almost 56,000 hectares of forests, pastures and plantations in the Andean Patagonia during the last two summers. A researcher tells the outlet that fires in the region may “double or triple” by the middle of the century due to climate change. La Nación also reports that the Argentinian government has not fulfilled its commitments, made over the past 17 years, to decrease the occurrence and spread of wildfires in the Paraná delta. In Mexico, Excélsior reports that more than 100 forest fires are currently active in the country, spanning more than 28,000 hectares. The newspaper cites Mexico’s national forest commission, which says that 23 states are affected, with Chihuahua and Michoacán being the hardest hit.

Elsewhere, Dialogue Earth reports that climate and environmental change are affecting the mental health of Latin Americans. According to the outlet, people from the region undergo “long-term mental-health challenges”, because of experiencing extreme weather events, plus the loss of natural landscape. The article interviews Carbon Brief’s Yanine Quiroz, who lives in Mexico City.

In other Latin American news, O Globo interviews Helder Barbalho, governor of the Brazilian state of Pará, which will host COP30, who says accommodation and infrastructure will be “ensured” for attendees. Finally, BioBioChile reports that Chile’s climate commitment is “insufficient” to prevent 1.5C of global warming by 2035, according to Climate Action Tracker (CAT). Chile presented its updated climate commitment, or “nationally determined contribution”, in January this year, but has not yet been submitted to the UN climate change convention, the outlet adds.

The Economist has an in-depth report on how the UK government is handling the crisis with British Steel, the Scunthorpe plant owned by Chinese company Jingye, what the causes of the crisis are and whether saving the site represents the best way to boost growth. It says: “British steel producers have faced recurring problems for years. High energy prices have made them less competitive – a problem that has worsened recently because the country is particularly exposed to high gas prices. Heavily subsidised steel from China, which accounts for more than half of the world’s production, is more carbon-intensive. But it is cheap and plentiful. While other countries have thrown money at their steelworks, using subsidies and energy-price controls to prop up struggling producers, those in Britain have been left more vulnerable, and thus prone to underinvestment and low productivity. America’s 25% tariff on steel imports, announced by Trump in February, has compounded the problem.” Elsewhere, the Daily Telegraph provides a platform for climate-sceptic columnist Matthew Lynn to react to the notion that “richer people” could pay more for their energy reported yesterday, saying “Karl Marx would love the idea”.

New research finds that climate projections in climate plans from countries in southern Africa are “often limited” to data on “average changes” in rainfall and temperature, which may “underestimate” other risks, such as sea level rise. The authors analyse how climate projections inform adaptation plans in national communications sent to the UN by 16 southern African countries. They find that climate analysis is “often detached from the adaptation planning section” within these reports.