Donald Trump is “invoking emergency powers” to increase the ability of the US to produce critical minerals “and potentially coal”, according to Bloomberg. The US president has signed an executive order that invokes the Defence Production Act in order to provide financing to domestically process critical minerals and rare-earth elements, the news outlet adds. The order also directs the interior department to use federal land for mineral production and encourages faster permitting for mining and processing projects, it continues. The news outlet describes this as a “direct response to long-held concerns” that China “overwhelmingly controls” the supply of critical minerals, which have many technological applications. Efforts to increase mineral production may include coal, if interior secretary Doug Burgum decides that it falls under the definition of “minerals”, the Hill says. It notes that Trump has “pledged to help the coal industry, which has been on the decline”. 

Trump has also said that he would soon sign a deal with Ukraine that would give the US partial control of the revenue from future natural resource extraction, including critical minerals, Bloomberg reports. In a related and “exclusive” story, the Wall Street Journal reports that Félix Tshisekedi, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), wrote a letter to Trump in early February offering mining opportunities for the US sovereign wealth fund – an entity recently launched by the US president. In exchange for helping him defeat rebel groups in the DRC, Tshisekedi offered Trump a “strategic advantage by securing critical minerals such as cobalt, lithium, copper and tantalum”. DRC is by far the world’s biggest producer of cobalt, a metal that is vital for the manufacture of electric cars, as Carbon Brief’s country profile explains. Meanwhile, the Economist reports on the economic success of Ivory Coast, noting that the country hopes to maintain its growth by expanding its oil production. “Given the impact of climate change, oil-and-gas exploration may not be the best way to keep up future growth,” the article says.

In more US news, interior secretary Burgum has announced steps to open up more of Alaska for oil and gas leasing, as well as lifting restrictions on building a liquified natural gas (LNG) pipeline and mining road, Reuters reports. It notes that this is carrying out Trump’s executive order to “remove barriers to energy development in the state”. US energy secretary Chris Wright tells CNBC that Trump’s push to drill for more oil is driving down fuel price. The article notes that this comes as some fear that the administration’s tariffs “could lead to higher prices and slower economic growth”.

The Washington Post reports that car industry experts think Republican plans to “scrap nearly all federal support for electric vehicles could kneecap the nascent industry”. A Politico article takes a similar stance, noting that “the Trump administration has injected uncertainty into a once-hot electric vehicle market” as the leadership looks “determined” to roll back electric vehicle tax credits and pollution controls on cars. Stocks for electric car charging companies have “plummeted” after the Trump administration paused a programme for building out charging infrastructure, the Financial Times reports. Inside Climate News asks what the growing unpopularity of Tesla means for the US electric car market.

Finally, the Guardian reports that the US has rejected a request by Mexico for special delivery of water for the border city of Tijuana, “alleging shortfalls in sharing by its southern neighbour”. The article says a 1944 treaty governing water allocation from the Rio Grande and Colorado River “has come under growing strain in recent years due to the pressures of the climate crisis”.

The first investment for Great British Energy, the UK’s new state-owned energy company, will be £110m in grants for solar panels and other low-carbon energy supplies for schools, hospitals and community projects, the Financial Times reports. This support will be boosted by funds from UK government departments, bringing the total investment up to around £200m, the newspaper says. The Labour government’s manifesto said GB Energy would be funded with £8.3bn across the current parliament, but this support is “under pressure ahead of a tight spending review that will conclude this June”, the newspaper explains. While GB Energy is intended to generate profit to reinvest into new projects, the article notes that this first round of investments is not expected to bring a return for the company. BusinessGreen says it includes £80m for around 200 schools in England and £100m for nearly 200 healthcare sites – covering “almost a third of NHS trusts”. The i newspaper maps the sites that are set to receive funding. The funds will target areas most in need, including schools in the north of England and West Midlands, according to the Press Association. According to Reuters, the support is intended to help cut energy bills at these sites. Separately, “one of Labour’s biggest donors”, Dale Vince, has told the Press Association that Labour’s clean energy drive will be “undermined” if the government does not cut energy bills by the next election.

Meanwhile, there is continued coverage of the news that Ofgem, the energy regulator, is allowing electricity network companies to spend £4bn on transmission infrastructure, equipment and services before new power lines are approved. The Times says this is part of “plans designed to prevent supply chain shortages derailing Britain’s 2030 green goals”. This streamlined process should mean that infrastructure projects “are ready to break ground as soon as planning approval is granted”, BusinessGreen explains. Separately, the Times reports that prime minister Keir Starmer has been accused of “wilfully misleading the public” over a statement that the government was investing £200m from the UK’s national wealth fund in regenerating the Grangemouth oil refinery. The article says officials have “privately admitted” that they have “no direct control over where the wealth fund invests its money”.

In an “exclusive” frontpage interview with the Guardian, energy secretary Ed Miliband says the government is “absolutely up for the fight” over net-zero. He tells the newspaper that, despite reports of scepticism, Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves are “100% committed” to the climate agenda and he criticises the Conservative party for turning against net-zero. [Earlier this week, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch declared that net-zero was impossible, in a speech factchecked by Carbon Brief.] The Daily Mail reports that Miliband has the highest approval rating of any Labour minister among Labour party members. The newspaper describes him as a “controversial” figure due to his support for climate policies, but says “his popularity among Labour activists could make him almost unsackable”. (The Daily Mail is one of the right-leaning UK newspapers that has kept up a relentless stream of articles attacking Miliband, as captured in Carbon Brief’s analysis of newspaper editorials from 2024.) 

The Sun follows up on its reporting on a “secret Whitehall impact assessment” that, it says, shows the “eye-watering cost of going green”, with comments from “net-zero sceptic” Conservatives saying it “proves what we all knew all along”. [The document in question is not an impact assessment, it is a summary of publicly available evidence at the time.] The Daily Telegraph follows up the Sun’s reporting. The Times has coverage based on the leaked document that contradicts the Sun coverage. It reports: “[T]he paper, dating from 2023, concluded that in the long run the economic consequences of net-zero were ‘likely to be positive” and the negative impact could be mitigated by clear and consistent government policy’.” [Carbon Brief’s Simon Evans has written a thread on Bluesky factchecking the claims made in the Sun’s article. He points out that, among other things, the Sun has misunderstood how GDP is calculated.]

Current “unprecedented” rates of melting on the world’s glaciers threatens the food and water supply of two billion people around the world, according to a UN report covered by the Guardian. It adds that receding glaciers and dwindling snowfall in mountain regions, driven by climate change, is likely to affect two-thirds of all irrigated agriculture in the world. The article explains that more than one billion people live in mountainous regions and, of those in developing countries, up to half already experience food insecurity. “That is likely to worsen, as food production in such regions is dependent on mountain waters, melting snow and glaciers,” the article explains. The report shows that glaciers are “disappearing faster than ever”, with the last three-year period seeing the largest mass loss of ice on record, Reuters reports. The Hindustan Times explains that, according to the World Glacier Monitoring Service, at current melt rates many glaciers in western Canada and the US, Scandinavia, central Europe, the Caucasus, New Zealand and the tropics “will not survive the 21st century”. Euronews says these figures have been released to mark the first ever World Glaciers Day, which the UN is using to “spotlight these icy landscapes which are fast disappearing”. Carbon Brief also covers the report.

China has increased spending on its power grids by about 33% in the first two months of 2025 to absorb more energy from its “world-leading buildout of solar plants”, Bloomberg reports, citing data from the National Energy Administration (NEA). The newswire says the total outlays of $6bn in those two months was “more than double the average increase” last year, but still “below the pace needed” to meet state power utilities’ spending targets. China’s total installed power capacity grew 14.5% in January and February, driven by “significant increases in solar and wind power”, which expanded 43% and 18% respectively year-on-year, according to the state-run newspaper China Daily. The NEA data also showed nuclear and thermal capacity increased by 7% and 4% respectively during this timeframe, according to energy news outlet International Energy Net.

Meanwhile, in a “proposal”, the Chinese Association of Automobile Manufacturers has urged automakers to release their performance report in a “monthly, quarterly and yearly cycle”, rather than “weekly sales charts” to avoid “unhealthy competition through rankings and comparison”, industry media outlet China Energy Net reports. The government has introduced a series of subsidies for the “replacement of old urban buses with new electric ones” to accelerate the “electrification of the public transportation network”, says financial news outlet Yicai. Some Chinese electric bus makers are “scrambling to adjust their Mexican expansion plans”, with the US tariff pause due to expire at the end of this month, business outlet Caixin reports.

Elsewhere, China’s global infrastructure push is “greener than ever”, Semafor reports, as renewable technologies “eclipsed fossil fuels” in all power projects under its Belt and Road Initiative and investments in “solar, wind and biomass energy projects last year” reached the “highest value in absolute terms”. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post says Cuba has received its “first” shipments of Chinese solar equipment, as the “blackout-prone island [aims to reduce] its dependence on imported fossil fuels”. US tariffs will “divert even more Chinese exports” across the world, making “big-ticket items such as electric vehicles, solar panels and steel” a source of “friction”, Bloomberg says.

In other news, China has “not shipped any antimony to European Union countries since October”, following its imposition of export controls on the metal, Reuters says. China has systematically raised subsidies for mineral exploration to “shore up its high-tech supply chain”, the Financial Times reports. Yang Guoliang, a professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Zhao Tengyu, an analyst at the China Telecom Research Institute, write in an opinion piece in China Daily that US tariffs have not contained China’s ability to “lead in technological innovation”.

A study commissioned by the Federation of German Industries (BDI) argues that Germany’s energy transition can be “more efficient” if specific measures are implemented, reducing investment needs by €370bn by 2035 “without jeopardising climate targets”, reports Handelsblatt. The study argues that currently planned investments in renewable energy, power grids and hydrogen go far beyond foreseeable electricity demand, leading to “avoidable additional costs”, explains Süddeutsche Zeitung. Tagesspiegel highlights key recommendations from the study including shifting from “expensive” underground power lines toward more “cost-effective” overhead lines, increasing the share of onshore wind and open-field solar installations over “costly” offshore wind farms and rooftop solar panels, expanding battery and other storage solutions and expanding the role of gas-fired power plants. Der Spiegel quotes one of the study’s authors, Jens Burchardt, commenting that the energy transition could become “more than 20% cheaper over this period, while emissions continue to decline”. Reuters notes that Germany’s current investment plans for expansion and maintenance of the energy system are expected to reach €1.5tn over the next 10 years. 

Meanwhile, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports that the pilot project Carbon2Chem located in Duisburg, Germany, which converts industrial CO2 emissions from Thyssenkrupp Steel into “valuable” methanol, has now entered its final phase with an additional €50m in funding from the German government. Using carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) technology, the facility processes a small portion of the 55,000 tonnes of CO2 emitted daily, transforming it into methanol for potential use as an alternative fuel, explains FAZ. However, the article adds that producing “green” methanol remains “significantly more expensive” than conventional methanol made from fossil fuels. 

Equinor has “weakened its energy transition plan”, citing practical difficulties and shifting political priorities that have hampered its investment in more renewables and low-carbon technologies, Reuters reports. In 2022, the Norwegian oil-and-gas company set out short- and medium-term plans to achieve a 2050 net-zero target, the newswire explains. While Equinor has already abandoned specific renewable energy targets, the article says it has now also scaled back its goals for reducing net carbon intensity from 20% to a range of 15-20% by 2030 and from 40% to 30-40% in 2035.

In related news, Bloomberg reports that German energy company RWE will cut €10bn from its planned investment in green technologies “as its projects face higher investment risks, particularly in the US”. The article notes that RWE is one of the biggest renewable energy companies in the US, but the risks facing such projects have increased since Donald Trump’s election as president. 

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that a “flurry of oil projects from Brazil to Saudi Arabia” are due to come online this year, “providing the biggest infusion of new crude production in more than a decade”, according to data from financial services company Raymond James.

The first new national forest in 30 years is set to be created between the Cotswolds and the Mendip Hills near Bristol, the Times reports. It says the “Western Forest” will cover at least 6,000 acres and involve planting 20m trees in the coming decades, noting that this marks the “first of three new national forests that Labour promised in its election manifesto”. It adds that the forest is “expected to capture 2.5m tonnes of carbon dioxide, helping the country reach net-zero”. BBC News notes that the new forest will also help the government to meet a legally-binding target of achieving 16.5% woodland cover – up from 10% today – in England by 2050. Nearly three-quarters of the planned forest’s area is farmland, according to the Press Association. The newswire says that the Western Forest “will look to integrate trees into the farmed landscape through agroforestry and farm woodlands”. Meanwhile, BusinessGreen reports on polling by WWF that finds more than half of people in the UK “feel the government is not doing enough to protect and restore nature”.

In related news, the latest European Environment Agency (EEA) monitoring report shows that the EU is on track to miss its 2030 carbon sequestration targets for forests, according to Euractiv. The article notes that “ongoing deforestation, land degradation and unsustainable land-use practices highlight the need for a policy shift”.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, world economy editor at the Daily Telegraph, says Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has gone “full Farageist and declared culture war on net-zero”. He notes: “If you are going to repudiate a core position of the Conservative Party – and smash Britain’s cross-party consensus on climate policy – you might wish to avoid claims about decarbonisation that are demonstrably untrue.” Evans Pritchard factchecks Badenoch’s various claims, quoting experts and citing analysis. He concludes: “After reading Mrs Badenoch’s speech three times, I still have no idea what her energy policy is, beyond a vague mood of green catastrophism.” He suggests that her efforts would have been better spent criticising specific aspects of the Labour government’s energy policies, such as the “dysfunctional absolutism” of its plan for clean power by 2030. “While I do not think net-zero is relevant any longer – technology and markets matter more – I find it sad as a Conservative that the party should disown its greatest accomplishment since the second world war for no good reason,” Evans-Pritchard says.

In contrast, an editorial in the Spectator is headlined: “Kemi’s stance on net-zero is courageous – and correct.” It praises Badenoch, who used to work at the magazine, for “confront[ing] her party and the country with uncomfortable truths”. [See Carbon Brief’s article about Badenoch’s speech for a full factcheck.]

Finally, the Sun has an editorial following up on its inaccurate reporting on “the secret Whitehall report confirming net-zero’s ruinous cost”, which it uses to make one of its regular attacks on Labour energy secretary Ed Miliband. [Carbon Brief’s Simon Evans has written a thread on Bluesky factchecking the errors in the Sun’s reporting.]

An article written by a group of current and former employees of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been published anonymously in Environmental Health News due to concerns about retaliation. In it, the employees write about the importance of federal environmental justice programmes under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which are under threat from the Trump administration’s cuts. “We want to offer our first-hand insights about the efficiency and importance of this work. This is not about defending our paychecks. This is about protecting the health of our communities,” they say, adding: “We should work together to demand that the Trump administration restore this critical funding back to the people.” They point to important work being carried out through these grants, including everything from tree planting to providing safe shelters during and after hurricanes. They conclude: “It is a waste of taxpayer dollars for the US government to cancel its agreements with grantees and contractors. It is fraud for the US government to delay payments for services already received. And it is an abuse of power for the Trump administration to block the IRA laws that were mandated by Congress.”

New research explores the “legacy” effect of droughts on plants across the mid- and high-latitudes of the northern hemisphere. Using satellite greenness data and on-the-ground observations, the researchers show that droughts “substantially delay the green-up and leaf unfolding of the next spring, particularly following prolonged events with delayed soil moisture recovery”. These delays are “strongly linked to postdrought temperature, local climate, drought characteristics and reductions in photosynthesis”, the study says. The impact of worsening droughts could therefore counter the expected advances in spring green-up as the world warms, the authors note.