Danish offshore wind developer Ørsted has taken a “£4.6bn hit” after scrapping two projects in the US, in a “significant setback” for America’s renewable energy industry, reports the Times. The decision to cancel the two projects off the coast of New Jersey has wiped billions off the market value of Ørsted, which also operates much of the North Sea’s wind industry, the article states. Rising costs and delays were blamed for the cancellation of the Ocean Wind 1 and 2 projects, with David Hardy, chief executive of Ørsted’s Americas division saying the group had “no choice but to cease development”, the article notes. The company took a 28.4bn Danish krone (£3.3bn) impairment charge to stop development, reports the Guardian. The decision will be a blow to US president Joe Biden’s plan to reach 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind capacity in US waters before 2030, underlining the “deepening financial woes of the sector worldwide”, the article continues. Additionally, says the paper, it casts doubt on Ørsted’s plans to develop a third phase of the Hornsea project in British waters, which would be the single largest windfarm in the world and play a large role in the UK’s ambition of 50GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030. Ørsted’s shares fell 26% on Wednesday, following the announcement of the projects being cancelled due to supply chain disruptions, rising costs and higher interest rates, reports the Financial Times. These challenges have been particularly acute in the US, where the contracts developers sign typically have less protection against inflation and the industry’s supply chain is still in its infancy, the article notes.

According to a top executive at BP, the US offshore wind industry is “fundamentally broken” due to cost pressures and permitting delays, reports Bloomberg. Speaking at an FT conference in London on Wednesday, Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath, BP’s head of gas and low-carbon energy, said “there’s a fundamental reset needed”, the article continues. Dotzenrath said together with BP’s partner Equinor, they are studying options to develop huge projects off the coast of New York, reports Reuters. This comes after the company wrote down $840m of its value, after struggles with offshore wind projects in the state, it adds. Instead of gathering momentum, the industry is now “mired in an existential crisis”, reports the New York Times.

Despite the challenges, the Biden administration is committed to supporting the nascent US offshore wind industry, reports Reuters. The White House and interior department both issued statements backing the sector, reiterating that the expansion of offshore wind is a key pillar of Biden’s plan to decarbonise the US power grid and combat climate change, it adds. White House spokesperson Michael Kikukawa said that “momentum remains on the side of an expanding US offshore wind industry”, reports Axios, citing nearly $8bn in offshore wind investments since Biden signed his signature Inflation Reduction Act. The article quotes him continuing: “From day one, the Biden-Harris Administration has used every available tool to advance the growing American offshore wind industry, and we are seeing the results.”

Pope Francis is to attend the UN’s COP28 climate change conference in Dubai, becoming the first pontiff to participate in such an event, reports the Wall Street Journal. His presence at the conference will be “one of his most significant gestures” drawing attention to the environment, which he has made a signature issue of his pontificate, it adds. The pope has previously released an encyclical titled Laudato Si, considered the highest genre of papal writing, on the topic of the environment, in which he called global warming a major threat to life on the planet, the article continues. Pope Francis told Italy’s state-run RAI television TG1 news that he expects to be in Dubai for COP28 on 1-3 December, reports Reuters. It quotes him saying in an interview with the television show: “We are still in time to stop it. Our future is at stake, the future of our children and our grandchildren. A bit of responsibility is needed.”

The UK’s King Charles will attend the opening ceremony of the COP28 summit, a year after he was advised by Liz Truss’s government not to attend the COP27 summit in Egypt, reports the Guardian. Charles will deliver the opening address at the summit, marking his first major speech on climate change since becoming monarch, it notes. Charles played a major diplomatic role as Prince of Wales in COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, but Downing Street confirmed he would not attend COP27 in 2022 as it was not the “right occasion” , reports Politico. The King will now attend COP28 “at the invitation” of UAE president Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and “at the request” of the UK government, the article notes. It will be the third time that the British monarch, 74, has delivered the opening speech at a COP, having done so at COP26 and COP21 in Paris, reports Reuters. The announcement of his opening speech at COP28 comes as Charles visited the UN office in Nairobi to learn more about the organisation’s environment programme, reports the Press Association. It says the King called for “action, partnership and commitment” to combat the environmental threats facing the planets, as well as speaking about how he has seen the effects of a changing climate including sea level rise and wildfires.

Meanwhile, the EU, US and the United Arab Emirates are “rallying” other governments to join a global deal to triple renewable energy this decade at the upcoming COP28 summit, according to documents shared with Reuters, the newswire reports. The countries are working to recruit others to sign the pledge ahead of the UN climate negotiations in Dubai, with a launch event likely to be held at the start of the summit, it continues. The newswire says a draft letter being sent to governments states that the most important thing nations can do to limit global warming is to triple the world’s renewable energy capacity and quotes it saying: “we have the solutions at hand, and we have already made huge strides in expanding the global renewable energy capacity and becoming more energy efficient”. With just three weeks to go before the COP28 summit, the UAE presidency has also launched a “net-zero transition charter” for companies, in a bid to encourage more firms to align their activities with the goals of the Paris Agreement, reports BusinessGreen. Companies that sign the charter must commit to establishing a headline goal to align their organisation with science-based, 1.5C-aligned net-zero goals, alongside interim targets, it adds. Separately, Irish minister for the environment Eamon Ryan has told leaders at a pre-COP meeting that a new global levy on aviation and maritime companies should be considered as part of loss and damage funding for countries most affected by climate change, reports the Business Post. He also made the case for the World Bank to be the administrator of any agreed climate loss and damage funding, arguing that it would be a much quicker solution than setting up a new institution, the paper adds. Following the pre-COP event in Abu Dhabi this week, UK energy security and net-zero minister Graham Stuart has said the chance of a good outcome from the summit has increased despite a “fiendishly difficult” geopolitical backdrop, reports the National. It says Stuart told the paper that there was now hope of clinching a decision on everything from fossil fuels to climate adaptation that parties could live with. It quotes Stuart saying “The geopolitical context for this is fiendishly difficult and challenging. Coming into this there [was] not a huge amount of trust and goodwill. And yet, I’ve come away much more positive than I expected and a huge amount of that is down to the way the UAE has worked so hard at this.”

A key temperature threshold could be breached as soon as this decade as global warming is accelerating faster than is currently understood, according to new research, reports the Guardian. The article says this suggests that the earth’s climate is more sensitive to human-caused changes than scientists have realised, meaning that a “dangerous” burst of heating will be unleashed that will push the world to be 1.5C hotter than it was on average in pre-industrial times within the 2020s, and 2C hotter by 2050. [A recent article by Carbon Brief contributor Dr Zeke Hausfather said that while there has been an acceleration in recent warming, this is in line with climate model projections and so not unexpected.] The Guardian continues, saying the speed-up of global warming would mean the world breaches the internationally agreed threshold set out in the Paris climate agreement sooner than expected. This risks a world “less tolerable to humanity, with greater climate extremes”, according to the new study’s lead researcher James Hansen, the former Nasa scientist who issued a foundational warning about climate change to the US Congress in the 1980s, adds the Guardian. It quotes Hansen saying “We would be damned fools and bad scientists if we didn’t expect an acceleration of global warming. We are beginning to suffer the effect of our Faustian bargain. That is why the rate of global warming is accelerating.”

Following China’s signal that it will expand its emissions trading scheme to cover more sectors, coverage from energy news outlet IN-EN.com suggests in an article titled “the carbon market is about to expand, cement, electrolytic aluminium, iron and steel industries to face a major reshuffle” that the four industries named could be prioritised for inclusion. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that “coal-fired power plants…were informed by the environment ministry that they’ll be allowed to borrow more from future allowances” in order to mitigate the risk of electricity shortages during the cold winter. The outlet says this amounts to “loosen[ing] the rules”. The industry news outlet China Energy Net reports that since February 2023, at least 30 forestry carbon sequestration projects have been launched in China. It says such projects enjoy policy support, with the possible resumption of China Certified Emission Reduction (CCER) expected “further to enrich the trading channels for forestry carbon sequestration”. Another Bloomberg article says that Beijing is looking to “impose curbs” on the copper industry to “reduce overcapacity and carbon emissions”. 

Meanwhile, energy newspaper BJX News reports that a meeting hosted by the national energy administration (NEA) called for “closely monitoring the energy supply situation during the winter peak, while ensuring electricity supply” and to “ensure the safe and stable development” of the power system. Another BJX News article says several provinces have initiated a new round of “ecological and environmental protection inspections”, in anticipation of inspections organised by central government authorities. The companies inspected were from the coal-fired power, non-ferrous metals, and construction materials industries, it says. 

Elsewhere, China Dialogue outlines some of the key issues facing China at COP28, including that it will face “increasing pressure on topics such as enhancing its climate action, as well as its involvement in the ‘loss and damage’ fund”. Reuters reports that China’s climate change envoy Xie Zhenhua is set to step down in December after COP28. The Financial Times says US president Joe Biden’s nomination of Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell to be deputy secretary of state could result in a “laser-like focus on Asia policy”. 

Extinction Rebellion co-founder Gail Bradbook has been convicted of causing £27,000 in criminal damage during a protest against the impact of HS2, BBC News reports. After a three day trial, which comes after a four-year legal saga over protest rights, she was found unanimously guilty of damage to the department of transport in 2019, it continues. Amid rows over what Bradbrook could tell the jurors, the judge warned he could use anti-jury tampering powers, BBC News notes, and she said she was silenced by the court. Bradbrook said she felt “at peace” with the jury’s decision, which came after 45 minutes, reports the Guardian. It quotes her saying: “When you commit acts of civil disobedience you don’t have the hope or expectation to get off. This is about doing the right thing.” Bradbrook said she hoped the increasing criminalisation of climate protestors would draw attention to the “real climate criminals”, those supporting the production and use of fossil fuels, it adds. Bradbrook’s conviction at Isleworth crown court follows the abandonment of a previous trial in July, after she gave evidence that repeatedly referenced her belief in civil disobedience to raise awareness of climate change, reports the Times. It quotes Bradbrook saying the judge “gave the jury no choice by directing them that even if I did what I did to protect my own children, that was no defence in law. Trust in a system that reaches such inhuman conclusions can’t last.” Bradbrook will be sentenced later, the article says, adding that she is one of 38 Extinction Rebellion members on trial this week, with 20 having been found not guilty.

The Guardian carries an article written by Saleemul Huq, the director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Independent University, Bangladesh, before he died on 28 October aged 71. It is co-authored with Farhana Sultana, professor at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in New York. The pair write that as another COP looms and global “loss and damage” takes hold, “we must keep pressure on the biggest emitters”. They write that despite intensifying climate disasters, there is “ little hope for accountable action to tackle the climate crisis”. Their article acknowledges the need for financial support for climate mitigation and adaptation but says that “in many cases the damage has already been done”. Despite this, “climate reparations” have been ruled out by the UK and US [the US bears the most historical responsibility for climate change, according to analysis by Carbon Brief], the article says, as well as other “colonial and imperial powers in Europe”. They continue: “Climate accountability is a shared duty. It’s an intricate web of actions, decisions and commitments. Rather than a buzzword, it’s the bedrock of our fight against the climate crisis.” As the world prepares for COP28, Huq and Sultana conclude, leaders and nations need to “rise to the occasion and champion the cause of climate justice” including wealthy nations putting real ​​funding towards loss and damage, as well as developing climate mitigation and adaptation, because “the future of our planet depends on it”. The article, the last written by Huq, opens with a tribute by Sultana to the “visionary and steadfast leader on climate justice”.

Tributes have also been paid to Huq in other publications and articles, including in Devex, where journalist Disha Shetty quotes professor of development geography at the University of Bonn, contributing editor at Carbon Brief and a collaborator, mentee, and colleague of Huq, Lisa Schipper. The article quotes Schipper saying: “What was really important is that he emphasised the fact that people who are exposed to climate change impacts are not passive victims, but are agents and actors and also, eventually tremendous sources of knowledge. What he teaches us is that we need to invite everybody to the table, and that there are no people who shouldn’t be at the table.” An article in the Guardian by Thaslima Begum quotes Christiana Figueres, the Costa Rican climate leader and the former executive secretary of UN Climate Change saying Huq had been a “tenacious, visionary colleague”.

Forests in the Brazilian Amazon that have been disturbed by human activity have much lower resilience to heat stress and atmospheric water stress than intact forests, according to new research. The results show the median value of a metric that approximates the water content of the forest canopy is 2.4 times higher in human-disturbed forests, indicating lower resilience. Human disturbances also significantly increase the risk of “critical transitions”, the paper notes. The researchers say their findings emphasise the “urgent need to limit deforestation and degradation through policy intervention to maintain the resilience of the Amazon rainforests”.

New research examines how extreme weather events and pathways consistent with tackling climate change could affect electricity demand in future. The researchers retrospectively analyse trends in “temperature-based proxies” of electricity demand since 1950. The main finding is that average annual demand for heating is decreasing over most of the contiguous US, while cooling is increasing. However, the results also show that peak heating demand during winter is characterised by very high variability from year-to-year, leading the paper to conclude that “system operators must account for these events to ensure reliability”.