Around the world, nearly every major region is increasing investment in the infrastructure needed to increase the use of fossil gas in power generation, according to new data from the Global Energy Monitor (GEM), reports Reuters. More than $720bn is set to be spent on gas pipelines that are either already under construction or at the planning stage, it adds. A further $190bn is to be put into facilities to handle liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports, the article continues. Reuters says the data shows the “powerful momentum that remains in traditional fossil fuel industries even as clean energy supplies are deployed at an accelerating rate”. It adds that the infrastructure under construction “guarantee[s] that fossil fuels will retain a critical role in key power systems well beyond 2030”. While North America and Europe currently account for 60% of the global pipeline network, the article says “planned capital expenditure on future pipelines has a more global reach”. It adds: “South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and eastern Europe each plan to spend more than $70bn on gas pipelines, signifying substantial commitments to expanding natural gas use across several key economies.”

In more fossil-fuel news, Bloomberg reports that Russia’s oil-and-gas revenues fell by almost one-quarter last year. It notes that, together with increased spending by the government on its war in Ukraine, this led to the country’s budget deficit widening by more than expected last year.

A frontpage story in the Times says the government “wants to open up far more areas as potential sites” for small modular reactors or “mini nuclear plants”. Unlike conventional plants, they do not have to be built by the coast and, according to the newspaper, the government wants a “developer-led approach that will replace rules that allow nuclear power stations only in eight named locations”. The article says these plans are considered a vital part of the wider plan to quadruple nuclear capacity in the next quarter of a century. Press Association reports on comments from energy minister Andrew Bowie, who said the government “remains committed” to announcing a timetable for investing in the new nuclear power station at Sizewell C before this year’s general election. It notes that this came after the government announced its new civil nuclear roadmap, which the opposition Labour party pointed out did not contain details about Sizewell.

Elsewhere, the Guardian reports that the number of households and businesses in the UK installing solar panels on their roofs has reached its highest level in 12 years, with 190,000 installations in total. The same article notes that the number of heat pumps installations across the UK also rose to a record high of almost 40,000 last year. Meanwhile, BusinessGreen reports that the government has set out a “suite of proposed reforms” to allow onshore wind “repowering” projects to participate in clean power contract auctions from 2025 – extending their operational life.

In UK politics, the Guardian has an interview with Conservative MP and former energy minister Chris Skidmore, who resigned earlier this week, who says Labour should stick with its £28bn “green” investment plan. “Despite believing in generally lower state spending, Skidmore said investment in technology, and net-zero, was important,” the piece notes. Meanwhile, DeSmog reports that energy security and net-zero secretary Claire Countinho accepted a £2,000 donation in January from Lord Michael Hintze, one of the early funders of climate-sceptic group the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF).

More than 300 people have been killed over the past months as the Congo River has risen to its highest level in more than 60 years, causing flooding throughout the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and neighbouring Republic of the Congo, Reuters reports. The article explains that “poor urban planning and weak infrastructure have made some African countries vulnerable to flash floods after intense rains, which have become more frequent due to climate change”. The newswire cites a local expert who says that on Wednesday, the river reached 6.2 metres above sea level, “just shy of the 1961 record of 6.26 metres”. In more Congo news, Climate Home News reports on DRC minister Jean-Pierre Bemba, whose family have set up a carbon offsets company in the country. The article explains that there are fears Bemba “could use his political power over the environment minister Eve Bazaiba, as her party leader, to benefit the company”. The outlet notes that it did not receive responses to requests for comment from those involved.

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports on new research that suggests record ocean temperatures last year supercharged “freak” weather around the world. The article touches on two papers, one based on measurements of ocean heat in 2023 and the other, a report by the consortium Global Water Monitor (GWM), concluding that “some of the worst disasters of 2023 were due to unusually strong cyclones bringing extreme rainfall to Mozambique and Malawi, Myanmar, Greece, Libya, New Zealand and Australia”.

The central committee of the communist party of China, the highest political body in China, and the state council, China’s cabinet, have issued a joint document on constructing a “beautiful China”, reports the People’s Daily. The Communist Party-affiliated newspaper adds that the opinions identify several key targets. These include to deepen the promotion of “green and low-carbon development”, continuously reduce “total emissions of major pollutants” and consistently “improve the quality of the ecological environment” by 2027, and to see “widespread adoption of green production and lifestyles” by 2035, with carbon emissions expected to “peak and then steadily decrease”. Looking ahead to the middle of this century, “green” lifestyles and development methods will be “fully established, achieving deep decarbonization in key areas”. The state broadcaster CCTV covers the same news, adding that, by the middle of the century, “a beautiful China will be fully built”, with “universal action” needed to achieve this goal.

Meanwhile, Liu Zhenmin, a former vice foreign minister, has been confirmed to be China’s “new special envoy for climate change, after…Xie Zhenhua stepped down due to health reasons”, Reuters reports. It adds that Liu “has long experience in climate diplomacy, participating in negotiations to draw up the 1997 Kyoto Protocol as well as the 2015 Paris Agreement”. Chinese outlet Jiemian reports that Inner Mongolia has issued a plan to “comprehensively implement a dual control system for total carbon emissions and intensity” during the 14th five-year plan period (2026-30), which is  the first officially issued “provincial-level transitional scheme” for carbon dual control in China. The state-run industry newspaper China Energy News reports that the Chinese government issued a plan which calls for the average annual growth rate of the “green” building materials industry to exceed 10% annually between 2024 and 2026. China Economic Daily says that Beijing’s first geothermal heating demonstration project has been officially put into operation, which is expected to “reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 7,650 tonnes”.

Separately, the US Republican Party’s presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis raised “emissions from China” and “the Biden administration’s environmental policies” when asked about the threat of climate change at an Iowa debate, reports the Hill. The China Daily carries a commentary by Chen Weihua, the state-run newspaper’s EU bureau chief, who writes that: “Irrational de-risking based on paranoia will leave both the EU and China worse off, and undermine the global cooperation to overcome global challenges such as climate change and any future pandemics.” The Wall Street Journal reports that Japan is attempting to work around China’s dominance of solar panel manufacturing by gaining an edge in perovskite solar cells. The newspaper adds: “Japanese engineers and officials are optimistic, citing recent technological advances.” And the China Daily publishes a commentary by Chen Liming, greater China chairman of the World Economic Forum, which convenes the Davos annual meeting. He writes that in a world where “climate change is posing an increasingly prominent threat to lives and property”, using Davos as a platform for the “rebuilding of trust” is “imperative to improve the state of the world”.

Finally, the Economist has a briefing and an editorial about how an “influx of Chinese cars is terrifying the west”. The editorial says the success of China’s electric car industry “should be celebrated, not feared”.

California governor Gavin Newsom has announced that investments aimed at combating climate change and transitioning away from fossil fuels are among the items to be cut as the California government seeks to close a $37.9bn budget deficit, the Los Angeles Times reports. The new 2024-25 budget would see the state’s multi-year climate budget reduced by 11% to $48.3bn – down from $54bn, it adds. “Among the trims are clean transportation programs and others that address forest maintenance, watershed resilience, coastal protection and sea level rise,” the article notes.

Meanwhile, the Hill reports that the Biden administration has announced $623m in grants to fund 47 electric-vehicle charging and other alternative vehicle fuelling infrastructure projects around the US. Reuters reports that four US power transmission projects awarded federal funds “will address the lack of grid capacity that’s hampering new wind and solar power development”.

An editorial in the Guardian begins by listing the many climate-related issues the world faces after last year was announced as the hottest year on record. “The developed world produces and consumes via billions of fossil fuel machines. Its engines and furnaces emit the carbon that cooks the planet,” it says. “The scale of the climate emergency is such that individual choices will make little difference unless certain collective decisions are taken and acted upon. Britain’s Rishi Sunak, however, believes that green measures can be left to the individual conscience,” the article continues. The editorial laments Sunak’s “turn away from science for supposed political gain”, noting that it is a shame the government “doesn’t think the environment deserves a practical response”. With this in mind, it says “sensible Tories such as Chris Skidmore are jumping ship”.

Writing in the i newspaper, columnist Sebastian Payne takes a different view, stating that Skidmore “has adopted an almost zealotry attitude towards net-zero”. Payne says Skidmore, who resigned earlier this week over a bill to allow new oil and gas licences to be issued, is “deeply wrongheaded on the proclaimed net-zero substance”. To back this up he says the UK will need oil-and-gas “for many years to keep the lights on”. [In fact, new North Sea oil and gas would play very little role in the UK’s energy security. In Skidmore’s own resignation letter he said “no one has ever denied” the need for oil-and-gas today and only criticises “open[ing] up future new sources of fossil fuels, that will be sold on international markets and owned by foreign companies”, which “will do nothing for our energy security”.] A Sun editorial calls Skidmore “puerile” and says he resigned “after Rishi Sunak backed climate realism over fantasy”. It adds that the “pointless by-election” he has triggered “just a few months before the nation goes to the polls” will cost an estimated £250,000. A Times editorials says “if [Skidmore] feels so strongly about new drilling in the North Sea, he could have rebelled and voted against the bill”. The Spectator has a piece by political correspondent James Heale titled “at-risk Tories are looking to board the green gravy train”.

Energy security and net-zero secretary Claire Countinho has penned a comment piece for the Daily Express in which she announces the government’s “nuclear roadmaps and boosts plan to invest in nuclear power. In it, she nods to Winston Churchill, praises David Cameron for starting work on Hinkley Point C and takes aim at both Tony Blair and Vladimir Putin. She says her government is making “the largest investment in domestic nuclear energy for 70 years – quadrupling nuclear capacity to produce up to a quarter of our electricity by 2050”. 

A Sun editorial is uncharacteristically negative about the government’s nuclear plan. It says: “Forgive us not popping champagne corks over the government’s ‘roadmap’ to a new era of nuclear power. Yes, those plants will be essential to get to net-zero. Wind and solar won’t suffice. But when energy secretary Claire Coutinho announces ‘the biggest expansion in nuclear power for 70 years’ she needs a reality check.” The editorial adds that nuclear plants take many years to finance and build, and that “her first plant doesn’t even have a site yet”. Meanwhile, an editorial in the Daily Telegraph is also very negative about the prospects of building nuclear power in the UK, noting that “even in a country cursed by short-termist policy-making, nothing over the years has matched the abject failure of successive governments to renew our nuclear power capacity”.

A new study finds that more than half of US cities may experience population decline by the end of the century under moderate warming scenarios. Researchers use two projections of US population under five warming scenarios to determine how cities with diverse characteristics will respond to future climate change. They find that the number of “depopulated” cities will be larger in the north-east and midwest than in the western US or the south, although cities in nearly every state will experience these declines. The authors conclude that “an important cultural shift in planning and engineering communities is needed, away from conventional, growth-based planning, to accommodate a dramatic demographic shift”.