Daily Briefing: Nepal flood’s climate link | ‘Fossil-free’ Netherlands | ‘Stop using net-zero’

17.09.26

Expert analysis direct to your inbox

Every weekday morning, in time for your morning coffee, Carbon Brief sends out a free email known as the “Daily Briefing” to thousands of subscribers around the world. The email is a digest of the past 24 hours of media coverage related to climate change and energy, as well as our pick of the key studies published in peer-reviewed journals.

Article Contents

Expand menu

News

Nepal floods: Climate change contributed to glacier collapse, study finds

Koh Ewe, BBC News

A study has concluded that climate change contributed to the glacier collapse that “unleashed devastating floods on the Nepal-Tibet border”, reports BBC News. Analysis by the World Weather Attribution research group concludes that the disaster was the result of a “compound event”, caused by rising temperatures, thinning glaciers, thawing permafrost and pre-existing geological weaknesses. CNN says the team identified a “complex cascade of factors, many of which were worsened by human-driven climate change”. The Guardian notes that this is the “first scientific study of the disaster”, adding that the researchers “identified unusually warm conditions before the glacier’s collapse”, which sent an avalanche into the valley below, triggering floods. Inside Climate News also points to additional meltwater from “unusually high snowfall in late 2025”. The Independent says the study shows the disaster “went beyond what the country’s existing early warning systems could have prevented”. Climate Home News reports that the floods demonstrate the “limits to adaptation” to climate change, according to the researchers. [See Carbon Brief’s Q&A: “What can – and cannot – be said about global warming’s role in the 2026 Himalayan floods.”] Separately, Reuters reports that, weeks after the floods struck, around 5,200 people remain missing and most recovered bodies are unidentified.

MORE ON CLIMATE IMPACTS

The Guardian reports that rivers around the world saw one of their driest years in more than three decades in 2025, according to a major study of global water resources carried out by the World Meteorological Organisation.
A new study uses satellite data to show that around 11.3tn tonnes of ice from glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica have melted since 1979, reports the Associated Press.
The Guardian reports that firefighters say the US government is “failing them amid intense [an] wildfire season”, which is partly explained by “the climate crisis”.
Heatwaves have triggered a potato shortage in Europe “that could mean smaller, more expensive chips”, according to the Financial Times

Asian LNG demand set to fall for second year as war shrinks supply

Emily Chow, Reuters

Asian demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) is “set to decline for a second consecutive year as the US-Israeli war on Iran curtails supplies from the Gulf, tightening ‌market availability and lifting prices to multi-year highs that slash consumption”, reports Reuters. The newswire says analysts estimate that Asian LNG demand will fall 3-10% from 2025 levels, with much of the “demand destruction” seen in north-east Asia, before “rebounding again in 2027”. Another Reuters story says Norwegian oil company Equinor plans to expand its LNG supply over the next decade to “meet demand from Europe ‌and Asia”. Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports that the Hormuz crisis “threatens to undermine long-term LNG demand”. It says “developing markets that were meant to drive long-term growth recoil at soaring prices and turn increasingly towards low-cost renewables”. [See Carbon Brief’s new analysis: “Global fossil-fuel emissions set to fall in 2026 amid Hormuz crisis.”]

MORE ON FOSSIL FUELS

The New York Times reports that attacks on an oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia risk “keeping 4% of the world’s oil supply from reaching international markets and driving energy prices even higher”.
Venezuelan authorities have signed deals setting preliminary terms for US producer Continental Resources to “seek business opportunities in a large oil area”, according to Reuters.
BBC News: “Petrol and diesel price rises push UK inflation higher.”

EU to launch climate insurance scheme after summer of extreme weather

Kate Abnett, Reuters

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has announced that the EU will ‌ create a “climate insurance alliance” to increase cover for extreme weather events, following a summer of drought, wildfires and heatwaves, reports Reuters. The newswire notes that only a quarter of the climate-related economic losses in the EU are insured, explaining that the new scheme “would bring together insurers, investors, risk modellers, public authorities and insurance takers to work on increasing insurance uptake”. Euractiv says there will be “new risk tools for climate-hit farmers”. Bloomberg notes that the announcement was part of Von der Leyen’s annual “state of the union” address. It says she also mentioned a “European water initiative to combat waste”, a heatwave plan and a “European corporation on critical raw materials” for clean technologies. Following the fires that struck Europe this summer, Von der Leyen also proposed an expanded European firefighting fleet of airplanes, reports the Associated Press. Separately, Reuters runs the headline: “EU will use all tools to cut China trade deficit, von der Leyen says.”

MORE ON EUROPE

France recorded at least 817 excess deaths between July 27 and August 20, bringing the total number of deaths linked to the 2026 heatwaves up to 8,124, according to Le Monde.
Reuters: “Battery-electric vehicle registrations in Europe rose 54% in August, pushing the market well ahead of forecasts for 2026 as fully electric cars accounted for nearly one ‌in three new vehicles sold.”
EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra tells Euractiv that the case for investing in clean technologies is a “complete no-brainer” amid the Hormuz crisis.
The left-wing opposition bloc is set to edge out the right-wing incumbents following the “closest parliamentary election result in Swedish history”, according to the Financial Times. It will now have to form a coalition government that would include the Swedish Greens.

The Netherlands presents fossil-free plan without deadline

Milou Dirkx, Energeia

The Dutch cabinet has “presented a roadmap to move away from fossil fuels”, according to the energy outlet Energeia. It notes that, after France, the Netherlands is the second country to outline such a roadmap. The article adds that, while campaigners have welcomed the move, they criticised “the fact that there is no end date for the phasing out of oil and gas”. The plan has not been widely covered by the Dutch press, but Argus Media explains that it comes after the Netherlands co-hosted a major conference on “transitioning away from fossil fuels” in April [which was covered by Carbon Brief]. According to the news outlet, the government plan sees gas consumption falling from 250 terawatt-hours (TWh) to around 110TWh by 2040, but states that gas “remains essential for our society” for the foreseeable future. Carbon Pulse explains that the goals are part of the Netherlands’ new “national energy system plan”, which also scales back “several near-term ambitions” due to “grid congestion, high costs and difficult market conditions”.

UK: Cut ‘net zero’ from name of UK net-zero department, MPs urge

Rachel Millard, Jim Pickard and Charlie Windle, Financial Times

The Financial Times reports that a “cross-party group of MPs has recommended the UK government’s energy department drops ‘net-zero” from its name and uses the term less, arguing it has become counter-productive”. The group noted that the term – which refers to balancing the amount of emissions with the amount removed and stored by carbon sinks – has become a “lightning rod for opposition to climate action”, according to the newspaper. The Times notes that this comes after Reform UK has increasingly used the term “net stupid zero” and the Conservatives have rejected the net-zero target.

MORE ON UK

The Sun reports on comments from ex-MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove, platformed by a climate-sceptic lobby group, who claims the UK is on the edge of an “energy cliff” after prioritising what the climate-sceptic newspaper calls “woke net-zero policies”.
The Press Association: “Hundreds of experts urge [Andy] Burnham to reject new North Sea drilling days before prime minister meets [US president Donald] Trump for the first time.”
BusinessGreen: “Great British Energy announces £30m community energy funding boost.”
Politico reports that a former “top advisor”, John Fingleton, says the UK should not feel “locked into” pre-Brexit EU environmental rules as it tries to increase its nuclear power capacity.
BBC News says “above-average rainfall is needed across England for the next seven months for all areas to recover from drought by spring 2027, according to new research”.
The Independent: “UK mosquito numbers could increase in September due to warm weather.”

China and US discuss cutting tariffs on agriculture and energy

Bloomberg

The US and China are discussing cutting tariffs on US energy and agricultural shipments to China, reports Bloomberg, adding that it is a “potential sign the leaders’ summit next week will lead to an extension of the one-year trade truce”. Lindsay Hooper, CEO of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, writes in a comment for Reuters that western economies should be “leveraging and orchestrating their own strengths” to counter China’s lead in clean technologies. Meanwhile, China’s foreign ministry has said protectionism can “only harm” Europe’s development and undermine companies’ confidence in investing in Europe, reports state news agency Xinhua. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post carries a comment article by Liu Ziang, a researcher at King’s College London, under the headline: “Why more export controls won’t stop China’s industrial engine?”

MORE ON CHINA

China has “destroyed” 17,000 metric tons of HFC-23, a potent greenhouse gas, annually over the past five years, equivalent to cutting more than 250m tons of CO2 emissions, reports China Daily.
China and Latin America will deepen cooperation and increase “green investment” on sustainable agricultural value chains, reports Global Times.
Economic Daily quotes an official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, saying China’s EV sector faces challenges such as protectionism globally and “irrational” competition at home. Bloomberg reports that a deal involving two Chinese state-owned auto companies signals that the country is “finally starting to tackle [the] glut” in the auto market.
China’s NEA and the International Energy Agency have signed a three-year cooperation plan to “advance global sustainable energy development”, says Ideacarbon.
Xinhua reports that China’s first demonstration project combining molten salt energy storage with carbon dioxide power generation has begun construction.
China Automotive News says vehicle-to-grid is set to “enter a phase of rapid market development” in China, becoming an important part of the new-type power system.

US: House approves bill aimed at putting data centre electricity costs on tech companies

Rachel Frazin, The Hill

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill aimed at shielding people in the US from increased electricity costs associated with data centres, according to the Hill. The outlet says the bipartisan bill “requires states to consider taking up standards that would force tech companies to shoulder the electricity cost increases associated with large data centers but doesn’t actually require them to regulate”. It adds that the bill “comes at a moment of rising backlash to both AI itself and the data centres that power it”.

A new poll from the Associated Press suggests this opposition to data centres is “one issue where Republicans and Democrats are unified”. Time notes that the polling shows that 65% of Democrat voters, 42% of Republicans and 49% of Independents say they are “extremely or very” worried about the environmental impacts of data centres. The magazine adds that “in the absence of clean energy alternatives, US data centres are projected to consume more natural gas than most countries by 2035”.

MORE ON AI

The Financial Times reports that former US vice-president Al Gore has “gone against the tide of concern about the existential threats posed by AI, arguing that the technology could help in the effort to limit global warming”.
New analysis from the thinktank Ember finds that the “transition to cleaner and more flexible energy systems enabled by digitalisation and AI tools could unlock huge cost savings”, according to BusinessGreen.
Climate Action Against Disinformation says chipmaker Nvidia’s indirect emissions have risen 725% since 2020, as the “AI profiteer” sells itself “as a climate champ”.
The Press Association reports that the Scottish government has said environmental impact assessments “will have to be carried out before large-scale data centres can go ahead”.

Comment

Who are the victims of the heatwave?

Le Monde

The French newspaper Le Monde has published an interactive feature exploring case studies of some of the 8,124 people who died due to extreme heat in France this year. It says that “finding their trail was not easy”, but explains that “brothers, daughters, mothers or friends” helped to tell the stories of 11 people. The article notes that heat is generally “only a hypothesis”, as the word “heatwave” does not appear on people’s death certificates and “only some mention hyperthermia”. It adds that the deaths “remind us that the climate crisis…is already killing people in France”. Le Monde also has an editorial about heat-related deaths in France, which states that the “new climate reality demands a strong and rapid political response”.

We need an observatory for the cooling north Atlantic

Ben Judah, Financial Times

Ben Judah, a visiting fellow at Chatham House and a former Labour special adviser, writes in the Financial Times that the UK should “convene a coalition of concerned states” to consider the impact of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) collapse. Judah writes: “Britain is particularly exposed. The science says that a collapse of the Amoc would lower London’s average winter temperature to about 2C.” He adds that, as concerns rise that such an event will be triggered as global emissions rise, “there is a diplomatic opening here that Britain should seize upon”. He continues: “The UK should convene a coalition of concerned north Atlantic states to establish an Amoc Observatory, with an early warning system to be the global reference point on the issue.” [See Carbon Brief’s AMOC explainer.]

MORE COMMENT

Martin Rees and Bryony Worthington, who both sit in the House of Lords, write in the Times that “Britain’s universities are well placed to undertake transparent, carefully governed and publicly accountable research” into “climate cooling technology”.
Kazutoshi Aikawa, Japan’s ambassador to the EU, argues in the Financial Times that the EU’s proposed industrial accelerator act could create “unintended consequences for Europe’s closest partners, including Japan”, in areas such as critical minerals.
Sunil Acharya, a climate policy specialist in Nepal, has a comment piece in Al Jazeera titled: “Why has the response to Nepal’s floods been so muted?”

Research

Heat-related productivity losses sat at around $41 per tonne of CO2 in 2025, with damage most concentrated in Africa and south, east and south-east Asia | Nature Climate Change
It is “technically feasible” for Brazil to achieve greenhouse gas neutrality by 2040, but implementation would require “substantially different” near-term policies, infrastructure and governance capacities | Global Change Biology
Chronic kidney disease deaths attributable to “non-optimal temperatures” increased by 29% across the G20 group of nations over 2010-23 | International Journal of Biometeorology

News

Comment

Research

Other stories