Daily Briefing: Germany’s fossil-fuel ‘roadmap’ | ‘Fears’ over next UN sec-gen | China’s cleantech exports

24.09.26

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News

Germany sets out plan to phase out fossil fuels by 2045

Rana Taha, Deutsche Welle

Germany has published a “roadmap” committing to phase out fossil fuels by 2045, reports Deutsche Welle. It adds: “Germany’s environment minister Carsten Schneider [claims] the plan ‘combines independence, affordability and climate protection’.” The Guardian says: “The plans include ramping up renewable energy from 55% to 80% of electricity generation by 2030, with an additional 12GW of onshore wind, and a target of 215GW of solar energy by 2030. The previously stated target of winding down coal use in the next decade, with a view to an exit from coal in 2038, was also reaffirmed, with the potential for an earlier target of 2035.” It adds that “Germany is the third major developed economy to publish such a roadmap, after France and the Netherlands”. Climate Home News says the roadmap was published “on the sidelines” of New York’s UN General Assembly. Euractiv and Reuters also cover the news.

MORE ON EUROPE

Reuters reports that “European Union countries agreed on Wednesday to keep more spare CO2 permits in the bloc’s emissions trading system (ETS), to try and avoid spikes in carbon prices”. Euractiv adds: “EU countries to push for large reserve of ETS carbon price allowances ahead of 2030s.”
Politico: “Canada seeks deforestation law carveouts as EU ties deepen.”
Euractiv: “EU’s energy tax law approved by Council legal service.”
Politico says: “Policymakers in the US and European Union are considering technologies that limit sunlight as a potential tool to curb global warming – even if they’re not yet willing to publicly say so.”
Ireland’s RTÉ: “Boiler scrappage scheme offering €2,000 grant proposed by minister.”
The Irish Times: “Irish summers likely to feature ‘extreme evaporation’ due to climate change, say scientists”

El Niño: Thousands of displaced in southwest Somalia could be in famine by year-end, IPC says

Aaron Ross and George Obulutsa, Reuters

“Thousands of displaced people in Somalia’s southwest could experience famine between October and December if El Niño causes worse-than-expected flooding and humanitarian ‌aid remains insufficient,” reports Reuters. According to the newswire, a report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) – an ⁠initiative of UN agencies, regional bodies and aid groups – found that “more than 5 million Somalis, 26% of the analysed population, are already suffering crisis-level food insecurity or worse due to repeated droughts, conflict ‌and ⁠aid shortfalls”.

MORE ON EL NIÑO

Time: “Why California just declared a state of emergency due to El Niño.”
There is ongoing coverage of a study which finds that El Niño could cause more than 450,000 heat deaths by February. CNN, CBS News, Inside Climate News, Reuters, the Independent, Al Jazeera cover the news.
The i newspaper explains how the weather phenomenon could affect UK weather for the rest of 2026.

Fears mount that next UN chief will downgrade climate action

Fiona Harvey, The Guardian

Climate and civil society experts say “fears are mounting that the next UN secretary general will downgrade the priority of the climate crisis”, reports the Guardian. The newspaper says the current secretary general, António Guterres, “has been the most forthright on the subject”, but will step down on 31 September at the end of his second five-year term. It continues: “Many of Guterres’s most likely successors have shown less enthusiasm for tackling the climate crisis, despite rising alarm at its impacts, and experts have told the Guardian that some of the candidates could be ‘disastrous’ yet could enjoy the support of influential countries including the US and its allies.” The outlet highlights “three candidates in particular have raised concerns” – namely, the Argentinian diplomat Rafael Grossi, former Senegalese president Macky Sall, the former president of Senegal and Ugandan former presidential candidate Olara Otunnu. It also lists the candidates who have a “stronger climate record”. [See Carbon Brief’s Q&A: “Where do the UN secretary general candidates stand on climate change?”]

MORE ON GUTERRES

Climate Home News reports that Guterres launched the “Global Grids Accelerator” yesterday, adding that the initiative aims to “accelerate investment in electricity infrastructure in Africa and Southeast Asia, boosting efforts to tackle one of the biggest bottlenecks holding back the shift to clean energy”.
Climate Home News: “Since Guterres launched the Early Warning Systems for All goal in 2022, the number of countries reporting that they have an multi-hazard early warning system has increased from 113 to 136, the UN announced on Wednesday.”
As Guterres prepares to step down, an editorial in the Guardian says he was a “powerful voice of conscience”, who was “passionate in calling for climate action”.

UK shares findings of damning climate crisis national security report suppressed under Starmer

Fiona Harvey, The Guardian

UK foreign secretary Ed Miliband presented the results of a “climate crisis national security report” to foreign ministers during a private meeting at the UN general assembly yesterday, reports the Guardian. According to the newspaper, Miliband told the meeting that “the coming El Niño, which has been supercharged by climate breakdown, would test the world’s food systems as never before”. It adds that the report was scheduled for publication last October, “but was suppressed on the eve of its launch by Downing Street” and a redacted version was issued in January. The newspaper continues: “Miliband will appoint a new special representative for climate security, as well as a new ministerial taskforce on ‘the national security and resilience risks of a changing climate and nature loss’, with military and security experts as well as climate scientists. He also announced £330m for the Global Environment Facility, the main international fund for protecting nature, that will go towards protecting forests, oceans and other critical ecosystems in developing countries.”

MORE ON UK

The Daily Telegraph says: “Labour has launched a net-zero scheme to transport hot water on barges on the River Thames to heat London homes.”
In an interview with the Financial Times, UK energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh says that the UK must “electrify now” while taking a “pragmatic” approach to oil and gas licences.
The Financial Times says “the opening of England’s first new reservoir in more than three decades has been delayed by five years while its cost has more than doubled,” in a “blow for drought-hit England”.
The Independent quotes Octopus Energy’s chief executive Greg Jackson, who has told an event in New York that data centres should be built in Scotland to “soak up the country’s surplus wind power”.

‘Dammit, something has to happen’: White House preparing plan for 90-day diesel exports ban

Ben Lefebvre, Meredith Lee Hill and Scott Waldman, Politico

“The Trump administration is preparing a plan to ban exports of diesel for 90 days, despite splits inside the administration and with the oil industry, in a bid to bring down energy prices weighing on Republicans leading into the midterms, five people familiar with the discussions said Wednesday”, reports Politico. The Financial Times says that “industry groups representing the country’s biggest oil producers and refiners, as well as manufacturers and the wider business community” sent a letter yesterday urging Donald Trump not to go through with the ban. The Wall Street Journal reports that “shortly after Trump made his suggestion Tuesday, Mike Sommers, chief executive of the American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s top lobby, issued a statement condemning the move”. Reuters reports that “US energy secretary Chris Wright on Wednesday said a US ban on diesel exports would not work and could push up gasoline and jet fuel prices”.

MORE ON OIL

Reuters says that “US ultra-low-sulfur diesel futures fell 4% on Wednesday.”
The Financial Times: “The price of diesel in Europe climbed on Wednesday, as the continent reacted to the ‘catastrophic’ prospect of being cut off by the US, its biggest supplier.”
The Daily Telegraph: “Pump prices could exceed £3 per litre in Britain if Washington imposes ‘catastrophic’ block on exports.”
The Associated Press reports on how Gulf nations have kept oil flowing throughout the Iran war, noting that “the costs are mounting”.

China’s cleantech exports avoided more CO2 than UK emitted last year

Lewis Jackson, Reuters

China’s cleantech exports last year “avoided 374m metric tonnes of CO2 emissions, greater than those produced by the UK”, according to new analysis from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), reports Reuters. Lauri Myllyvirta, co-founder of the CREA, says that the new finding highlights the “growing climate impact of China’s green technology boom”, with wind turbines, solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles reshaping the “economics of electrification and decarbonisation, particularly in developing countries”. Lauri Myllyvirta is also quoted saying also that the “current growth of solar and EVs, particularly in emerging countries, was not on anyone’s radar five years ago before China’s cleantech manufacturing boom”. Separately, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post covers another CREA analysis under the headline: “China has scrapped two-thirds of its planned coal power plants abroad: report.”

MORE ON CHINA

A new report finds that China’s electrification rate exceeded 29% in 2025 and is expected to rank first among major global economies by 2030, reports CCTV. Xinhua reports that electricity currently accounts for 3.1 percentage points more of China’s final energy consumption than coal.
Canada has terminated its “second expiry review of anti-dumping and countervailing measures” on certain solar products imported from China, reports Jiemian.
Bloomberg reports that China’s “coking coal squeeze”, triggered by the fatal accident in May, is set to persist into next year.
The Guardian says that at the upcoming Trump-Xi summit, the leaders “could discuss tech safety issues and US-China trade ties but may skip over climate emergency”.
Zou Ji, CEO of the Energy Foundation, tells Jiemian that China still has “a long way to go” in making full use of market mechanisms in its carbon market.
The Financial Times reports on how “Chinese cars are taking over Britain’s roads”, while the Daily Telegraph is among outlets noting that Chinese carmaker Geely claims its new EV battery “will charge in under five minutes”.

UK to join EU ocean science scheme to better predict extreme weather events

Karen McVeigh, The Guardian

The UK environment secretary Angela Eagle has announced that the country will “join a major new ocean science programme, led by the EU, to better forecast extreme weather and climate events”, reports the Guardian. The newspaper says: “In June, the EU launched a €92m (£78m) initiative called OceanEye, to boost its role in ocean observation and to provide data-backed marine intelligence to deepen understanding and management of the ocean. It plans to create a digital ‘real time’ replica model of the ocean, collected by satellites, sensors and other models by 2030, to help decisions on ocean protection and security. The EU introduced an international alliance with Canada as part of OceanEye, to address critical gaps in under-monitored regions and strengthen cooperation between nations.” Reuters reports that the EU and Canada have secured $240m for the initiative, which so far comprises 30 countries and the EU. Euractiv calls the announcement a “bid to challenge US ocean data dominance”.

Comment

The response to Nepal’s disaster is a test for global climate institutions

Dharam R Uprety, Climate Home News

Dharam R Uprety, head of Nepal’s national disaster risk reduction and management authority, writes in Climate Home News that “Nepal’s recent flash flood represents a shared emergency the world over, as more and more communities become victims to a climate crisis they did not create”. Uprety says: “The loss and damage fund currently holds $820m in pledges, yet not a single dollar has yet been disbursed for the nearly $3bn in requests. Its next scheduled meeting is not until December, in Manila. Nepal cannot wait that long and neither can the next country this happens to.” He adds: “Global emissions are still rising, while countries such as the US, the UK, Australia and several others have drastically reduced the foreign aid that they provide to the rest of the world. And, at the same time, they are continuing to increase their fossil fuel production. That is not only unjust, it is also unsustainable for a planet that is already showing us how little room for error remains.” [See Carbon Brief’s new analysis: “Nepal’s $20m ‘loss-and-damage’ claim only covers 0.7% of flood costs.”]

MORE COMMENT

Susana Malcorra, former foreign minister of Argentina, and Mary Robinson former UN human rights commissioner and former Irish president, have a comment piece in Climate Home News arguing that climate change is a “governance crisis” with “an outrageous blindspot for women’s leadership, ingenuity and readiness to decide”.
Semafor climate and energy editor, Tim McDonnell, writes that “climate finance needs an overhaul”, arguing that the “bigger challenge isn’t just getting more capital, but making sure it actually leads to lower poverty and lower emissions”.
Author Robert Moore writes in the New York Times: “Our forests are demanding a sacrifice.”
Atlantic staff writer Ross Andersen asks whether “energy giants” can be held responsible for “extreme weather”.

The climate fight has one great ally. You just can’t look at it directly

Bill McKibben, The Guardian

Veteran US environmentalist and author Bill McKibben writes in the Guardian that “as climate experts from around the world gather in New York for their annual week of talking through the world’s deepest dilemma, the vibes are mostly bad,” but adds: “There is one solitary (and very literal) ray of sunshine amidst this gloom: the steady rise of solar, wind and batteries.” He outlines advances in solar power, but notes that “none of it is happening fast enough to catch up with the physics of global warming”. He explains that “a group of leading advocates will deliver a letter to the UN this week, urging faster action”. He says the letter proposes “raising funds to bring clean energy to the poorest corners of the world and organising in our communities, including for a global Sun Day of action next year to kick off what could be the great uniting project of our time”.

MORE COMMENT

The Washington Post has an editorial arguing against Donald Trump’s proposed ban on US diesel exports, arguing that “restricting diesel exports would give environmentalists a precedent to justify pushing the next Democratic president to do the same as a means of reducing emissions”.
The Financial Times Lex column says that Donald Trump’s diesel ban would “benefit China and harm Europe”.
Reuters energy columnist Ron Bousso writes that Trump’s diesel expert ban is “good politics, bad economics”, arguing that “what may seem like an easy fix could unleash a chain reaction that ultimately leaves American consumers and the global economy worse off”.
Henry M Paulson Jr, chairman of the Paulson Institute and US treasury secretary over 2006-09, writes in the Washington Post that “the policy tools to protect nature already exist”, but “government must first stop making environmental destruction worse”.

Research

For each tonne of CO2 that humans emit, “roughly 2.3 square meters of [Arctic] summer sea ice are permanently lost” | Geophysical Research Letters
Public surveys in Germany reveal that supporters of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) are less willing to adopt electric vehicles and solar panels compared with supporters of a pro-environment party | Nature Sustainability
Relatively “small fractions” of global emissions, including those released since the 2015 Paris Agreement, have “intensified recent heat events in Europe, including the June 2025 heatwave” | Geophysical Research Letters

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