Leaders from 32 nations have agreed to release 400m barrels of oil from their strategic reserves in response to the “surge in oil prices since the war in Iran began”, reports the New York Times. The coordinated release of oil by member nations of the International Energy Agency (IEA) is meant to “offset shortages” resulting from Iranian attacks on fossil-fuel infrastructure, explains the newspaper. However, it adds that the move “did little to calm the oil market”, with prices continuing to rise. Politico notes that the action by IEA members will be the “biggest emergency oil release in history”. BBC News explains that the IEA’s members represent two-thirds of global energy production and 80% of consumption. Sky News says the IEA will coordinate the flow of the 400m barrels into the market. The IEA decision follows a meeting of G7 energy ministers in which they discussed ways to curb energy prices, reports the Associated Press. The Financial Times says that – even prior to official confirmation from the IEA – Japan’s prime minister Sanae Takaichi had announced that her county would “act first” to release oil. US interior secretary Doug Burgum tells CNBC that whether or not the US participates in the oil release would be “up to president [Donald] Trump”. 

Bloomberg notes that, despite the scale of the emergency release, “potential supply losses from the current crisis may also be much larger” due to the “near-halt of flows through the critical Strait of Hormuz”. The Associated Press reports that French president Emmanuel Macron is “leading” an international effort to “unblock the energy choke point”. Reuters reports that two sources have told the newswire Iran has deployed “about a dozen mines” in the Strait of Hormuz. Bloomberg says at least 25 supertankers are heading to a Saudi Arabian Red Sea port in an attempt to get its oil to market. Al Jazeera covers a statement from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps saying it will not allow “a litre of oil” through the Strait of Hormuz, warning the world to “expect oil at $200 per barrel”. Agence France-Presse reports that, on Thursday morning, Iran “launched a new wave of attacks against Gulf energy targets” following two strikes on oil tankers.

MORE ON IRAN WAR

• Former US secretary of state and climate envoy John Kerry tells the Guardian that, as fossil-fuel prices soar, countries should seek energy independence by building domestic clean energy.
• Bloomberg reports that Trump is preparing to “invoke Cold War-era powers” to enable renewed oil production in southern California, in “a long-shot bid to help ease the global crude supply crunch”.
• The New York Times has an article exploring how the Iran war “could spur a shift to clean energy – but also to coal”.
• The Financial Times reports that the nuclear power sector is “positioning to capitalise on Donald Trump’s war in Iran”, as governments consider alternatives to fossil fuels.
• The world’s biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Qatar has not exported a shipment for five days – the longest ever streak in data going back to 2008, according to Bloomberg.
• The Guardian reports on how desalination plants are “the Gulf’s greatest weakness”, noting that Iran has also been suffering from drought that “has been made far more severe” by climate change. Inside Climate News has a similar article.
• Axios reports on how Russian oil prices are “skyrocketing”, with Russia emerging as a “winner” from the current conflict. However, Bloomberg reports that Russia’s oil output has been declining in recent months, partly due to US sanctions.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has told a meeting in the southern Indian state of Kerala that the nation needs to become less dependent on imported energy, reports Bloomberg. The outlet says Modi added that India’s push to develop renewable energy and electric vehicles would cut its fuel needs. The prime minister stressed that the nation had “taken steps over the years to achieve” more energy independence, citing India’s increased solar power capacity. CNBC TV18 reports that Modi also pointed to India’s rail electrification efforts.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that the Indian government says it has sufficient coal supplies to meet what is set ​to be an “unprecedented surge in demand during ‌the summer months”. This is because India expects to boost its coal ​power usage after the ​Middle East conflict “hit its supplies of natural gas”. The Telegraph India reports that the Indian government has asked consumers “not to panic about gas supplies and conserve energy”. It notes that India is the world’s second-largest importer of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and that it is struggling to meet domestic demand. The Independent reports that LPG, used for cooking, is being rationed. India Today notes how a 40C “heatwave” is “gripping” parts of western and central India.

UK prime minister Keir Starmer has said he will keep “under review” government plans to raise fuel duty on petrol and diesel for the first time in 15 years this coming September, reports the Financial Times. The newspaper says his comment comes “as prices at the pump start creeping up in response to the crisis in the Middle East”. It adds that Starmer’s comments “confirmed that ministers recognise they could be forced to spend billions of pounds supporting households and businesses through an energy crisis”. Meanwhile, senior company executives from the UK’s top energy retail companies are set to meet with energy secretary Ed Miliband to discuss the risk of higher energy prices, amid the “ongoing crisis in the Middle East”, according to Politico.

MORE ON UK

• Gas power plants have secured almost 60% of new capacity in the UK’s latest market auction, “despite” the nation’s “push for clean power”, reports Bloomberg. It explains that the auction was “intended to ensure that enough capacity is available when solar and wind generation is low”.
• Wales is set to become the first part of the UK to “mandate” solar panels on new buildings when new regulations come into force in 2027, reports BusinessGreen.
• BBC News reports that artificial intelligence (AI) data centres “could get priority access to the electricity grid under new government proposals to tackle soaring energy demands”.
• The hard-right, climate-sceptic Reform UK party is set to confirm that it would scrap subsidies for heat pumps, drawing criticism from the Labour government for “opposing the products that can help bring down energy bills”, according to BusinessGreen. 
• A new report warns that there is a “tangible current threat” to critical infrastructure – such as wind farm cables in the North Sea from malicious entities dragging ship anchors – as well as cyberattacks, reports the Times.
• Almost 2m homes and businesses in the UK that use heating oil to keep warm are “facing a major cost increase as a result of the Middle East crisis” due to its “more volatile pricing”, according to the Independent.

Chinese state news agency Xinhua says that hydrogen energy and nuclear fusion energy will lay an “energy foundation” for China’s “green” development, noting that “future energy” became a “hot topic of discussion” at the “two sessions” meeting in Beijing earlier this month. “New energy” has become the “core focus” for local authorities across China, reports International Energy Net, citing the government work reports across all 31 provinces. Delegations at the “two sessions” also called for China to strengthen “ecological protection barriers” and reshape “new industrial advantages” through breakthroughs in low-carbon technologies, reports China Securities Journal. A China Daily comment article by reporter Hou Liqiang says that establishing a low-carbon transition fund can support “coordinated efforts to cut emissions, reduce pollution and pursue green growth”. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quotes Jin Zhijun from Peking University, saying that energy security cannot be “compromised” for green development.

Meanwhile, People’s Daily publishes an article under the byline “He Yin” – indicating the views of party leadership on foreign policy – saying that China is becoming a “source of hope” for the “global green transition” and will continue to work with all countries to “address global climate challenges”. Another He Yin article published by People’s Daily says that unilateralism and protectionism have “seriously impacted global development”, citing a report by the World Economic Forum. People’s Daily says that China’s goal of cutting carbon intensity by 3.8% “balances the needs” of development, low-carbon transition and national energy security. Miao Wei, former head of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, writes an article in People’s Daily stating that the share of “green electricity” in China will keep rising and provide “long-term competitiveness” for the AI industry. Zhao Yingmin, former vice minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, tells CPPCC Daily that the outline of the 15th five-year plan breaks away from the idea that “emissions reduction means reducing productivity”.

MORE ON CHINA

• Chinese companies were involved in more than 500 renewable energy projects in other countries between October 2022 and June 2025, reports the Paper.
• People’s Daily: “Green is the most distinctive hue of a Beautiful China.” 
• Nuclear energy must be part of the solution to the global energy transition and decarbonisation, says an editorial in China Daily. Lin Boqiang, with Xiamen University, tells Global Times that nuclear power will play a “vital role” in achieving carbon neutrality and addressing global climate change.
• New energy vehicle (NEV) sales in China fell 15% in February, reports Reuters, following the “end of a tax break and lower government ​subsidies”.
• The Financial Times reports that India has relaxed curbs on Chinese investment in sectors such as solar cells.
• China Electric Power News reports that the world’s first 630C “ultra-supercritical” coal power plant, built in China, has completed commissioning. BJX News reports on China’s first hydropower project to receive investment from private firms “through an open selection process”.

The Guardian covers analysis showing that such record floods “that have brought death and destruction to the heartland of Brazil’s coffee industry are expected to intensify if people continue to burn fossil fuels”. ((o))eco reports that cities in the Zona da Mata region of Brazil’s Minas Gerais state have over recent weeks experienced “one of the most intense episodes of rainfall ever recorded”. In February alone the city of Juiz de Fora recorded more than double the expected rainfall for the month, which “left floods, landslides, dozens of deaths and thousands of displaced people”. This “is an expression of a pattern that scientists have already identified: the intensification of extreme weather events in Brazil,” says the outlet, adding that the lack of urban planning and natural structures, such as forests, “aggravates each event”.

MORE ON LATIN AMERICA

• Colombia’s new congress, which will begin on 20 July, will have to “resume discussions about environmental defenders, deforestation in the Amazon, energy transition and climate action”, according to experts consulted by Mongabay.
• Columnist Iván Arenas argues in El Comercio that Peru needs to plan for its energy security in the coming 50 years, as the country imports 76% of its diesel and petrol plus 30% of its gas.
• Companies need to “measure and disclose their environmental performance in areas such as decarbonisation or supply chain traceability”, according to columnist Lorena Rivera in Mexico’s Excélsior.
• A comment piece in ((o))eco is headlined: “Deforestation in the Amazon costs Brazilians more than US$1bn a year in electricity bills.”

Natasha Sarin, a New York Times comment writer who served in the US Treasury during the Biden administration, writes that the Trump administration can no longer claim to have brought energy prices down after initiating war in Iran. She writes: “If it seems confounding that a president would start a war that’s guaranteed to raise the prices he had repeatedly vowed to lower, well, it’s not the first time, because the Trump administration was already doing battle against the single surest path to cheaper energy: renewables.” She points to the success of renewables in the US and Trump’s efforts to derail them. Sarin adds: “Paradoxically, the new war against Iran may make the old war on renewables less politically attractive. We have long known that American dependence on oil is a national security threat, but the events of this past week make the point undeniable.”

Conversely, an editorial in the climate-sceptic comment pages of the Wall Street Journal stresses the importance of US fossil fuels, taking aim at “the anti-fossil-fuel crowd” and concluding that: “The war in Iran is another reminder that US oil and gas is a strategic asset. The left’s siren calls to unilaterally disarm would empower America’s adversaries.”

MORE COMMENT

• An editorial in the Hindu criticises the Indian government’s response to the unfolding energy crisis, noting India’s dependence on imported oil and, in particular, stressing the importance of importing oil from Russia.
• Climate scientist Hannah Daly has an article in the Irish Times about how the conflict in the Middle East shows the “price of our dependence on fossil fuels”.
• Alex Chapman, a senior economist at the New Economics Foundation, writes for LBC about [Reform UK leader] “Nigel Farage’s ridiculous war on heat pumps”.
• An editorial in the climate-sceptic Daily Express argues that another fuel-duty freeze in the UK is “vital”. The newspaper also gives its main comment slot to right-wing columnist Esther Krakue, who claims the UK “has no serious energy policy” and criticises energy secretary Ed Miliband.

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Josh Gabbatiss, with contributions from Henry Zhang, Yanine Quiroz and Anika Patel. It was edited by Leo Hickman.

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