Former Conservative prime minister Theresa May has called Kemi Badenoch’s pledge to scrap the UK Climate Change Act a “catastrophic mistake”, the Financial Times reports. Under May’s leadership in 2017, the UK became the first G7 nation to set a net-zero target, the newspaper notes. May tells the FT: “I am deeply disappointed by this retrograde step, which upends 17 years of consensus between our main political parties and the scientific community. To row back now would be a catastrophic mistake for while that consensus is being tested, the science remains the same.” May’s comments are covered by the Times, Daily Telegraph, Independent, Daily Express, Daily Mirror and Press Association. The Times separately reports that former Conservative environment minister and climate tsar Lord Deben has said that ex-prime minister Margaret Thatcher would have been “appalled” by Badenoch’s proposal. The Daily Mail says that other Tory figures, including COP26 president Lord Sharma, have hit out at Badenoch’s plans. The Huffington Post reports that “campaigners and industry chiefs” said Badenoch’s pledge equates her with “climate denialists, conspiracy theorists and far-right extremists”.

MORE ON UK

• The UK and EU are “poised to agree a deal sparing British businesses from a carbon border tax being introduced in 2026”, the Guardian says.
• Some of the UK’s biggest banks are “investing ever larger sums into fossil fuels”, according to analysis covered by the Press Association.
• Green party leader, Zack Polanski, has “called for the Bank of England to stop paying interest on reserves held by commercial lenders and instead invest in public services”, the Financial Times says.
• BusinessGreen reports on a letter from the UK’s Climate Change Committee to the government warning that tweaks to the zero emissions vehicle mandate could incentivise the sale of plug-in hybrids, making it harder for the UK to meet its electric vehicle targets.
• The Daily Express says EVs in the UK are “more affordable than ever”, with prices for a “typical” model recently dropping by £55 a month, if paid for with a monthly contract.

China’s auto manufacturers are gaining ground in the EU, holding a share of almost 9.8% of the bloc’s hybrid vehicle sales and 9.6% of electric vehicles (EVs) sales in August, Bloomberg reports. The outlet, citing findings by market research firm Dataforce, adds that Chinese automakers have “pivoted to selling more hybrids this year” after the EU imposed tariffs on Chinese-made EV imports, adding that they “want to depend less on pure electric cars”. Nevertheless, it says, BYD and other Chinese car manufacturers have “increased EV sales”, with BYD’s Europe sales having “more than doubled” year-on-year in August.

MORE ON CHINA

• SCMP: “How China was ready for Super Typhoon Ragasa – and what still needs to be done.”
• China’s campaign to “contain the expansion of deserts…[due to] intensive farming, grazing, mining and climate change” has “increase[d] available pastures”, but also “erodes traditional farming practices and culture”, Agence France-Presse reports.
• The Global Times reports that, between January and August 2025, China “issued 356 green bonds totalling 648bn yuan ($91bn)”.
• Reuters reports that China and Malaysia are in “early talks” on jointly processing rare earth. Meanwhile, Xinhua reports, China and Egypt signed a “cooperation protocol” on “sustainable agriculture and environmental conservation”.
• The print edition of People’s Daily carries an article under the byline Zhong Caiwen, which indicates the article conveys party leaders’ views on economic affairs, saying “new progress has been made in the green and low-carbon transition…making China’s economic development more environmentally sustainable”.
• Another article in the People Daily’s print edition, under the byline He Yin – indicating the article conveys the party leadership’s views on foreign policy – says China’s new climate pledge provides a “significant boost to the struggling global climate governance process”.

Eating a plant-rich “planetary health diet” could save 40,000 deaths each day globally, according to a landmark report covered by the Guardian. It continues: “The diet – which allows moderate meat consumption – and related measures would also slash the food-related emissions driving global heating by half by 2050. Today, a third of greenhouse gas emissions come from the global food system and taming the climate crisis is impossible without changing how the world eats, the researchers said. Food production is also the biggest cause of the destruction of wildlife and forests and the pollution of water.” Bloomberg notes that this is the second landmark report from the EAT-Lancet Commission and that “eat[ing] less meat is still the message”. It comes after the report authors were subjected to smear campaigns and abuse after recommending a global diet including less meat for the first time in 2019, the outlet notes. Carbon Brief outlines three takeaways for climate and diets from the report.

The German government is planning to invest more than €2bn (£1.7bn) by 2029 to support its ambition to build the first nuclear fusion reactor in the country, reports Clean Energy Wire (CLEW). In its fusion energy action plan, the government said the funds will flow into research and developing pilot projects, CLEW reports. Handelsblatt adds that the German ruling coalition is planning the world’s first fusion power plant with “priority given to German companies” when it comes to project implementation. The project will be implemented as part of the high-tech agenda by the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space, notes the outlet. Tagesspiegel and Table.Media also cover the story. Manager Magazin reports that German energy company RWE is investing in the third major nuclear fusion start-up. The article quotes a company statement in which RWE says it is “participating as a strategic partner in a first step with €10m in the laser fusion company Focused Energy”. 

MORE ON GERMANY

• Stern reports that RWE has withdrawn from a planned “green hydrogen” project in Namibia – which was supposed to start in 2027 and envisioned sourcing up to 300,000 tonnes of “green ammonia” per year from Africa – due to “slow-developing demand”.
• Manager Magazin reports that German economy minister Katherina Reiche “expressed confidence” that an agreement on a state-subsidised industrial electricity price will be reached by the end of the year.

An editorial in the Guardian is critical of Badenoch’s “crazy” pledge to scrap the Climate Change Act. It says: “Badenoch’s plan to scrap the Climate Change Act is reckless. Ed Miliband offers a bolder, fairer vision. The future must be built on renewables.” For the Financial Times Inside Politics newsletter, writer Stephen Bush says Badenoch’s “climate gamble doesn’t add up”, adding: “Tackling climate change comes with costs, but so too does not tackling it. The big hole in Badenoch’s approach is that she seems to envisage a world in which Britain stops spending money on decarbonisation, but does not have to spend any cash on mitigation and adaptation. This world does not exist.” Hugo Gye, political editor of the i newspaper, says: “If climate rollback is all the Tories have, then they’re in big trouble.” Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph has a column from climate-sceptic “independent” energy consultant Kathryn Porter praising Badenoch and saying she should be “ruthless” in her dismantling of climate policy. Daily Express opinion writer Duncan Barkes says Badenoch “could be about to lead the greatest of comebacks in UK politics”.

MORE COMMENT

• Michael Jacobs, professor of political economy at the University of Sheffield, writes in the Guardian that prime minister Keir Starmer cannot let “fear of Farage” prevent him from “help[ing] to shape the future of the world” by attending the COP30 climate summit in Brazil.
• Times leader writer Sebastian Payne says “Ed Miliband’s a Labour linchpin but net-zero could undo him”. [The article falsely claims that “renewables are no longer the cheapest form of energy”, despite the International Energy Agency reaffirming in 2024 that solar and onshore wind “remain the cheapest source of electricity generation in the world”.]
• For the Daily Telegraph, world economy editor Ambrose Evans-Pritchard says the “looming” US electricity crisis could be “Trump’s Achilles’ heel”.
• The New York Times has published a number of audio recordings from its Climate Forward live series, including an event with Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese on climate risks facing the nation, a talk with COP30 president-designate André Aranha Corrêa do Lago and a reading by writer David Wallace-Wells.
• The Atlantic runs a book extract warning of the dangers of solving climate change by “simply replacing fossil-fuel extraction with critical-mineral mining”.

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Daisy Dunne, with contributions from Anika Patel and Henry Zhang. It was edited by Robert McSweeney.

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