The US government yesterday announced a goal of replacing all jet fuel with sustainable alternatives by 2050, reports the Washington Post, “setting forth a plan to dramatically boost production of fuels that drive down carbon emissions in coming years”. The paper continues: “In a factsheet announcing the plan, the White House said speeding adoption of the new fuels and other steps to reduce emissions from flying ‘will transform the aviation sector, create good-paying jobs, support American agriculture and manufacturing, and help us tackle the climate crisis’.” Aviation accounts for about 3% of US greenhouse gas emissions, the paper notes, adding: “The federal government’s new goal targets annual production of 3bn gallons of the fuels by 2030 – a level the White House says would enable a 20% cut in carbon emissions from flying compared with doing nothing. Production on that scale would represent just over a 10th of the fuel airlines consumed in 2019, but would be a huge leap from the estimated 4.5m gallons that is estimated to have been produced in the US last year.” The White House announcement comes as the US and Europe are trying to boost production of sustainable aviation fuel, notes Reuters, which is currently made “in miniscule quantities from feedstocks such as used cooking oil and animal fat, and can be two to five times more expensive than standard jet fuel”. The Hill also has the story, while Reuters also reports that US oil major Chevron Corp and renewable energy firm Gevo Inc announced yesterday it will jointly invest in building and operating one or more facilities that would process corn to produce sustainable aviation fuel.

In the UK, a group of academics and researchers have written to the Times to criticise “Jet Zero” – the government’s proposed strategy to decarbonise flying – which “would allow UK aviation emissions to increase up to 2030 from 2019 levels”. They write: “This is counter to very clear advice from the UK Climate Change Committee to the government: measures to limit demand for flying should form an integral part of meeting our emissions reduction targets, alongside exploring the longer term technological innovations set out in Jet Zero.” The Times also reports that “greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft are expected to rise in the next decade despite mounting fears over climate change”.

Across Britain, consumers and businesses are “feeling the pinch from rising energy prices”, reports the Times, as a result of “soaring wholesale gas and electricity costs over the past six months”. There “could be worse to come”, the paper warns as “this week UK wholesale gas and electricity prices hit all-time highs – and it is not even winter”. It adds: “There are similar scenes across Europe, with record prices provoking protests in Spain, and natural gas prices are surging globally amid a fundamental mismatch between supply and demand…In Asia the winter was also cold and demand has bounced back particularly strongly from the pandemic, drawing cargoes of liquefied natural gas away from Europe.” High gas prices have been a key driver of power costs because Britain generates the biggest share of its electricity from gas-fired power stations, the paper explains, noting that “there has been much less wind power than usual, making Britain even more reliant on burning expensive gas”. Bloomberg reports that Ireland – “which usually exports wind power to the UK” – is facing acute supply shortages and issued an amber warning yesterday, “signalling that the country could face blackouts”. It adds: “Record-high gas prices are being driven by tight supplies that likely won’t ease much in Europe until a new pipeline from Russia begins operating. At the same time, the UK is seeing a dearth in wind speeds that would normally be providing more renewable power to the country’s grid.” In his Reuters column, market analyst John Kemp writes that “global gas prices have climbed to their highest level for seven years in real terms, as traders anticipate a shortage this winter, with consumption rebounding more quickly than production from the pandemic slump last year”. And the Financial Times Energy Source column notes that “a long cold winter in Asia and Europe drained storage levels” and “then high levels of maintenance, much of it delayed by the pandemic from 2020, hit supply this year, thwarting efforts to refill storage over the northern hemisphere summer”.

In other energy news, the Guardian reports that the annual report from the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) indicates that wind farm installations are expected to double to record global levels this year, after a short-lived Covid-19 slowdown. And the Financial Times reports that “uranium prices soar as investors scoop up nuclear power fuel”.

All new homes and offices will feature electric car chargers under new laws designed to address fears over a shortage of plug-in points, reports the Times. Rachel Maclean, the transport minister, said legislation would be brought forward later this year to accelerate the rollout of charge points across the country, the paper explains. It continues: “The legislation, billed as the first of its kind in the world, will also require all chargers to be ‘smart’ devices that will ensure batteries can be replenished without overloading the grid. This includes promoting the use of charging overnight. The rules are expected to come into force next year.” The Daily Telegraph notes that the government originally announced its proposals to mandate that all new homes have a charge point “with an associated parking space” back in 2019. It adds that the plans also state that “new office blocks would need to install a charge point for every five parking spaces”. Separately, the paper also reports that the motoring magazine Auto Trader has warned that electric car sales are not rising fast enough for the vehicles to replace petrol ones in time for the government’s ban in 2030.

Elsewhere in the UK, Sky News reports that Australia and the UK were “at odds” over why key climate targets were stripped out of the trade deal being negotiated between the two countries. Scott Morrison, the Australian prime minister, confirmed the story and told a press conference: “It wasn’t a climate agreement, it was a trade agreement. And I do trade agreements, and in trade agreements, I deal with trade issues. In climate agreements, I deal with climate issues.” However, when asked at a conference, business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said he “didn’t recognise that issue that somehow we’d removed the Paris Agreement language”. He added: “There may have been an issue about specifically putting the 1.5C on the face of the negotiating mandate, but there was absolutely explicit reference in the Paris Agreement in the negotiating mandate, so I wasn’t quite sure where this story was coming from.”

In COP26 news, the Guardian reports that Scotland-based climate campaigners have condemned “the most exclusionary COP ever”, as they reveal a waiting list of nearly 2,000 delegates and activists who were still seeking affordable accommodation for November’s summit in Glasgow. The Scotsman reports that Police Scotland have warned that any COP26 protest on the M8 motorway – which runs through Glasgow city centre – would be stopped for safety reasons.

Finally, the Independent reports that, as Gatwick airport launches a public consultation on its planned expansion, campaigners have warned that a second runway at the airport would be a “disaster for the climate”. And the i newspaper has an “exclusive” about how the “controversial new coal mine planned in Cumbria has been condemned by the carbon offsetting organisation it had hoped would give it the veneer of green credibility”.

House of Representatives Democrats yesterday unveiled details of a proposed $150bn payment programme aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector, reports Reuters. The newswire explains: “The system would reward utilities that increase their production of power from low-emissions sources like solar, wind and hydro, and penalise those that do not, according to a document released by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce outlining key provisions to be included in a $3.5tn budget reconciliation bill.” It continues: “Under the so-called Clean Electricity Performance Program, which would run from 2023 to 2030, utilities would receive payments from the Energy Department if they increase clean energy supplies by 4% annually, according to the document. The $150-per-megawatt-hour grant would apply to all clean power produced by an eligible utility above 1.5% of the previous year’s clean electricity supply.” The House Energy committee will begin consideration of the plan on Monday, reports the New York Times, which adds: “Many Democrats returning from recess to Washington next week say they are emboldened to push for the clean electricity plan and other aggressive climate action after a summer in which nearly every corner of the country experienced deadly drought, floods, wildfires and heatwaves that scientists say have been worsened by climate change.” The Hill also has the story, plus reports on analysis from two environmental groups that suggests that plan would create nearly 8m jobs in the US over the next decade.

Reuters reports that the House Natural Resources Committee late yesterday passed legislation that will go into the wider budget reconciliation package that includes restoring protections for Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the Outer Continental Shelf from oil and gas drilling. The $31.7bn measure “would also slap new fees on oil and mining companies while funding drought relief, conservation and other programmes”, says Bloomberg. The New York Times also reports on the “drafting sessions” by different House committees to produce the different elements that will go into the final $3.5tn bill this autumn.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that President Biden plans to nominate regulatory lawyer Willie Phillips to serve as a commissioner on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), a panel that could play an increasingly important role in his effort to fight climate change. Politico says the move “could boost Chair Richard Glick’s efforts to speed deployment of renewable energy, fight climate change and address environmental threats to low-income areas and communities of colour”. The Hill also has the story.

In related news, Reuters reports that John Morton – the US Treasury’s top climate official – said yesterday that programmes to accelerate the closure of coal-fired power plants are an “absolutely critical part” of fighting climate change but carry some risks. A separate Reuters piece reports that Morton said that the Treasury views “debt for nature” swaps as an attractive way to mobilise more capital to fight climate change and support emissions reductions goals.

Quartz looks back at US special climate envoy John Kerry’s trip to China. The website says one reason Kerry’s talks “yielded no concrete agreements or public pledges” could be that “for Beijing and Washington, the prospect of global climate cooperation is creating a strong undercurrent of climate competition”. China’s state broadcaster, CCTV, says in an editorial: “Some western media think that [Kerry] ‘returned without accomplishment’. However, this is not the case. Kerry’s biggest gain from this trip is, undoubtedly, the understanding of how to get Sino-US relations out of trouble.” The article notes that the US “should recognise” that “it is impossible to separate climate change cooperation from the overall sentiment of China-US relations”. It adds that China and the US have their “respective wish lists” for climate cooperation. It explains that Kerry wants China to increase its speed and depth in emission reduction, but China wants Washington to announce its plan to “dramatically cut emissions” and to provide “more funds” to developing countries to help them obtain “clean technologies”.  Global Times, a state-run newspaper, carries an editorial with the headline “China-US green cooperation set to progress amid twists.”

Meanwhile, the Guardian says that a phone call – the first for for seven months – between China’s president Xi Jinping and Joe Biden covered “economic issues, climate change and Covid-19”, according to a US official. However, the US government’s official “readout” of the call makes no mention of climate change. Bloomberg reports that Xi Jinping “hasn’t set foot outside China for 600 days”. The newswire says that the leader’s “desire to stay in the country” due to its stringent Covid-19 policies “could start having diplomatic consequences – particularly if he avoids the G20 meeting in Rome at the end of October and a UN climate summit [COP26] right afterwards”. Citing “a government official and senior European diplomat”, the article says that Xi has not confirmed his attendance at the G20 meeting or COP26. CGTN, the English arm of CCTV, runs a statement released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment yesterday. The authority confirmed that China’s special envoy for climate change affairs, Xie Zhenhua, held talks with Alok Sharma, COP26’s president-designate, on climate change in Tianjin from 5 to 7 September, the official news outlet says. It adds: “Both sides had constructive exchanges on the overall arrangements and key issues of COP26, global climate action and China-UK cooperation on climate change, according to the statement.” Reuters also reports on the “candid, in-depth and constructive” talks.

Elsewhere, Reuters reports that a report from an “influential government advisory body” says that China needs to impose an absolute cap on carbon emissions during the 2021-25 period to help meet its climate goals. The newswire continues: “The China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), a policy research body chaired by Vice Premier Han Zheng, said China needs to establish mechanisms to control absolute emission levels and impose caps on individual provinces and industries. In recommendations published on Thursday, it also urged China to improve its flawed carbon pricing system, devise detailed plans and timetables to electrify its transport system and remove conventional vehicles, and to create a renewables-based energy system.”

Finally, Sixth Tone, a Shanghai-based English-language news site, features a study that analysed the relationship between the shape of ancient Chinese roofs and climate change. The outlet says the paper found that “increases in extreme snowfall events led to steeper roofs that did not accumulate as much snow”. It continues: “During warmer eras, roofs were more gently sloped, in part to save on materials and labour. Roofs were the most costly part of a building in ancient China, according to the paper.”

Reuters reports that “two weeks of losses in US offshore energy production spiralled on Thursday, with prolonged outages from Hurricane Ida leading to oil contract cancellations around the globe”. Government data shows that three-quarters of US Gulf of Mexico oil production remains offline, the newswire says, adding: “Power outages at onshore processing and pipeline facilities have prevented some oil production from reaching shore, which has supported oil prices since last week.” Oil major Royal Dutch Shell declared “force majeure” on “numerous contracts” for oil shipments to Asia as a result of the damage, says another Reuters piece. A third piece reports that Exxon Mobil has asked the US Energy Department for another loan of 1.5m barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. (At the same time, Reuters reports that Exxon has announced a discovery at Pinktail in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, as it develops a major new oil and gas find.) And the Financial Times reports that China has announced it will sell oil from its state petroleum reserves for the first time, “as Beijing steps up efforts to rein in inflationary pressures stemming from commodity markets”.

Elsewhere, Politico reports on the prospects of Norway’s Green Party in next week’s general election. It says the party wanted the election to be “about shutting down the country’s trillion-dollar oil industry”, but it is “not looking like a winning campaign issue in a country that’s ridden decades of oil and gas sales to astonishing wealth”.

A Guardian editorial comments on the switching on of the world’s largest carbon capture and storage plant in Iceland, which the paper describes as a “glimmer of hope in a bleak climate landscape”. (See yesterday’s Daily Briefing for more.) While small, “the project brings a step closer the possibility that significant amounts of CO2 could, one day, be removed from the atmosphere”, the editorial says. However, the “significant risks that such technological developments carry must be addressed head-on”, it warns: “The danger is that they are a displacement activity from the massive and necessary task of reducing and then eliminating emissions.” With just seven weeks until COP26, “pressure is building on all those with the power to influence decisions”, the paper adds: “The fast-falling cost of renewables sends a clear signal that there is a route to safety. So does the political momentum generated by younger generations of voters and activists who are full of fear for the future. But the role of technologies such as that being tested in Iceland, and new forms of nuclear energy, remain highly contested and unclear. The inescapable fact remains unchanged: fossil fuels will continue to heat up our planet for as long as we keep burning them. Net-zero pledges are empty promises unless they are accompanied by binding commitments to stop.”

In other UK comment, Guardian columnist George Monbiot warns that potential “tipping points” in the Earth system mean that the “target that much of the world is now adopting for climate action – net-zero by 2050 – begins to look neither rational nor safe”. His article also touches on carbon capture, noting that the various techniques “are unlikely to be deployed at scale in the future for the same reason that they’re not being deployed at scale today, despite 20 years of talk: technical and logistical barriers”. He adds: “Even when all the promised technofixes and offsets are counted, current policies commit us to a calamitous 2.9C of global heating. To risk irreversible change by proceeding at such a leisurely pace, to rely on undelivered technologies and nonexistent capacities: this is a formula for catastrophe.” (For more on tipping points, see Carbon Brief‘s in-depth explainer.)

Unusually high deep-water temperatures in the Arctic thousands of years ago “repeatedly destabilised” methane hydrates stored beneath the seafloor, leading to the release of the potent greenhouse gas, according to a new study. Using proxy data stretching back 18,000 years, researchers identify several periods of “extreme” bottom water temperatures – as high as 5.5C; then, using models, they link the destabilisation of the hydrates to these unusually warm temperatures. They find that the high temperatures near the seafloor had an “important role” in releasing methane from seabed hydrates and in triggering the collapse of a key Arctic ice sheet “multiple” times since the last ice age.

A new study finds that changes to temperatures and rainfall in Malawi could decrease the amount of land suitable for macadamia – one of the country’s most profitable crop species – by around 20% in the coming decades. Using an ensemble of biodiversity-equipped climate models, researchers predict the future distribution of macadamia crops in Malawi. They find that the southern and central portions of the country will be the hardest-hit by the climatic changes, losing more than 8% of the planting area, while smaller losses will be felt in northern Malawi. The researchers conclude that “area-specific adaptation strategies are required to build resilience among producers”.