As the votes from a handful of key states continue to be counted and with Joe Biden looking on course to take the presidency, global coverage of the US presidential election continues. Bloomberg reports that even if Biden does take the White House, he will struggle to get his “ambitious climate agenda” past a Senate that now seems likely to remain in Republican control. It quotes a Republican donor and oil drilling executive who says the Democratic candidate will not be able to “ram…a costly, zero-carbon mandate” through a Republican Senate. Instead, Biden will have to rely on federal agencies adapting “decades-old laws” to address climate change, but such regulations may face tough scrutiny in federal courts “reshaped” by more than 200 Trump-appointed judges, Bloomberg notes. The Financial Times reports that US oil-and-gas stocks rose and those of renewable energy producers fell on Wednesday in response to the likely lack of a Democratic majority in the Senate. It states that while $2tn of spending on clean energy had been pledged by Biden during his campaign, this proposal now “hangs in the balance” and looks especially unlikely given the Supreme Court’s recent shift to the right under the Trump administration. The newspaper quotes Bob McNally, a former adviser to President George W Bush, who says “court-packing, adding states and large tax hikes on oil and gas companies go out the window”. In its coverage, S&P Global Platts reports that the lack of a “strong blue wave” the Democrats had hoped for meant the ability to use the budget-reconciliation process or eliminate the filibuster, both moves discussed in the context of passing climate legislation, now looked unlikely.

In contrast, Reuters quotes a lobbyist who suggests that Biden’s relationships with senators formed over decades could help him push some “modest legislation” on energy and climate. InsideClimate News echoes the point that there could be some moderate progress in a Republican-majority Senate, but notes that the party “have not so far put forward any comprehensive climate plans”. The website also reports that Democrats will still control the House of Representatives, where they will likely “continue to press for action on climate change”. For more on the climate policies of both candidates and their parties, see Carbon Brief’s US election tracker, which compares the Democrat and Republican positions on climate change and energy. Analysis in Axios looks specifically at “climate’s role in the chaotic election”.

Following the US departure from the Paris Agreement, which coincided with the election, Reuters reports that a Japanese government spokesman has called the decision “extremely regrettable”. A New York Times article states that if the US rejoins the agreement, as Biden says he intends to, the country would find it has “a lot of catching up to do to both reduce emissions and rebuild trust with its international allies”. Climate Home News reports that climate campaigners have “reacted angrily” to Donald Trump’s unfounded claim that he won the presidential election. Its coverage quotes several activists criticising the president and calling on the authorities to “count every vote”.

In other US politics news, the Washington Post reports that the Trump administration has proposed a “mainstream climate scientist”, Betsy Weatherhead, to lead the next National Climate Assessment. “Her appointment stands in sharp contrast to two recent high-level political hires…[and is] also is in contrast to the climate change views of President Trump,” the article notes.

The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) has announced that wind energy will achieve record growth globally over the next five years, according to Reuters. It notes that, according to a new outlook report from the trade association, the impact of Covid-19 has only been to delay and not cancel projects. In total, the council expects cumulative wind power capacity to reach almost 1,000GW by 2024, driven largely by growth in China and the US.

Separately, BusinessGreen reports on the latest figures from the national trade association RenewableUK, which predicts onshore wind capacity will hit 30GW by end of decade. It notes that government-backed auctions for onshore renewables contracts are set to resume after a four-year hiatus next spring. Meanwhile, the i newspaper reports that installations of solar panels by both homes and power companies have “virtually ground to a halt” after a series of subsidy cuts by the government in recent years, including the scrapping of home panel subsidies last year. The article notes that, based on government figures, the UK’s solar power capacity increased by just 1.5% in the past year, compared to solar power installations increasing by 85% in 2014, 78% in 2015 and 36% in 2016 “when financial support was strong”.

The Guardian reports that wind and solar power displacing fossil-fuel generation has cut Australia’s emissions more than the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new analysis conducted by energy consultant Hugh Saddler. Another Guardian article says the Australian state of Victoria is planning to construct a 300MW Tesla battery, which would be one of the biggest in the world to help stabilise the grid as renewables make up an increasing part of the energy system.

The Guardian reports on a call from the Climate Coalition, made up of 70 charities and campaigning groups representing about 22 million supporters around the UK, for a decade-long rollout of home insulation and heat pumps to replace gas boilers. The strategy is “urgently needed to enable the UK to meet its climate obligations and recover from the Covid-19 recession”, according to the campaigners, quoted in the newspaper. They say expanding the government’s existing scheme to a long-term programme would be “one of the biggest ways to ensure carbon targets are met”. (More information on the UK’s “green recovery” proposals can be found in this interactive Carbon Brief article.)

Separately, the Guardian reports on a call from health professions in the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change for climate tax on meat and other food with a “heavy environmental impact” by 2025.

In a column focusing largely on climate change, Los Angeles Times columnist Nicholas Goldberg looks at the “chaos and confusion” that has been the hallmark of this presidential election and concludes that while it is likely Biden will take the White House, “on one level, Donald Trump has already won”. Reflecting on the impact of Trump’s presidency, he pulls out “one simple policy issue” to illustrate his case: “The most heinous crime of Donald Trump’s first term — worse than Ukraine, worse than Charlottesville, worse even than separating children from their parents at the border — is how he has handled the issue of climate change”. He notes the president’s climate scepticism, his support for fossil fuels and dismantling of emissions regulations, and says it is a “fitting capper” on Trump’s first term that on Wednesday the US formally left the Paris Agreement. “If you need one example of lasting damage Trump has done, that’s it. His determination to reject the science of climate change is a crime against humanity. He’s made his point and made his mark, to our detriment. It’s time for him to go,” Goldberg concludes.

Other columnists reflect on what the current state of affairs will mean for a Biden presidency if the Democrat does indeed triumph over his Republican rival. In a column titled, “If Biden wins, he’ll inherit a mission impossible”, Washington Post deputy editorial page editor Ruth Marcus lists the challenges ahead: “an electorate divided; a likely Republican Senate disinclined to compromise; and a Trump-enhanced Supreme Court poised to frustrate him at every turn”. She goes on to list “taking on the longer-term challenges of climate change” as one of Biden’s future struggles. Another column by the newspaper’s Paul Waldman concludes that the lack of a Senate majority means “no aggressive legislation to address climate change”.

In his “election hot take”, BusinessGreen editor James S Murray writes that the “battle for the future of the climate is reaching boiling point” as uncertainty reigns during the US election. “The obvious lesson is the one that was being wisely preached by climate diplomats and analysts ahead of the election: we should put more faith in economics and technology than in politics,” he writes, noting that the world cannot rely on consistent policy support and US engagement.

Finally, a column in the Times by Simon Nixon looks at how the US election and a potential Biden victory could impact the UK government’s preparations for the COP26 climate summit. “COP26 is Mr Johnson’s opportunity to show to Mr Biden, who in the past has been critical of the prime minister, that he can be an effective partner,” he writes. “A virtual meeting will take place on December 12, hosted by Britain, when governments are supposed to set out their own national carbon reduction plans. That will be a first test of the government’s credibility. If it wants to impress a possible President-elect Biden, it had better not flunk it.”

A Nature editorial states that the plan to green 7,000km of Africa’s drylands is “struggling to take off”, with less than one-fifth of the designated land area restored or rehabilitated since it was proposed 13 years ago. The African Union does not see the “green wall” as a priority and donors are reluctant to commit further funding, the editorial says. “Researchers, governments and international agencies must work together better to rehabilitate this crucial scheme,” it states. The editorial makes the point that the wall is even more important now than when it was proposed, “given the threat from climate change” in the region.

Inhabitants of the Isles of Scilly in northwest Europe during the Bronze Age adapted to rising sea levels rather than abandoning their homes, a new study suggests. The researchers use “reconstructions of prehistoric sea-level rise, palaeogeographies, terrestrial landscape change, and human population dynamics” to show how the gradual inundation of the islands 4–5,000 years ago resulted in “decidedly nonlinear landscape and cultural responses to rising sea levels”. The findings suggest that shifting coastlines coincided with a flurry of building activity, including construction of a richer array of monuments during the Bronze Age than in any other period.