UN climate chief Simon Stiell “expressed disappointment” and “denounced” governments for “cherry-picking” commitments they have already made and “waiting for others to move” first at the close of the UN climate talks in Bonn yesterday, reports Climate Home News. The outlet notes that the two-week meeting was “riven by arguments over finance and science” and ultimately “failed” to reach a deal that would have “balanced” developing countries’ demands for reassurance on finance to help them adapt to climate impacts with richer nations’ desire to move forward with work on emissions reductions in line with science. Bloomberg covers Stiell’s comments in the closing plenary, where he said:  “We’ve heard a familiar tendency towards ‘you-first-ism’: groups refusing to deliver commitments or allow the process to move forward unless others go first. This is a recipe for gridlock.” The outlet adds that the “lack of progress” on climate finance at Bonn risks “delaying the flow” of funds to developing countries at a time when other sources of climate investment and development aid are “shrinking”. Politico says the summit comes as countries are realising that the answer to the question of how to achieve climate targets “won’t be found in UN negotiation rooms where every climate decision, no matter how small, requires the consensus of all nations in attendance”. 

MORE ON DIPLOMACY

• At the “our ocean conference”, a group of West African nations has called for the eastern Atlantic to be included in the “first wave” of marine protected areas established under landmark treaty to protect the high seas, reports Climate Home News.
• Reuters: “ASEAN countries agree to up cooperation in renewable energy, natural gas, LNG, joint statement says.”

There is widespread coverage of a looming leadership race in the UK after Labour’s Andy Burnham won a by-election in Makerfield yesterday, capturing 55% of the vote. The Guardian says it “pav[es] the way for a challenge to Keir Starmer’s premiership”. The newspaper quotes Burnham as saying the result “could be a turning point” and that people had “voted for change, they have voted for more power for the north and everywhere forgotten by Westminster”. BBC News notes that the politician’s win clears a “major hurdle for the expected challenge for the Labour leadership”. Burnham allies have stepped up calls for Keir Starmer to “step aside”, it says. 

Meanwhile, the Conservatives “roundly beat” the Scottish National Party (SNP) in the Aberdeen South by-election after “weeks of hammering” them over restrictions on oil and gas drilling, reports Politico. The Tories overturned a more than 3,000-vote majority in the Scottish seat, it adds. The Times notes that the SNP has been “in crisis” since a corruption scandal last month. It also carries quotes from victorious Tory candidate, Douglas Lumsden, who said the “people of Aberdeen” had spoken “loud and clear” that the “destruction of the North Sea oil and gas industry must stop now”. He reportedly added: “We said at the start of this campaign that it is a referendum on the oil and gas industry.” The Guardian and the Daily Telegraph also cover the Aberdeen South result.

MORE ON UK

• On its frontpage, the Times covers a report from the Britain Remade and the Centre for British Progress thinktanks, which claims the UK is “paying [£8bn] over the odds” every year for transport and energy schemes.
• Bloomberg says household installations of batteries have “nearly doubled” since the Iran war, making the UK second only to Germany in Europe for take-up.
• The Financial Conduct Authority has “cleared” the owner of the Drax power plant after an almost 10-month review into whether the company’s sustainability claims mislead shareholders, reports the Guardian.
• There will be a five-year delay to stricter energy-efficiency regulations for some commercial landlords, says Bloomberg. The Financial Times reports that lenders and brokers say that domestic landlords are “ill-prepared” for similar rules.
• Dozens of British MPs and peers, including Kemi Badench and Nigel Farage, will “rub shoulders” with “politicians from the European far right, Trump donors and American climate change deniers” at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference next week, reports DeSmog.
• The Times reports a series of false claims by the US ambassador to the UK about North Sea oil and gas. [For more on misleading and false myths around North Sea oil and gas see Carbon Brief’s factcheck.]

The Trump administration is abandoning its plan – announced last month – to dismantle a $368m ocean monitoring system “critical to understanding climate change and marine ecosystems”, bowing to a “bipartisan backlash” on Capitol Hill, reports the New York Times. The newspaper says the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced on Thursday that it will “pause efforts to take apart” the Ocean Observatories Initiative system, while convening an expert panel to determine its future. The Associated Press notes the NSF issued a statement saying that it “appreciates the concerns raised by the range of stakeholders” and would halt efforts to remove or disable equipment, as well as redeploy equipment that already was removed from the water and convene the expert panel. It adds that House lawmakers accused the agency of “acting illegally”. Bloomberg, Scientific American and CNN also have the story.

MORE ON US:

• The average price of US gasoline fell below $4 a gallon on Thursday for the first time in months, after Iran and the United States signed a preliminary agreement to cease hostilities for 60 days and reopen the strait of Hormuz, reports the New York Times.
• There is continuing coverage of Trump’s decision to pay $765m to terminate four wind project leases off the coasts of New York, California and Maine, including in USA Today and Utility Dive.
• An analysis by the Independent finds the Trump administration is “continuing to pour billions of dollars” into “climate-friendly projects” around the world.
• “At least three” of the 12 coal plants recently funded by the Trump administration have been “repeatedly cited for violating environmental regulations”, says Climate Home News.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Programme on Thursday appealed for $202m ​to help protect 8.8 million people across 22 ‌high-risk countries from the looming El Niño weather pattern, reports Reuters. The UN agencies reportedly said that “strong” El Nino conditions in the second half of 2026 are predicted to “increase the likelihood of drought, floods and storms” across parts of Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Reuters notes that FAO and WFP said the additional funding would allow them to expand support – which includes cash transfers, climate-resilient seeds, livestock protection and flood control measures – beyond the 1.2 million people already targeted. Separately, Reuters reports that officials from the UN agencies say “ample” inventories of food could soften the coming supply shock.

MORE ON FOOD AND FARMING

• The Guardian: “‘Mega-consumers’ of food and energy cost environment $5.7tn a year, study finds.”
• Colombia has passed its first-ever national law requiring beef to be traced back to its origins, reports Inside Climate News.
• The Independent: Climate change may be “hurting both the quality and quantity” of America’s milk supply.
• A heatwave in France is “bringing uncertainty” to French farmers, says France24.

The Group of Seven (G7) countries have agreed at a summit on Wednesday that by 2030, “no single country” should supply more than 60% of its imports of rare earths and permanent magnets, which are widely used in low-carbon technologies, reports Bloomberg. It says they will aim for a 50% limit as soon as possible after 2030. Reuters also covers the story, saying that the move comes as the West races to “diversify supplies” of “vital” minerals for renewable energy and to cut dependence on China. However, analysts say the 60% target will be “challenging” as China controls 90% of global production of processed rare earths and magnets, adds the newswire. Meanwhile, China on Thursday urged the G7 to “abide by the principles of the market economy and international trade and economic rules”, following the group’s statement, reports state news agency Xinhua. An editorial by the state-supporting newspaper Global Times argues that Europe has a “structural dependency on China” for rare earths.

Separately, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands and Belgium said they will join France in a proposal to impose US-style tariffs on Chinese imports to “shield domestic industries from a glut of cheap imports”, reports the Financial Times. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reports the EU is still deciding between a “diversification instrument” or a “more protective instrument”. Another report by the South China Morning Post says the bloc’s “unwillingness” to name China on its meeting agenda should not be “confused with inaction”. China’s top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), says China’s “industrial strengths” are “underpinned” by a comprehensive industrial system and investment in technology, not by government subsidies, reports state-run newspaper China Daily. In an editorial, the Financial Times says that western governments should “guard against” implementing China-style industrial policy. A Global Times editorial says that China’s “boosting” exports of low-carbon technologies are “precisely the products Europe needs for its green transition”.

MORE ON CHINA

• China’s oil consumption is expected to drop 4.9% in 2026 amid “a pivot to new energy and high oil prices”, according to PetroChina, reports Reuters.
• Bloomberg: “Range Rovers go for half-price in China as [petrol] car demand slumps.”
• China has “urgently” allocated 100m yuan ($14.8m) in disaster relief funds to support relief efforts in six regions battered by heavy rainfall, reports China Daily. CGTN reports that more than 37,000 residents have been relocated as “heavy rain lashed many parts of south China’s Guangdong province”.
• China’s NDRC says it will continue to establish a “clear policy orientation” that supports non-fossil energy while controlling fossil-fuel consumption, says BJX News.
• Reuters reports that China and Myanmar have agreed to “deepen ⁠cooperation” in mining and oil and gas pipelines, as well as advance power grid interconnection.
• Loosening “fixed time-of-use electricity pricing” can maximise the consumption of wind and solar power and reduce the waste of clean energy, says Economic Daily.

Reflecting on the latest UN climate talks in Bonn, climate diplomacy veterans Paul Watkinson, Stefan Ruchti-Crowley, Anju Sharma, Ovais Sarmad and Benito Müller argue in an article for Climate Home News that there is “growing frustration with a process that consumes vast amounts of time to produce outcomes that are often too incremental to match the accelerating reality of the climate crisis”. They continue: “The climate regime has delivered. But it is in danger of not delivering enough.” The experts say they “remain convinced” that the answer to the climate crisis is “not less multilateralism, but more effective multilateralism”, explaining: “The hard truth is that the UNFCCC [UN Framework Convention on Climate Change] remains largely organised around the logic of treaty-making, while the central challenge of climate action has shifted to implementation…There is a structural mismatch between what the climate process was designed to do, and what it needs to do now.”

The Independent‘s electric vehicles editor Steve Fowler argues against weakening the UK “zero emissions vehicle” (ZEV) mandate, noting the measure is “working”; has attracted “billions of investment into the UK automotive sector”; and is reducing the UK’s “dependence on volatile global oil markets”. He concludes: “This isn’t ideology. It’s physics. Electric cars won’t solve climate change on their own. Nothing will. But delaying their adoption won’t help either…In the rush to debate targets, mandates and regulations, perhaps we’ve forgotten the most important reason we started this journey in the first place. Electric cars are part of a much bigger effort to leave behind a cleaner, more stable planet – and roads worth driving on for our children and grandchildren.”

MORE COMMENT

• The Independent’s chief political commentator John Rentoul claims, without evidence, that Keir Starmer is “clinging on” because he is “terrified [energy secretary] Ed Miliband will get to be chancellor” if he loses a leadership challenge.
• The climate-sceptic Daily Express’s personal finance editor Harvey Jones also lambasts Miliband, who he speculates may resign to trigger Starmer’s departure.
• The Daily Telegraph’s energy editor Jonathan Leake says the UK is currently “paying France to take our power”. [National Grid figures have shown that electricity interconnectors have delivered £1.65bn in benefits to UK consumers since 2023.]
• The Times’ chief business commentator Alistair Osborne endorses comments made by the US ambassador to the UK [see above] in which he described the UK’s decision to limit new production of North Sea oil and gas as “baffling”.
• In a piece syndicated by the Washington Post, Linda Blackford from the Kentucky Lantern news service asks: “Are datacentres the new coal mines?”

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Cecilia Keating, with contributions from Henry Zhang and Anika Patel. It was edited by Simon Evans.

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