China has issued a plan to promote the “energy storage manufacturing sector”, the state news agency Xinhua reports, adding that, according to the plan, China will aim for a “greater number of leading enterprises, marked improvements in industrial innovation capabilities, and overall competitiveness” in the sector by 2027. Reuters also covers the new policy, saying China will strengthen support to explore for “lithium, cobalt and nickel” – key battery minerals – and help enterprises “strengthen foreign investment and cooperation” with overseas minerals companies. Separately, Bloomberg reports that “Mongolia is aiming to increase its coal exports to China by almost a fifth this year”. 

Meanwhile, president Xi Jinping urged China’s private companies to “show their talent”, in a “rare meeting” with representatives of leading private firms including “new energy” companies BYD, Chint and CATL, Reuters reports. It adds the meeting underscored the “importance of private-sector innovation for China to gain ground in technology” amid its rivalry with the US. State-run newspaper Economic Daily carries an opinion article attributed to “Jin Guan Ping”, a pseudonym used for the newspaper’s commentaries, saying that China must “urgent[ly]” drive innovation, adding that “strategic emerging industries” such as electric vehicles have “flourished” and “green development has become more effective”.

Elsewhere, Xinhua says “the Trump administration’s indifference toward UN agencies and climate change will negatively impact the global south countries”, according to a report published ahead of last week’s Munich security conference. An editorial in the state-supporting newspaper Global Times argues China and the EU’s “interests and goals” are “highly aligned” in many areas, including climate change. The Financial Times reports Beijing is “tightening its grip on cutting-edge Chinese technology”, including by “[making] it more difficult for some engineers and equipment to leave the country, propos[ing] new export controls to retain key battery technologies, and mov[ing] to restrict technologies for processing critical minerals”. Japan is betting $1.5bn “on a breakthrough in next-generation ultra-thin, light and bendy” solar cells, possibly disrupting “China’s dominance of renewable energy”, another Financial Times report says. China’s exports of wind turbines have surged by over 70% last year, with solar product and lithium battery exports also maintaining their “strong performance”, the Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily reports.

An anonymous commentary in Caixin argues that China’s new pricing mechanism for renewable energy is of “profound” significance, and would “undoubtedly” address the “herd effect” and “underappreciation” found in China’s solar and storage industries. Finally, Christine Jardine, Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West, writes in the Scotsman that “as we ramp up our efforts to hit net-zero targets, the danger of relinquishing control of our energy, and potentially our national security, to China becomes a reality”.

Industry group Offshore Energies UK is asking for “scope three emissions” from Rosebank and other oilfields to be treated differently compared to those from other industries, the Guardian reports. Scope three emissions are those caused by burning extracted oil and gas, according to the newspaper. Energy secretary Ed Miliband is currently “deciding how companies respond to a landmark supreme court ruling which last year decreed oil and gas firms have to account for the scope three emissions caused by the extracted fossil fuels being burned, rather than just the greenhouse gas emissions caused by building [and operating] the extraction sites”, the newspaper says. It continues: “The oil and gas industry argues that it is unfair to treat it the same as other companies such as car manufacturers because cars can reduce scope three emissions with more efficient engines, but a barrel of oil or therm of gas cannot have the eventual emissions from its combustion reduced. It argues that as gas will be used for energy for decades to come, it should not be precluded from producing it for scope three emissions reasons.” 

In other UK news, the Guardian covers a report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, which finds that “European imports of seaborne gas shipments fell by a fifth last year to their lowest level since the pandemic”, while the UK’s nearly halved. The newspaper continues: “The findings are also likely to spark debate in the UK over the need for investment in new North Sea oil and gas projects and gas storage facilities.” Elsewhere, the Times reports that two major banks – Barclays and NatWest – “are to remove climate targets from their annual bonus schemes for senior executives, reflecting a wider shift in the business world to drop environmental and diversity measures linked to pay”. The Daily Telegraph reports that US energy secretary Chris Wright has called net-zero targets “sinister”. Speaking at a conference in London via weblink, Wright claimed that net-zero was being used as a justification to expand government power and “shrink human freedom”, according to the newspaper. Reuters also covers Wright’s comments. And Politics.co.uk reports that opposition Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch used her speech at the conference to praise Donald Trump and defend “populism”. The outlet adds that she said “we have been naive on issues from net-zero to immigration, weakening ourselves and strengthening our competitors”. 

“Brazilian environmental agents seized the equivalent of more than 5,000 truckloads of timber in an operation targeting one of the most heavily logged regions of the Amazon rainforest in recent weeks,” Reuters reports. According to the newswire, the raids are the kick-off to a year-long project, to “curb illegal logging in protected areas and Indigenous lands with some of the country’s highest deforestation rates”. It continues: “Under president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who vowed to protect the Amazon during his 2022 campaign, deforestation in the Brazilian rainforest fell to its lowest level in almost a decade last year.” In other Brazilian news, Reuters reports that Lula said that Brazil’s state-run oil firm, Petrobras, “should consider selling fuel directly to large consumers in order to reduce prices at the pump”. Separately, the newswire reports that “French automaker Renault and China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding said in a joint statement on Monday that they have reached an agreement to produce and sell zero- and low-emission vehicles in Brazil”. And TIME has published extracts of an interview with André Corrêa do Lago, the head of COP30. According to the outlet, Corrêa do Lago is “optimistic about preventing further withdrawals from the Paris accord”, explaining that as the agreement relies on voluntary commitments, rather than enforcement mechanisms, “countries gain little by leaving but risk facing trade barriers from climate-conscious partners”. It adds: “To help keep momentum alive, Corrêa do Lago says he wants to refocus attention on not just solving the climate conundrum, but also, in a sense, selling its benefits.” The outlet adds that Corrêa do Lago said there will be a role for the private sector at COP, and “reassured companies that the hosts would facilitate the presence of industry”.  

Max Anderson – head of communications at the Conservative Environment Network – writes for LBC that Reform’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, “thinks anti-net zero rhetoric is their next big break”. Anderson continues: “Reform’s solution to the energy crisis and rising bills is – and I’m not kidding – to: add taxes to renewable energy companies and in turn bill payers; add taxes to farmers who put up solar farms; ban battery energy storage systems which help make bills more affordable; and – just for good measure – force new grid infrastructure to be buried underground, where bill-payers will have to pay for the up to tenfold increase in cost. These policies have angered everyone from passionate environmentalists, to die-hard free-marketers, to even net-zero sceptics all questioning the logic.” Anderson argues that to reduce energy bills, “we need to tackle our exposure to European gas markets which Putin controls” by “unleashing homegrown energy that can make us more energy-secure and self-reliant”.

A new research paper examines how the first two large-scale offshore wind projects in the US were covered by the media. The research finds that “most coverage is local”, with benefits highlighted including “job creation, climate mitigation, and political leadership and collaboration” and risks raised including “political conflict and lack of transparency, impacts on wildlife, and economic impacts on the fishing industry”. The authors say that the findings “help contextualise the debates around offshore wind in the US”.