Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate campaigner, has dismissed the climate pledges put forward by world leaders as “blah, blah, blah” while giving a speech at the Youth4Climate summit in Milan, the Daily Telegraph reports. The newspaper, which includes a video of the speech on its website, says that Thunberg told her audience that the words of “our so-called leaders” had led to “no action”. BBC News notes that Thunberg used soundbites from UK prime minister Boris Johnson, such as “expensive bunny hugging” and “build back better”, to highlight the “empty words and promises” of politicians. The Times reports her words as “ build back better, blah, blah, blah, green economy, blah, blah, blah, net zero by 2050, blah, blah, blah, climate neutral blah, blah, blah”. According to Reuters, thousands of youth activists have travelled to the Italian city with around 400, representing around 190 countries, “due to engage with policymakers to hammer out proposals for possible solutions”. It adds that “their proposals will be vetted by climate and energy ministers gathering at the same venue for their pre-COP26 meeting, and some will find their way to the Glasgow summit”. Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate also spoke at the event, calling out leaders for failing to mobilise the £100bn in annual climate finance that they had pledged by 2020, USA Today reports. “No more empty conferences. It’s time to show us the money,“ Nakate told the audience, according to the news outlet. The piece adds that the activists even cast doubt on the intentions behind the youth summit, with Thunberg saying “they invite cherry-picked young people to pretend they are listening to us”.

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that the UK’s high commissioner to Australia has warned the COP26 host nation will be “very disappointed” if Australian prime minister Scott Morrison fails to attend the climate talks in Glasgow. The piece says that Vicki Treadell made the comments to ABC Radio National, alongside a warning that Australia should also embrace new climate targets or risk being left behind. Meanwhile, Reuters reports that the Australian state New South Wales, the country’s biggest coal producer, has announced it expects to cut its emissions by 50% from 2005 levels by 2030, “stepping up climate action in a country seen as a global laggard”.

In Germany, the Guardian has a piece on how the nation’s “coalition wrangling” following its election on Sunday could affect the mood around COP26. New Scientist has a piece examining the potential climate ambition of the new German government. Across the Atlantic, the Hill reports that Democrat house speaker Nancy Pelosi brought up the need for a “plan” for US emissions ahead of COP26 “as she seeks to push spending bills across the finish line”. In more COP26 news, the Times reports that backroom personnel are among those being drafted in by Police Scotland to help while frontline officers are policing the climate conference.

Finally, the Hindustan Times reports that India is “likely” to update its nationally determined contribution (NDC) target ahead of COP26, following a joint statement issued last week by Quad countries – Australia, India, Japan and the US – stating that all four would update or communicate ambitious NDCs before the meeting. The piece quotes an environment ministry official who says: “There are talks of announcing a slightly updated target taking into account our commitments on renewable energy…This may happen at COP26”.

Gas boilers in UK homes produce twice as much CO2 emissions as all the nation’s gas-fired power stations combined, according to analysis by climate charity Possible and social enterprise Scene, reported by the Guardian. According to the newspaper, the researchers behind the study said that the results “highlighted the urgent need for a strong government policy to rapidly introduce low-carbon heating such as heat pumps”. The piece also mentioned another analysis, conducted by the thinktank Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, which finds that high gas prices mean the energy bills of people living in poorly insulated homes will rise by up to £246 a year. It notes that the UK has the “oldest housing stock in western Europe but the rates of home insulation installation plunged by 95% between 2012 and 2019”. Max Wakefield, director of campaigns for Possible, has a comment piece in the Guardian stating that “Britain’s leaky homes make the energy crisis worse” and calling for urgent action from the government to “future proof” the nation’s housing stock through a programme of retrofitting and phasing out gas boilers. “A well-designed programme to repair the nation’s homes should not have been beyond us. It’s Rockwool insulation, not rocket science. Instead, we have witnessed a decade of half measures and outright failure,” he writes. The Sun, on the other hand, reports on a warning from “industry experts” at trade organisation the Heating and Hotwater Industry Council that some people will face “a £2,500 bill just to fit the pipework needed for eco-friendly heat pumps”.

Meanwhile, ITV News reports that more than 50 people arrested due to their involvement with an Insulate Britain roadblock protest on the M25 have been released under investigation. The piece notes that the group, which is an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion, is calling on the government to insulate all homes across the UK by 2030 to help cut emissions. According to BBC News, the protesters were arrested after a demonstration near Heathrow on Monday morning, following a High Court injunction banning protests around the M25 and Dartford Crossing. The Guardian and MailOnline also have the story.

Finally, DeSmog reports that Labour’s shadow business and energy minister Ed Miliband has told an event at the party conference in Brighton that they would produce a “zero carbon transition plan which then goes sector by sector”, rather than “bumbling around as a country [and] not being clear about what the direction of travel is”.

The UK government is “closing in on a deal” which would force Chinese state-owned CGN to give up its 20% stake in the proposed £20bn Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk, the Financial Times reports. The newspaper says the minority stake will be sold to institutional investors or floated on the stock market under the plans. It adds that “CGN’s involvement in Britain’s civil nuclear programme has come under intense scrutiny since the government banned Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei from its 5G mobile phone network last year”. Reuters also picks up the story from the Financial Times, noting that the government also intends to block CGN’s plans to build a nuclear power plant on the east coast at Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex.

In more UK news, BBC News reports that following Brexit and lack of EU regulations, the UK government is set to relax regulations on gene-edited crops and enable commercial growing in England. It adds that environment secretary George Eustice said that he would be “working closely with farming and environmental groups to help grow plants that are stronger and more resilient to climate change”. The Times has an editorial welcoming in the move in a time of “more frequent extreme weather events”.

The Daily Telegraph’s international business editor Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes that while China’s energy crisis “looms” over Europe’s, there may be a “silver lining”. He says that shipments of liquified natural gas “that would otherwise have gone to Europe to replenish depleted inventories” have instead gone to China. “Put another way, Britain’s gas crisis is a function of China’s industrial cycle.” Therefore, he adds, “if China is slowing as hard as doubters suspect, it will do the world a big favour and head off a political crisis in Europe and the UK this winter”. Evans-Pritchard continues by noting that this may “head off a backlash against net-zero policies at a delicate moment in the transition, before the benefits of cheaper post-fossil energy become self-evident, and there is no looking back”. Meanwhile, a column by market analyst John Kemp in Reuters notes that in China “the fact so many organisations and senior officials have felt the need to emphasise their determination and plans for ensuring winter fuel supplies is an indication of how serious the coal and electricity situation has become”.

Meanwhile, a piece in Foreign Policy by occasional Carbon Brief contributor and lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air Lauri Myllyvirta reflects on China’s recent announcement that it will no longer finance coal projects abroad. He notes that the new stance will make countries that rely on international finance for coal, such as Indonesia and Pakistan, “seriously rethink their power development plans”. A piece in the Conversation by Yixian Sun, an assistant professor in International Development at the University of Bath, asks what energy projects China will invest in instead of coal. Finally, the Guardian has a podcast hosted by Jonathan Watts called: “Can China help end the world’s addiction to coal?”

A piece by Washington Post opinion columnist David Von Drehle states that it is “increasingly clear that nuclear power plants must play a consequential role” in addressing climate change. “I’m an optimistic supporter of wind power, solar power, geothermal power and other renewable energy sources. I’m also a realistic student of the various impediments to the growth of these sources. I agree with [Bill] Gates that the surest path to net-zero carbon emissions is one that maximises every non-carbon energy source, including nuclear power,” he writes.

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph has published a handful of opinion columns warning about the UK’s energy security as well as the need for nuclear power. Ben Wright writes that the government has “finally figured out this country’s energy policy isn’t fit for purpose” and committed to new nuclear power. He points to Germany’s plan to shift away from nuclear and rely more on Russian gas imports. “Nuclear power may not be everyone’s cup of tea but it is our least bad option. Far better, surely, than being unable to boil the kettle without Vladimir Putin’s permission,” he says. Phillip Johnston says that “successive British governments baulked at the opportunity to invest in nuclear energy, leaving future generations with a tremendous burden”. Finally, Kate Andrews opines that the country’s energy security woes place net-zero “in doubt”. “The irony, of course, is that the government’s unstable energy strategy makes it harder to plan ahead, and thus more difficult to embrace greener alternatives if and when they become available,” she says.