There is widespread global media coverage of new analysis published by Carbon Brief showing that China’s CO2 emissions have fallen slightly over the past year or so. The story leads the BBC World Service’s Newsday programme. It says: “New figures show China’s carbon dioxide emissions fell in 2025, the first full year to show such a decline. The analysis for the website, Carbon Brief, suggests the reduction is modest – just 0.3%, but campaigners say it raises hopes that emissions from the world’s biggest polluter might be peaking ahead of schedule.” Agence France-Presse says: “Last year, emissions fell in almost all major sectors, including power generation as China’s massive renewable expansion meets growing demand, according to the analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) for climate website Carbon Brief…There is some uncertainty about figure because of margins of error around some of the numbers involved, including coal consumption. ‘Because the relative drop is so small, we can’t say with certainty yet that it’s a fall, therefore the ‘flat or falling,’ explained CREA lead analyst Lauri Myllyvirta.” Bloomberg says the decline is “important” because it is a “reduction that’s happened even as energy demand growth remains strong”. The Independent asks: “Is this the start of a decline?”

Researchers have warned that the world is “closer than thought to a ’point of no return’ after which runaway global heating cannot be stopped”, reports the Guardian. It continues that we are heading towards climate tipping points, which could lead to a “cascade of further tipping points and feedback loops”. The article adds that this could lock the world into a “hellish hothouse Earth” climate. Inside Climate News reports that the scientists have warned that global warming is increasing faster than at any time in at least three million years and there is “no guide for what comes next”. It adds that the warnings come from a paper published in the journal One Earth looking at 16 key earth systems, including oceans, ice sheets and forests, which could destabilise the planet if it continues to warm. 

China has set a target for traded electricity to make up 70% of the country’s total power consumption, reports Bloomberg, according to a new policy on developing a unified power market. It adds that, according to government data, 64% of China’s total power consumption last year came through traded electricity. China also aims to “roll out” spot trading nationwide by 2027, says the outlet. Energy news outlet International Energy Net also covers the policy, which “calls for implementing sustainable pricing and settlement mechanisms” for clean energy. The policy says “efforts will be made to facilitate comprehensive participation” of China’s large-scale clean energy bases in the electricity market and that “distributed power sources will be encouraged to fairly bear system regulation costs”. Industry news outlet BJX News cites a government official saying that the policy will “support” the country’s low-carbon energy transition.

MORE ON CHINA

• Volkswagen has been granted the first tariff exemption from the EU for Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs), says Bloomberg. 
• Europe’s hydrogen companies are calling for more support to protect Europe’s “fledgling” green hydrogen industry from being “overtaken” by China, says Reuters. Tsinghua University professors Han Minfang and Yuan Jiao write in a China Daily commentary that China’s green hydrogen sector can be a “replicable model for other countries”.
• New Scientist reports that used EV batteries could meet 67% of China’s energy storage demand by 2050, according to a Tsinghua University study.
• A People’s Daily article under the byline “Jin Xuan”, which denotes approval from the NDRC, says a “more open” China will deepen cooperation to address climate change.
• Chinese grid operators warned that “excessive solar power” supply means China may see “negative electricity prices” over the upcoming lunar new year holiday, says Energy New Media.
• Reuters reports China’s coal output in 2026 could mark the “slowest growth this decade”.

There is continuing coverage in the US of Donald Trump’s directive that the Pentagon buy more electricity from coal-power plants as part of efforts to revive the declining industry, reports the New York Times. Bloomberg reports that Trump directed defense secretary Pete Hegseth to enter into purchase agreements with coal plants to power military operations. The Los Angeles Times adds that the executive order from Trump to Hegseth and secretary of energy Chris Wright claims such agreements will “ensure military installations and critical defense facilities have uninterrupted, on-demand baseload power”. CNBC notes that the president also directed the Department of Energy to provide funds to keep coal plants open in West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina and Kentucky. The Washington Post adds that “experts warn that the administration’s efforts to revive coal threaten to raise electricity prices for all ratepayers and to drive significant air and water pollution from particulate matter and toxic chemicals, as well as carbon emissions”.

Relatedly, the Los Angeles Times reports that the US’s largest public utility now prefers to keep two coal-fired power plants it was planning to shutter running. It adds that the Tennessee Valley Authority is “changing course before a meeting of its board, which has a majority of members picked by the coal-friendly Trump administration”. The Independent covers Trump being named “undisputed champion of beautiful clean coal” in a ceremony at the White House.

MORE ON US

• The Financial Times says that Trump has produced a “global surge in people viewing the US as a threat”, including detailing international concern over climate change and extreme weather.
• The Guardian reports that a “record snow drought is plaguing the western US, leaving some of the thirstiest states bracing for less water and elevated fire risks through the drier months to come”.
• The Associated Press looks at “where things stand” with the build-out of EV charging infrastructure across the US under Trump. 
• Reuters reports that the Trump administration’s imminent repeal of endangerment finding could “open up a new pathway” for filing lawsuits against power-plant operators and other companies.
• Bloomberg reports that the Trump administration plans to appeal a series of court rulings blocking efforts to stop the construction of wind farms.

Business leaders have urged the EU to act to bring down energy prices as they try to compete with the US and China, reports Reuters. The Financial Times adds that the call from CEOs at a meeting in Antwerp is the third time they have “sound[ed] the alarm bell on the dire state of Europe’s heavy industries”. Bloomberg reports that German chancellor Friedrich Merz said the EU should be open to revising or postponing the carbon market if it does not allow industry to shift to clean production. A separate Reuters piece covers comments from the EU Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, at the summit, who said the bloc will introduce requirements for EU-made and low-carbon goods for public procurement. The comments come ahead EU leaders meeting today to discuss the “Buy European” initiative, adds the Guardian, with all 27 EU leaders set to take part in “a brainstorming session on how Europe can regain its economic competitiveness vis-a-vis the US and China, at a time of economic threats and political turbulence”. 

MORE ON EUROPE

• The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail cover comments by French president Emmanuel Macron claiming that renewable energy caused Spain’s blackout in 2025. [See Carbon Brief’s Q&A on this topic.]

Prof Jim Skea, chairman of the IPCC, the UN’s climate science panel, has warned in an interview with the Times that the UK needs to start thinking “beyond net-zero” and looking at technologies to bring global temperatures back down. Skea adds that it is now “pretty much inevitable” the world will breach its agreed 1.5C warming limit above pre-industrial levels. The article quotes Skea saying: “If people are going to keep 1.5C within reach, we need to start thinking beyond net-zero. If you’re going to bring warming back [down] and limit it to 1.5C again, net-zero is step one. Step two is actually taking the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.” BBC News covers a workshop run by the University of Reading this week, and hosting the IPCC and the Met Office, which Skea attended. It quotes the UK minister for climate, Katie White, who said the workshops demonstrate “the UK’s scientific leadership in action as we tackle the climate challenge head-on”.

MORE ON UK

• The Times, the Sun and others cover comments by Centrica CEO Chris O’Shea claiming that UK electricity prices will be higher by 2030 than they were following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 
• BBC News asks whether “wetter winters and frequent flooding here to stay” following a string of records for the wettest January. 
• The Daily Telegraph reports that China is “mulling moving” a Scottish £1.5bn wind turbine factory to Europe after the UK government delayed approval for the project. 
• The Times covers comments by the energy department about regulations holding up nuclear power projects. 
• The Daily Express reports that Labour has been “urged to ditch plans to slash carbon emissions to net-zero with public support for achieving this milestone before 2050 plunging by nearly half since 2021”.
• The Daily Mail reports that Ed Miliband “squirmed” during a committee hearing, “as he refused to explain why Labour is keeping secret details of a green energy deal he struck with China”.

Experts have criticised the decision by Argentina’s president Javier Milei to cut the budget for fire management, saying it has helped to “exacerbate” the wildfires in Patagonia. They also question why the Argentinian government belatedly declared a state of emergency for the four affected provinces. Wildfires remain active in various regions of Patagonia’s Chubut province, which have destroyed 230,000 hectares throughout the year, adds the outlet. Meanwhile, La Nación reports that an analysis carried out by “neighbours, atmospheric scientists and health professionals” has found that air pollution by wildfires reached “dangerous levels in Patagonia”. The outlet cites a statement by the Argentine Society of Cardiology warning of the potential impacts of fires on cardiovascular health.

Carbon Brief covers an analysis by the World Weather Attribution, revealing that the hot, dry and windy weather conditions that fueled wildfires in Argentina and Chile last month were around three times more likely due to climate change. The analysis is also covered by several other outlets including El País and La Nación. 

MORE ON LATIN AMERICA

• Brazil has “missed” its deadline for delivering a national roadmap to phase out fossil fuels, set in December, and “the plan remains unknown”, reports InfoAmazonia.

• Around 72% of Chileans think that wildfires last month were lit “intentionally”, according to a study covered by BioBioChile, with just “25% considering climate change relevant”. It “highlights the growing role of influencers in communication”.
• Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez has proposed strengthening oil and mining extraction, while experts see a lack of any environmental policy in the country, reports Mongabay.

• Despite pledges from armed dissident groups to slash deforestation in Colombia, reports show land-use changes along “strategic Amazon corridors” controlled by these groups, according to El Espectador.
• The Mexican industrial sector expects to accelerate the installation of photovoltaic energy by 20% in the first quarter of 2026, reports EFEverde.

Labour MPs in the UK need to “wake up”, writes financial editor Nils Pratley in the Guardian, following comments by Chris O’Shea, the chief executive of British Gas-owning Centrica this week, arguing that electricity prices will be “higher” in 2030 than 2022 during the energy crisis. O’Shea was not making a point about net-zero, Pratley notes, but instead saying that the options for upgrading the country’s energy infrastructure are expensive. He concludes: “If [electricity] prices will be even higher by the end of the decade, Labour needs to find some answers. Economic growth used to be its top priority.”

MORE IN COMMENT

• An editorial in the climate-sceptic Sun hits out yet again at UK energy secretary Ed Miliband following comments by Centrica’s O’Shea about energy prices, arguing he is making “ruinously expensive wind-farm deals”. 
• Bloomberg columnist Mark Gongloff writes that the “insurance crisis is about to get even worse”, arguing that insurance companies live in “a parallel universe” to the Trump administration, one where “greenhouse gases are heating the atmosphere and intensifying natural disasters, harming human health, destroying property and raising insurance costs”.
• In the Guardian, Australia climate and environment editor Adam Morton questions whether the Labor party has “the stomach to make polluters pay”. 

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Molly Lempriere, with contributions from Henry Zhang, Yanine Quiroz and Anika Patel. It was edited by Leo Hickman.

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