The Financial Times reports that global clean-power generation grew faster than electricity demand in 2025, according to new figures which “analysts argue represent a structural shift away from fossil fuels that would persist beyond the Middle East war”. It adds that the analysis by thinktank Ember highlighted that rapid solar-power growth, in particular, contributed to fossil-fuel generation decreasing a small amount. [Carbon Brief also covered the Ember report.] The Guardian adds that Ember says globally, renewable energy accounted for 34% of electricity generation in 2025, surpassing coal, which made up 33%. The Associated Press notes that clean power growth in China and India was particularly key for the expansion of renewables. It adds that clean-power generation grew to 887 terawatt hours (TWh) last year, exceeding electricity demand growth of 849TWh.

The Guardian covers new data that shows electric car sales “soared” 51% in continental Europe in March. It says that 224,000 new electric vehicles (EVs) were registered last month and 500,000 across the first three months of the year, a 33.5% increase on 2025, according to the analysis by New AutoMotive and E-Mobility Europe. The article adds that buyers’ interest in EVs has risen since the start of the Iran war in February, due to rising petrol costs, highlighting the “cheaper power available from a plug”. The Guardian notes: “As Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised Europe’s ‘windmills’ and push towards greater use of renewable energy, the figures suggest the US-Israel war on Iran is accelerating the move away from combustion engines.”

MORE ON EUROPE

• Reuters reports that Germany is going to contribute around €700m ($825m) to climate change and sustainable mobility projects in Brazil. 
• Bloomberg reports that Germany “wants the EU to place industrial transition to cleaner energy at the heart of a planned review of its carbon market, after rising power and fuel prices prompted criticism of the bloc’s key climate tool”.
• Euractiv says the EU will push for a global net-zero shipping deal at the International Maritime Organization’s next meeting, despite “threats from Washington”. 

China saw notable growth in exports of batteries, electric vehicles (EVs) and solar cells last month, with annual increases of 34%, 53%, 80% respectively, reports Bloomberg. It says the data signals that Chinese manufacturers are “benefiting from rising global demand for alternative energy sources”. Financial news outlet Caixin cites analysts saying overseas demand for China’s renewable energy products will continue to strengthen through 2026. Technology news outlet Huxiu carries an article saying that amid the war in Iran, major economies’ need to “transition away from fossil fuels” is shifting from an “environmental agenda” to an “existential necessity”, leading to “panic buying” of low-carbon technology from China.

Meanwhile, Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planner, writes in an article for the Communist Party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily that China should further strengthen energy security, increase oil and gas reserves and production, reinforce the role of coal-fired power as a “base-load guarantee” and expand Sino-Russian oil and gas cooperation. Zheng also says China faces many international challenges, including protectionism, “tightening of mining policies in resource-rich countries”, “intensifying competition” for critical minerals and disruptions in the strait of Hormuz. He says China has built the world’s largest low-carbon energy system, but nevertheless says the security of “primary products”, such as energy resources, is still weak.

MORE ON CHINA

• The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports China has begun construction of a $1bn hydropower station in Cambodia.
• SCMP: “China warns strong El Niño this year may worsen global fossil-fuel crisis.”
• Reuters says China is “curtailing refined fuel exports rather than banning them”.
• China’s electricity consumption rose 3.5% year-on-year to 860 terawatt hours in March, reports BJX News.
• SCMP reports China has started a project to reduce gas consumption by “blending it with hydrogen”.
• Bloomberg reports “Chinese authorities have called for ‘every effort’ to strengthen capacity controls in the solar industry”. China’s EV industry is looking to move from rapid growth to “value creation and rules-based competition”, reports China Daily.

The Financial Times reports that the UK government will increase the “windfall tax” on older wind and solar farms in a “bid to push them on to fixed-price contracts” as it moves to “delink” gas and electricity prices. The Guardian says: “Renewable energy projects that earn subsidies on top of the market price [under the ‘renewables obligation’] will be asked to sign up to contracts that pay a set price for electricity.” BBC News notes that the government hopes that the switch could take place within the next year and that the government believes the savings for billpayers could be “significant”. Reuters notes that projects currently generating around a third of the country’s power supply will be offered the voluntary switch. Bloomberg reports that the windfall tax – the “electricity generator levy” – will be raised from 45-55% from 1 July this year. Carbon Brief’s Simon Evans has the details on LinkedIn.

BusinessGreen reports that the announcement is set to be made alongside other measures in a speech by energy secretary Ed Miliband today. The Times coverage has the headline: “Rule change will help drivers without driveways charge EVs.” The Daily Telegraph adds that the government is planning to provide targeted support to “avoid costly blanket subsidies deployed in the Ukraine crisis”. The Daily Mirror says that Miliband is expected to confirm an extra £100m to cut energy bills for social housing and £25m to help low-income households get plug-in solar panels. The Daily Mail notes that Conservative shadow energy minister Claire Coutinho has criticised the plan, saying generators could “game the system”.

The New York Times reports that environmental groups are suing the Trump administration to stop oil giant BP from starting a new $5bn drilling project in “ultra-deep” waters in the Gulf of Mexico. It adds that the interior department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved the project, known as Kaskida, last month. The article notes that BP, which operated the Deepwater Horizon platform that exploded in 2010, states that the project could produce 80,000 barrels of oil per day from six wells starting in 2029. The Guardian says that the lawsuit against Kaskida was filed on the anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion. The Associated Press adds that the groups filing the suit claim that the information required for its approval is missing and does not demonstrate that BP has the qualifications to conduct safe drilling at the depths required.

MORE ON US

• The Guardian says climate leaders want Democrats to link clean energy to affordability and resilience from global shocks, amid price hikes from the Iran war. 
• The Daily Telegraph reports that American demand for coal has “surged”, as technology companies “scramble” to power AI data centres.
• Reuters covers comments by US president Donald Trump, who dismissed his top energy official’s view that gas prices will not drop till 2027.
• Al Jazeera reports that Cuba is in talks with US officials to end Trump’s energy blockade. 
• Axios reports that Trump has invoked a Cold War-era national security law to try to bolster domestic production of motor fuels and electricity.

The Guardian covers new research that it says shows burning wood for power generation can be worse for the climate than burning gas, even when carbon capture and storage is used. It says: “The findings cast doubt on plans by several governments, including the UK, to offer subsidies or other financial support for carbon capture attached to wood-burning power.” The article explains that “bio-energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) has been touted as a clean way of producing baseload power, substituting for gas and coal, which could even result in ‘negative emissions’ as when replacement forests are grown they take up CO2 from the air”. However, the Guardian adds that the research has found that it could take 150 years to be “carbon negative” in part due to the long time it takes to regrow forests and the damage done when land is converted to grow biomass.

BBC News reports that a woman who successfully campaigned against oil drilling in Surrey, leading to a “landmark judgement” on fossil-fuel emissions, has won an international award. It adds that Sarah Finch, who fought to stop the Horse Hill oil project for years, has been selected as the European recipient of the Goldman environmental prize. The Guardian explains how Finch got involved in campaigning against Horse Hill, ultimately applying to the supreme court to block its development – the first climate case the court had ever heard. A separate piece in the Guardian covers the other women awarded the Goldman prize, including a Nigerian conservation ecologist, a South Korean activist and an Indigenous leader.

In the Guardian, columnist Polly Toynbee argues that UK energy secretary Ed Miliband has a “rare chance to do for the climate what Nye Bevan did for health” with the creation of the NHS, “create something future generations will be proud of”. She writes that the transition to “homegrown clean energy” might come to be recognised as a “prime reason for pride in Britain” as it will free us “from rollercoaster markets and mercurial foreign oil and gas dictators”. Toynbee says clean energy has become a “great red/blue divide”. She concludes that Miliband will need “all his driving force” to get his “green vision” up and running, adding: “Just as Bevan created the NHS within three years of being in office, both projects require huge investment despite the hardest of economic times. The NHS is one great legacy of Labour, a monument to what it can achieve. This should be another.”

MORE COMMENT

• A Financial Times comment by Niamh Brodie-Machura of Fidelity International says: “The Middle East war should accelerate a shift to renewable power sources.”
• In Al Jazeera, Vanuatu’s minister for climate change, Ralph Regenvanu, writes that “Pacific Island states cannot and will not allow key climate shipping agreement to be watered down” at the IMO meetings.
• A letter in the Financial Times by the CEOs of Octopus Energy, E.On and EDF Energy argues that “Britain must electrify to reduce bills for good”. 
• In the Times, former Scotland editor Magnus Linklater writes that it is “worrying” how many politicians and commentators accept Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” call for the North Sea.
• On his Substack, Ben Caldecott, director of the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group, writes that “Britain needs a climate reset, not a climate culture war”.
• The Daily Telegraph gives a comment slot to Maurice Cousins, campaigns director of climate-sceptic lobby group Net-Zero Watch.

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

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