Thousands of Extinction Rebellion activists took part in an Earth Day demonstration in central London on Saturday, as part of a four-day action known as “the big one”, BBC News reports. Along with Extinction Rebellion members, activists from more than 200 organisations, trade unions and charities also took part in the demonstration, BBC News says. It reports: “Some wore fancy dress, including red-robes and masks of King Charles III and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. [UK wildlife TV presenter] Chris Packham warned the planet is ‘in crisis’ during a speech to the crowds. The wildlife presenter told protesters their ‘mission’ was to ‘build as wide a community as possible’.” The Press Association also reports on Packham’s speech, saying he urged “every last person that cares about the planet” to get involved with climate activism. The Independent reports that the “big one” is “XR’s first major action since announcing it would move away from more controversial methods of protest and ‘prioritise attendance over arrest and relationships over roadblocks’”. The Press Association reports that climate protesters did not disrupt the London Marathon taking place in Westminster on Sunday, despite media reports over fears this could happen. It comes after a government minister promised “robust action” if protesters disrupted the event, according to a second Press Association story. A feature in the Financial Times examines whether XR’s “tilt to the mainstream” will pay off. It comes as the Daily Telegraph reports that two Just Stop Oil protesters who scaled the Dartford Crossing over the Thames last year, bringing traffic to a standstill, have been handed “heavy” jail sentences.

Elsewhere, Reuters reports that Earth Day also saw protesters gather in New York and at the Formula E race in Berlin. The Guardian interviews the founder of Earth Day, who says that “appalling” greenwashing from oil and gas companies should not detract from the main message of the day.

The UK and other European countries will today launch a “wind-power revolution” and pledge to a “tenfold increase in electricity generation by 2050 from massive turbine islands built at sea”, the Times reports. It says that Grant Shapps, the UK’s energy secretary, will attend a meeting in Ostend with Belgium, Germany, France, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland and Luxembourg. The Times reports: “At the talks, energy ministers will agree to quadruple offshore wind power during the next five years, with plans to build the world’s largest network of new offshore wind farms generating electricity in the North Sea.” Shapps will also “announce a plan for the world’s largest multi-use power line under the North Sea”, the Times reports. It adds: “The LionLink line, only the second of its kind in the world, will connect the UK and the Netherlands with offshore wind farms.” Reuters also reports on the plan to boost wind in the North Sea. The Financial Times reports that a Scottish North Sea port is also set for a “wind power revival” after receiving £300m from a US private equity fund to aid its redevelopment. The FT also reports that work on the UK’s largest solar and battery storage plant has begun “after the company developing it won the highest government subsidy yet for a sun-powered energy scheme”. It comes as the Daily Telegraph reports that the National Grid is quitting plans to try to expand carbon capture and storage in the North Sea, in a “blow” to the government’s climate strategy.

In other UK news, the Times reports that Friends of the Earth is threatening to take the UK government to court for a second time over gaps in meeting emissions targets in its climate strategy. “The group’s focus is the lack of detail on the risk of policies failing to deliver the emissions cuts needed for Britain’s legally binding “sixth carbon budget” by 2037,” the Times says. The government has until Friday to respond to Friends of the Earth’s “pre-action letter”, the first step in applying for a judicial review, the Times adds. A second Times story reports that the major insurance company Lloyd’s of London has come under pressure to stop arranging insurance cover for fossil fuel projects from a group of faith leaders including Nicola Brady, general secretary of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, and Kamran Shezad, director of the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences. Elsewhere, the Daily Telegraph reports from a UK site that is the receiving end of a gas pipeline from Europe, breathlessly saying it is helping “defeat Putin’s energy war”. A second Daily Telegraph story reports on how some South Western railway trains that use biodiesel were temporarily forced to run a reduced timetable with the headline: “Net-zero fuel failure triggers train chaos across South West.”

US president Joe Biden’s administration is preparing new rules to require gas power stations to install technology to capture carbon emissions, as part of a bid to decarbonise the power sector of the world’s second largest emitter in 12 years, sources tell Reuters. It reports: “The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as soon as this week is expected to unveil standards for new and existing power plants, which belch roughly a quarter of US greenhouse gas emissions, two sources said. The rules will replace former president Donald Trump’s American Clean Energy rule and former president Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, both of which were invalidated by courts.” Bloomberg says the new proposals being planned by Biden are “so stringent they could almost wipe out the US electricity sector’s planet-warming pollution by 2040”. As well as carbon capture and storage, the new proposals also include efforts to slash emissions “through efficiency gains known as heat-rate improvements” and “the substitution of cleaner hydrogen for natural gas as a combustion source”. Politico says “the fate of these newest regulations will have a major impact on Biden’s ability to meet his promises to take on climate change”. It comes as Reuters reports on how the Clean Air Act as it stands allows “closed coal plants to keep polluting for years”. And the Financial Times reports that the US renewables industry has “formed an unlikely alliance with Big Oil as they lobby Congress to overhaul a permitting process they say scuppers new energy development”.

The US special envoy for climate John Kerry stated ahead of the Earth Day that the US and China “must work together” to address the global climate crisis, reports the Fox News. He says that “there’s no way that any one country can solve this crisis…particularly if we are large emitting nations” and that “it is imperative that China and the US find a way to cooperate with respect to the climate crisis,” the outlet adds. On the same day, Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang made a speech, saying that “China readily takes on its responsibility of protecting the environment and tackling climate change, and leads the world on many counts,” China’s state broadcaster CGTN reports. 

The Los Angeles Times publishes a comment piece by Scott Moore, director of China programs and strategic initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, and Derek Scissors, the chief economist of research institute China Beige Book. They write that China’s economy “headed neither for ascendancy nor decline” but might remain in a “prolonged stasis”, which ​​”would alter global economic growth and could impede future responses to shared challenges like climate change”.

China’s state news agency Xinhua publishes a story titled” “China wages rooftop ‘green war’ against climate change.” It says that, in recent years, rooftops have emerged as an “ideal” location to “distribute photovoltaic (PV) power generation”, particularly in regions that have abundant sunshine and insufficient available land for constructing new clean energy generators. It comes as the Guardian reports Chinese local governments approved more coal plants in the first three months of 2023 than in the whole of 2021.

Meanwhile, Chinese financial media outlet Caixin writes that the EU’s “carbon border tax” will be officially implemented in 2026, which will ensure that European domestic products and imported products bear equal carbon costs. The pressure of the “carbon border adjustment mechanism” (often referred to as CBAM) targets will be faced by Chinese producers of “steel and aluminium”, the outlet adds. 

In other news, China’s state-affiliated newspaper Energy Magazine carries a comment piece by Karl McAlinden, a UK diplomat. He writes that the UK has been working with its main partners in China to support Beijing’s “clean energy ambitions”. The “shared business priorities” between the two countries include floating offshore wind power, low-carbon hydrogen, civil nuclear energy, and carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS). 

Elsewhere, the Wall Street Journal reports that China’s energy deals in the Middle East enables Beijing to “diversify its energy supplies”. The deals also increase China’s strategic influence while offering Chinese companies “access to technical expertise in areas of the industry long dominated by western companies”. 

Finally, China Daily publishes a paper review on two comments that were originally published by South African newspaper IOL. These two comments say “learning from China’s energy policy experience” or “seeking to expand energy cooperation with China” would help South Africa overcome its current energy crisis.

Since mid-April, the proportion of nuclear power in Germany’s power grid has fallen to zero, reports Ntv, adding that the daily updated data from the Federal Network Agency shows which energy sources are now filling the gap. It says there is a large contribution of “strongly fluctuating” energy sources, such as wind and solar, supplemented by fossil-fired power plants (gas and coal). The outlet notes that peak hours are primarily supplemented with pumped storage power plants. It concludes that the gap left by Germany’s phaseout of nuclear power is “insignificant” because the last three nuclear power plants “only” fed around 2,700 megawatts (MW) per hour into the German power grid. However, Forbes notes that studies have shown that shutting off nuclear power can increase the reliance on coal. Bild quotes the Free Democratic Party’s (FDP) politician, Torsten Herbst, who views the nuclear phaseout as being a “massive mistake”. He is quoted saying: “With its nuclear phaseout, Germany is not a role model, but a wrong-way driver. Last winter, on many days, wind and sun did not even cover 10% of the electricity requirement.”

Meanwhile, Der Spiegel reports that German Free Democrats have called for “far-reaching” changes to the heating law recently passed by the federal cabinet, which aims to see a ban on installing new oil and gas heating systems. The newspaper continues that, on Saturday, the FDP congress approved an emergency motion, which calls for the draft to be improved by the parliament. The outlet quotes Frank Scheffler, who submitted the motion saying that, in its current version, the Building Energy Act is “an attack on the property of the people in this country”. Another Der Spiegel article reports that German economy minister Robert Habeck has defended the law, accusing the previous governments under ex-chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) of a lack of commitment in the fight against global warming. 

Finally, Bloomberg reports that Germany wants to open by early 2024 “a controversial LNG terminal” linked to infrastructure from Russia’s now-defunct Nord Stream “natural” gas pipeline network. The plan was reportedly been discussed by German chancellor Olaf Scholz and vice-chancellor Robert Habeck, notes the outlet. Habeck has confirmed that the “pipeline will feed into the existing gas infrastructure in Lubmin from spring 2024,” referring to the connection point on the mainland where the idled and partly destroyed Nord Stream lines also end.

For Earth Day, Australian philosopher and veteran animal-rights advocate Dr Peter Singer writes in the New York Times on how reducing meat and dairy consumption is vital for tackling climate change. He says: “We can do something for the planet every time we eat. And if Americans were to replace 50% of all animal-based foods with plant-based alternatives by 2030, that alone would help them get a quarter of the way toward hitting the US climate target under the Paris Agreement.” In other Earth Day coverage, the New York Times lists seven “inspiring reads” from the paper’s climate desk and explores the rise in climate-themed board games. The publication also reports on the rise of “decarb bros”.

Lots of other publications also publish essays, features and comment articles to commemorate Earth Day. BBC News explores how children wanting to make a difference can talk to their parents about climate change. In the Guardian, moral philosopher Elizabeth Cripps explores how being a “good parent” means taking action to protect your children from the worst of climate change. The Guardian also publishes an essay by activist Natasha Walter on the morals of the “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” film and a cartoon on climate change’s “unexpected impact” on small talk. CNN’s chief climate correspondent Bill Weir pens a letter to his son on signs of hope amid the crisis. Reuters carries an Earth Day essay by researchers Owen Gaffney and Johan Falk on the need to “get behind green technologies with the greatest momentum”. 

Elsewhere, the Sun carries a comment article by Labour politician David Blunkett on why the UK should focus on tackling climate change without being influenced by Extinction Rebellion. He says: “So on every front we must be ­absolutely clear. Peaceful protest, ­legitimate campaigning and sensible persuasion is part of our democratic life. But causing mayhem on our streets, at our racecourses and in our sporting centres is unacceptable and frankly dangerous. What we need now is coherent ­investment in getting this right for the future.”

A new study finds that “wildfire processes” reduce the carbon uptake of pristine peatlands by 35% and enhance emissions from degraded peatlands by 10%. The authors use datasets of natural, degraded and restored peatlands to produce a model of peatland CO2 and methane emissions before and after fires. They then illustrate the impact of peatland degradation and climate change on the future of the northern peatland carbon sink. The study finds that “climate change impacts accelerated carbon losses, where increased burn severity and burn rate reduced the carbon sink by 38% and 65%, respectively, by 2100”.