Many publications report that the EU has agreed to impose global price caps on shipments of Russian oil products. The cap has come into effect “as part of a G7 effort to cut Moscow’s export revenues”, the FT reports. Ambassadors of the 27 EU states agreed on Friday to “limit the price of premium products, such as diesel at $100 a barrel and that of low-end products including fuel oil at $45 a barrel”, says the FT. It explains: “The caps will allow shipping companies carrying Russian oil products to access western insurance and financing only if they pay less than the prescribed level.” The Swedish rotating presidency of the bloc said the new rules, which came into force yesterday, were an important “part of the continued response by EU and partners to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine”, the FT reports. It continues: “More hawkish EU states including Poland and the Baltics were successful in demanding a review of the cap level every two months, according to two officials. Other G7 states including the US are less inclined to such a mechanism given the potential instability it could cause on energy markets, officials said.” Bloomberg adds that the coalition also agreed to delay a review of the $60 price cap for Russian crude oil until March. Separately, Bloomberg reports that Poland is set to more than halve Russian oil imports this month. Le Monde and Politico also have the story.

There is ongoing coverage of escalating tensions between the EU and the US over the “protectionist” climate measures laid out in the US Inflation Reduction Act. Politico reports that French and German ministers will request “transparency” from the US over its climate spending in a trip to Washington on Tuesday. According to Politico, French economy minister Bruno Le Maire said in an interview on Saturday: “The most important thing is that we cooperate with allies to have transparency about the amount of subsidies and tax credits that will be granted. If you know at what price green hydrogen will be released in the US and at what price it will be released in Europe, this allows you to guarantee fair competition conditions.” The FT reports that France and Germany will also use the trip to “ask the US to lay off making ‘aggressive’ overtures to European companies in a bid to lure their green investments across the Atlantic”. A French official tells the FT: “What we’re looking for are not only exemptions, but also to have a mutual understanding to avoid a subsidies race and also to avoid aggressive tactics involving the US administration going to see European companies to ask them if they want to move their factories to the US. You don’t do that among friends.” Reuters reports that Italy has said that the EU’s own green subsidy plan published in response to the IRA “can and must” be improved. The FT reports that German carmaker BMW is planning an €800m investment in EVs in Mexico, which stands to benefit from its inclusion in US subsidies. An analysis in Bloomberg warns that Europe “risks a new age of protectionism” in joining a subsidies race with the US.

Elsewhere, the FT reports that US companies have said that EU climate rules are “deterring new gas deals”. According to the FT, US gas executives say that buyers in Europe have largely not been willing to commit to “new multi-decade supply deals needed to underpin a fresh wave of project construction on the Gulf of Mexico that would further lift supply in the coming years”. “[European] buyers are fearful of their governments telling them they can’t buy hydrocarbons 15 or 20 years from now,” Nick Dell’Osso, chief executive of Chesapeake Energy, one of the largest US gas producers, tells the FT. 

In other EU news, Reuters reports that France is leading the push for the EU to boost nuclear-powered hydrogen. A second Reuters story says that Italy has got “cold feet” over the EU’s green buildings plan. 

The UK’s National Grid has asked a second coal-fired power unit in reserve to be ready to generate electricity amid another cold snap this week, Bloomberg reports. It explains: “One unit at [EDF’s facility] at West Burton will join the Uniper SE’s Ratcliffe plant to possibly help provide power on Tuesday, according to separate notices by National Grid’s Electricity System Operator. Demand is set to surge during a spell of cold weather in the UK just as falling wind speeds curb power generation from turbines.” National Grid has several times this winter asked coal units in reserve to be prepared to generate, but has so far not had to use them. The network operator has also overseen an effort for UK households to be paid to reduce energy use on some evenings to help balance supply at peak times, Bloomberg says. Sky News interviews a National Grid head who says its new “demand flexibility service” is “likely how we’ll all operate in the future”. Elsewhere, BBC News speaks to a couple trying out new infrared, electric wallpaper in the place of radiators.

In other UK news, the Times reports on a warning from energy sector bosses that the UK risks missing its net-zero target because “the government lacks a clear plan to deliver green growth”. It reports: “In a letter to the chancellor, five trade associations representing hundreds of companies and organisations say that tax breaks to encourage investment in green energy are needed to prevent Britain losing out to the US and the EU. They say decisions on ‘many’ clean energy projects are being delayed as supply chain companies are hit by inflationary pressures and the energy crisis.” It comes as the FT reports that renewable energy and battery storage site developers are warning that a wait of up to 13 years to connect to the UK’s energy grid is “threatening investment and undermining the shift away from fossil fuels”. In addition, Politico speaks to Conservative politician Chris Skidmore who has warned his departure will leave a “climate leadership vacuum” in the UK government. And the FT reports that a breakdown of gas storage talks could leave the country exposed to “price surges”.

Elsewhere, the FT features a farm in Malton, North Yorkshire, that may lose half its land to the creation of a solar farm. And the Daily Telegraph reports on “Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s audacious plan to store carbon deep beneath the North Sea”.

Deutsche Welle reports that German chancellor Olaf Scholz has outlined the German government’s onshore wind power goals in an interview published by the weekly newspaper Bild am Sonntag: “By 2030, an average of four to five onshore wind turbines will be built each day.” However, as the outlet notes, he did not state the total number of planned wind turbines. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung adds that Germany’s goal is an installed capacity of 115 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, noting that there are currently more than 28,000 onshore wind turbines with a total output of around 58 gigawatts (GW). To operate “climate-neutrally” by 2045, Scholz calls for “more momentum for innovation” and the modernisation of industry: “We will now use the momentum of the past few months, the Germany pace, to make real progress in expanding wind power and solar energy so that we become less dependent on importing fossil gas, coal or oil.” Die Zeit also refers to the interview pointing out that, noting the war in Ukraine, inflation and the energy crisis, Scholz says: “Our country has come through this difficult time much better than many feared.” If nothing unforeseen happens, he is “optimistic about next winter”, the outlet adds.

Meanwhile, Focus, also reporting on Bild’s interview, notes that Scholz has sharply criticised the announcement by the “Last Generation” climate protest group to bring Germany to a “standstill” in 2023: “Many shake their heads about that. Me, too.” The outlet recalls an announcement by Last Generation’s spokesmen last week in which it said: “We are ready to bring the republic to a peaceful standstill.” Scholz says this type of protest is “counterproductive.” In addition, Der Spiegel carries news about a protest by Fridays for Future against the expansion of the A100 city motorway in Berlin. Statements such as “Berlin wants climate” and “politics for today instead of yesterday’s traffic jams” could be read on posters, notes the newspaper.

The South China Morning Post reports that China’s energy storage industry will “go from strength to strength in 2023”, citing analysts, after its “leading companies forecast strong earnings amid surging demand from the electric vehicle (EV) sector and as the country rolls out more renewable power projects”. It is estimated that China’s demand for advanced energy storage could “surge by roughly 50% to 30GWh (gigawatt-hours) in 2023, driving global demand to 100GWh”, the outlet adds. It highlights that energy storage is going to be a “crucial part of the country’s new power system, as the electricity generated by wind and solar sources is intermittent and tends to fluctuate with changing weather conditions”.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that China’s investment in the countries along the “Belt and Road [Initiative]” (BRI) “rose to the highest since 2019, with much of that increase due to a new battery plant for electric vehicles”. It says that Investment in the “147” nations in the BRI “rose 63% to $32.5bn from a year earlier”, citing a report from Fudan University in Shanghai. Reuters writes that Beijing may “ban the export of technology used to make solar panels, an industry which China dominates by controlling at least 75% of its global supply chain”. That would have “repercussions for the west’s drive to create its own green energy industry”, the newswire adds. Reuters says that Beijing’s “curbs”, which have “yet to be detailed”, would cover “technology and machinery used to produce solar panel components such as large wafers, black silicon and ultra-efficient silicon ingots”, citing Chinese media.

Elsewhere, Yicai writes that car sales “fell” in China in January “because of the Chinese New Year holiday and after purchase subsidies on new energy vehicles [NEV] ended last year”. It adds that some “985,000 passenger cars were sold in China from 1-27 January, down 45% from a year earlier and 42% from December”, citing a report published by the China Passenger Car Association. NEV sales stood at “304,000, down 1% from a year ago and 43% on the previous month”, the report adds.

Several publications continue to publish comment and analysis on the possibility of a green trade war between the US and the rest of the world. In the Observer, chief political commentator Andrew Rawnsley says that, when it comes to green spending, the US is “out the blocks”, the EU is “hurrying along the track”, China is “competing too” and the UK “still hasn’t tied its shoelaces”. He says: “The government appears to have barely noticed that there is a global race to dominate the green technologies of the future. In investment attracted, jobs created, income earned and lives bettered, the prizes for the winners will be huge. In prosperity foregone, the penalty for the laggards will be severe.” It comes as the Wall Street Journal publishes an editorial saying that the green subsidy row is “accelerating”, adding that Europe is “understandably upset at the IRA’s raw protectionism”. An editorial in the Economist describes Biden’s IRA as “ambitious, risky and selfish”. It says: “Biden is taking an epoch-making political gamble. He is acting on so many fronts because he had no choice. The only way to build a majority in Congress was to bolt a Democratic desire to act on climate change on to hawkish worries about the threat from China and the need to deal with left-behind places in the American heartland. On its own, each of these concerns is valid. But, in terms of policy, the necessity to bind them together has led America into a second-best world. The goals will sometimes conflict, the protectionism will infuriate allies and the subsidies will create inefficiencies.” In the Guardian, philosopher and activist Lorenzo Marsili says Europe should “copy” Biden’s plan, not “revert to old ways”.

Elsewhere, the Times carries a comment piece by Christine Farnish, former director of UK gas and markets regulator Ofgem, which argues that “radical ideas” such as social tariffs will be needed to ensure future energy equality in the UK. The Times also carries a comment piece by actor Peter Capaldi, which calls for Shell to stop investing in new fossil fuels and to pay for its role in driving climate change.

A team of Bloomberg reporters examine how the scandal engulfing Adani, the coal-producing Indian giant, could endanger the country’s net-zero plan. The article reads: “The crisis facing billionaire Gautam Adani has revealed a potential pitfall in India’s ambitious plan to reduce emissions: its reliance on the country’s most affluent and powerful private citizens. Led by Adani’s $70bn pledged investment in green energy infrastructure, India’s tycoons have so far committed to spend far more than the government on the energy transition…But Hindenburg Research’s allegations about companies linked to Adani Group have raised doubt on the firm’s future, including its massive green energy investment.” It comes as the FT publishes a big read on the “Adani affair”. An editorial in the FT says that the French company TotalEnergies did not show “due diligence” with its investments in Adani.

An editorial in the FT warns that Pakistan is facing its “worst set of challenges in its modern history”. It explains: “Riven with political incompetence, an economy that is on the brink and devastation wrought by climate change, the country last week suffered a terrorist attack that left 100 dead. A stark set of choices faces Pakistan, and its creditors in the west and in China, none of whom are served by further instability in a nuclear-armed power on a geopolitical faultline.”

Carbon Brief’s policy correspondent Josh Gabbatiss appears in the Sunday Times after publishing a viral thread about his animal encyclopaedia, which he worked on between the ages of nine and 30. Josh’s endearing tale is also reported on by the Guardian, Independent and Metro, among other outlets.

New research finds that, contrary to expectations, many coldwater fish species have grown in size in response to climate change. The authors compiled decades of observations of fish lengths from long-term surveys across the northern hemisphere for 12 species of freshwater salmonids. They find that more than two-thirds of the populations examined increased in length over time – despite the fact that “declining body size is believed to be a universal response to climate warming”. The study adds that “larger-bodied populations are experiencing greater increases in length than smaller-bodied populations”.