The EU’s climate science adviser – the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (ESABCC) – has warned the bloc against watering down climate targets, Reuters reports. The newswire says: “The European Commission plans to propose in July a legally binding target to cut EU countries’ emissions by 90% by 2040, from 1990 levels. But faced with pushback from governments, Brussels is assessing options including setting a lower target for domestic industries, and using international carbon credits to make up the gap to 90%.” The Financial Times says the board has published advice warning the bloc against using international carbon credits to count towards its climate targets. It adds: “The board’s recommendation puts the scientists in direct conflict with the German government, which has said in its coalition agreement it will only support a 90% emissions reduction if it can count international carbon offsets to 3% of that goal.” Politico says the board’s comments on carbon credits mark “an unprecedented intervention by the scientists”. It continues: “Although the board does not criticise the commission or EU governments outright, it has never previously commented on an ongoing political debate in this manner.” Euractiv also covers the story. Meanwhile, European Commission vice president Teresa Ribera has told Politico that the EU should follow the scientific guidance. The outlet continues: “Climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra has floated carbon credits as an option to give member governments leeway on the 2040 target, which the EU executive wants to set at 90% below 1990 levels. His proposal is expected on 2 July. While Ribera did not address carbon credits directly, she suggested the EU should follow the board’s advice – comments that hint at divisions between her and Hoekstra.”

In other European news, Euronews reports that more than 40% of the continent is “currently facing some form of drought”. The Financial Times reports on Poland’s “lurch to the right”, following the results of its recent presidential election. The article says that newly elected president Karol Nawrocki has “criticised EU policies on climate change”. Similarly, BBC News says that “Nawrocki opposes the EU’s climate proposals, such as the Green Deal, because he says limiting greenhouse gas emissions will harm small Polish farmers”. Reuters reports: “Britain will struggle to link its carbon market to the EU’s in just seven months, to avoid UK companies facing the bloc’s carbon border tariff and annual bills around £800m from next year, market experts have said.” 

The spring of 2025 was the UK’s warmest on record, BBC News reports. The outlet says that according to provisional figures from the UK Met Office, eight of the ten warmest UK springs have occurred since 2000. It adds that the three warmest springs have all occurred since 2017. The broadcaster continues: “It was also the sunniest spring on record for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and the second sunniest in England since the amount of hours of sunshine began to be recorded in 1910.” It adds that this spring was also the driest in more than 50 years. The MailOnline says that spring is defined as the three months from March to May. The Times says: “The Met Office said that average daytime temperatures were ‘particularly remarkable’ this spring, hitting a maximum of 14.6C, above the previous record of 14C in 1893.” It adds: “Only 128.2mm of rain fell between March and May this year, 40% less than average. England had its driest spring since 1893. Conditions have left reservoirs at lower levels than they were during the drought of 2022, when widespread temporary hosepipe bans were implemented.” It adds that last week, the Environment Agency declared a drought across northwest England. The Times of India, Press Association and i newspaper also cover the news. Elsewhere, Sky News carries a warning from the Met Office of an “increased risk of heatwaves in the coming months”. The outlet continues: “The weather service’s three-month outlook predicts it is 2.3 times more likely than normal that it will be hot in the UK between 1 June and 31 August. The average temperatures during those months range from 10-17C, with the southeast of England experiencing the higher averages of 16-17C.” The Sun, the Daily Telegraph, BBC Weather and the MailOnline also cover the news. The Daily Mail reports that the first hosepipe ban of 2025 has been implemented. 

The Trump administration has announced plans to eliminate federal protections across millions of acres of “Alaskan wilderness”, the New York Times reports. According to the newspaper, the move will “allow drilling and mining in some of the last remaining pristine wilderness in the country”. The newspaper continues: “Interior secretary Doug Burgum said the Biden administration had exceeded its authority last year when it banned oil and gas drilling in more than half of the 23m-acre area, known as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska…The announcement came as Burgum traveled to Alaska, accompanied by Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Chris Wright, the secretary of the Energy Department.” It adds that the reserve is an “ecologically sensitive expanse of land” and the largest area of public land in the US. The Financial Times says that “industry groups and Republican politicians praised Monday’s decision while environmentalists and Democrats lashed out”. The Associated Press reports that Trump “wants to double the amount of oil coursing through Alaska’s vast pipeline system and build a massive natural gas project”. CNBC News adds: “The Trump administration is confident that a massive liquified natural gas project in Alaska will find investors despite its enormous cost.” Reuters also covers the news. 

In other US news, Inside Climate News covers analysis which finds that “more than three-quarters of new gas pipeline capacity currently under development in the US would feed additional liquefied natural gas exports rather than supporting domestic energy needs”.  The Financial Times says that “a package of bills that would have derailed renewable power projects throughout Texas died on Monday after failing to secure enough votes to advance in the state legislature”. The Associated Press reports that the Department of Energy has ordered an oil and gas plant in Pennsylvania to keep running through the summer “as a precaution against electricity shortfalls”. Bloomberg reports that the Trump administration “plans to use a $400bn green bank the president once sought to kill to finance billions of dollars in loans for nuclear reactors, geothermal power and critical minerals”. MIT Technology Review reports that “the Trump administration has terminated National Science Foundation grants for more than 100 research projects related to climate change”. The Wall Street Journal reports that “climate startups are pausing operations, cutting staff and entering bankruptcy”. 

Nigel Farage, leader of the hard-right Reform UK, has used a tour of Scotland to “put the oil and gas industry at the heart of [the party’s] pitch to Scottish voters”, the Financial Times reports. At a press conference in Aberdeen, Farage and his deputy Richard Tice promoted the slogan “Drill, Scotland, Drill”, according to the newspaper. It adds that Farage said: “Oil and gas and net-zero – this is almost the next Brexit.” ITV News reports that Farage said there had been a “serious decline” in Scotland’s oil and gas industry. It adds: “Acknowledging the presence of a number of businessmen and businesswoman in the oil and gas field, Farage said: ‘2025 will be a year of record consumption of fossil fuels. We can con ourselves as much as we like, there’ll be more coal burnt this year than has ever been burnt in the history of mankind. And the same applies to the use of gas and oil, even the most ardent opponent of net-zero has to accept the world will still be using oil and gas.’” The outlet adds that Farage said the oil and gas industry was being “sacrificed” to net-zero policy. The Sun reports that Farage “blasted ‘net stupid zero’ for obliterating the UK’s oil industry, ahead of a showdown Scottish by-election on Thursday”. The MailOnline adds that Farage “hit out” against the “supertax” on North Sea oil and gas, calling it “disastrous”. The Daily Express says: “Reform UK is facing its first real chance of securing a seat in the Scottish Parliament this Thursday.” The Independent and Daily Telegraph also cover the news. The Daily Telegraph covers research that it says shows that “oil and gas jobs were disappearing faster than new clean energy roles were being created as a result of the slower-than-expected deployment of windfarms”. [The research, from Robert Gordon University, shows that 5,000 jobs were lost in the oil and gas industry in 2023-24, while at the same time, 5,000 jobs were created in the renewable industry.] The Scotsman reports that the leader of the Scottish Labour party and the UK’s energy minister have “visited a pioneering windfarm in South Lanarkshire”.

The planned Sizewell C new nuclear power station in Suffolk is “expected to get the final go-ahead during an Anglo-French summit in London next month”, the Financial Times reports. It says the news comes “as UK ministers edge towards securing billions of investment from the private sector”. Another Financial Times story reports that “Rachel Reeves is facing a showdown with four leading cabinet ministers as her spending review goes down to the wire”. According to the newspaper, government officials have confirmed that energy secretary Ed Miliband is “yet to settle” on the budget for his department. It adds: “Miliband is locked in one of the biggest struggles with the Treasury, including over funding for a ‘warm homes’ insulation plan, carbon capture projects and GB Energy, the new state energy company.” The final decision will be announced on 11 June, the outlet says.

In other UK news, six senior Bank of England staff who resigned from “climate and nature risk supervision roles” between 2020 and 2024 have told the Financial Times that the bank “neglected the issues”. Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph continues its campaigning against climate policies with a series of stories. One calls smart meters “a disaster”. Another, trailed on its frontpage, describes climate goals for aviation as “the EU’s great green scam”. The Daily Express also covers the news, which it calls a “fresh blow to Ed Miliband’s net-zero dreams”. The Independent, meanwhile, reports that British Airways “may soon offer cheaper, more eco-friendly flights than competitor airlines thanks to its early investment in sustainable aviation fuel”. The Daily Express also reports that “British factories have suffered the worst slump in Europe as energy costs weigh heavily on industry”.

“At least 32 people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced across northeastern India after relentless monsoon rains caused flash floods and landslides, overwhelming infrastructure and cutting off communities in five states,” the Independent reports. The newspaper notes that “studies show the monsoon in South Asia is getting worse due to the climate crisis, with a rise in the number of ‘extreme rain days’”. In other extreme weather news, BBC News reports that more than 700 people are believed to be dead after “devastating” floods hit Nigeria. The outlet says: “The floods, said to be the worst in the area for 60 years, swept through the Mokwa districts of Tiffin Maza and Anguwan Hausawa after torrential rains.” And Sky News reports that more than 25,000 Canadians have been evacuated “to escape dozens of wildfires that have reduced air quality and visibility”. 

Southwestern China’s Yunnan province has been hit by “flash floods and mudslides” triggered by heavy rainfall during the weekend, damaging roads and disrupting power supplies, Reuters reports. It adds that around 5,000 residents were affected, but that no casualties have been reported. Bloomberg reports China is expected to experience “intense heat” and rainfall this month. Meanwhile, state news agency Xinhua says that heavy rainfall is expected to occur in southern regions, while northern areas will see rising temperatures. 

Elsewhere, the Communist Party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily publishes an article on the front page of its print version saying that China, “as a developing country”, addresses carbon emissions because “global warming threatens human survival and the continuation of civilisation”. The People’s Daily also reports that Shanghai recently hosted the mayors of cities from 22 different countries to discuss “green development and low-carbon practices”. Meanwhile, Huang Runqiu, China’s ecology and environment minister, has penned an article for leading party journal Qiushi saying that “biodiversity is a vital foundation for human survival and development”. 

Separately, business news outlet Jiemian reports that China’s renewable energy sector has officially entered a market-based era, with prices for new wind and solar projects brought online after 31 May now subject to “local market-based bidding mechanisms”. Finally, Bloomberg carries an opinion article by columnist Javier Blas arguing that China’s coal-chemical industry could continue to boost coal demand in the country, with “significant implications for global climate and energy policy”. [While coal demand in the sector is growing, it still only accounts for a small fraction of the nation’s usage overall.]

BusinessGreen’s editor-in-chief, James Murray, factchecks claims made by Nigel Farage’s hard-right populist party Reform UK that it could save £45bn per year by “scrapping” the UK’s net-zero target. Murray flags two problems with the claim: “The first is that until the global economy gets to net-zero emissions, climate impacts will continue to escalate, bringing with them massive economic costs. The second, somewhat more mundane issue, is that Farage’s maths are utterly fantastical.” Murray says that “it is impossible to tot up government climate spending and reach £45bn a year”, adding that scrapping the UK’s net-zero targets would have “dire consequences”. He continues: “The New Economics Foundation (NEF) attempted to model the impact of Reform’s stated policies of a windfall tax on renewable energy generators and axing public spending on net-zero. It calculated that if such moves made new large scale renewables projects unviable it would cost the UK £92bn in lost revenue and wipe out more than 60,000 jobs by the end of the decade. Almost 3% of UK GDP could be at risk.”

In other comment, American climate and water scientist Peter Gleick writes in Nature Human Behaviour that “more US scientists must speak out”. He says “few scientists are either trained or facile in public communication” and adds that “many scientists are understandably reluctant to get involved in messy public debates”. However, he concludes: “History tells us that there are times when the dangers of inaction become sufficiently threatening to individuals or the planet that scientists who are able and willing to do so will have to enter the public arena and bring their voices to debates of critical societal importance. This is such a time.” Elsewhere, Mirianna Budimir, Francisco Ianni and Carolina Pereira Marghidan, climate experts at the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance and Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, write in an article for Climate Home News that “early warnings for heatwaves can save lives – and we need them now”. The experts warn of the lack of standardisation in heatwave monitoring systems worldwide. They say: “This is in no small part due to the differing levels of capacity from region to region; but even the terminology varies wildly, with literally hundreds of definitions of extreme heat in use right now.” They also warn that many countries – particularly lower-income nations in Africa, Latin America, and parts of Southeast Asia – have no early warning systems for heat at all. They argue that “a more coherent, coordinated approach to heatwave warning systems will be a massive step in the right direction”. Finally, the Daily Telegraph continues its campaigning against government climate action via its comment pages, with technology journalist Andrew Orlowski claiming that energy secretary Ed Miliband is “strangling Britain’s nuclear power potential” and Brendan O’Neill, the attention-seeking former editor of right-wing magazine Spiked, describing climate activist Greta Thunberg as a “narcissis[t]”. 

The retreat of glaciers can expose landscapes, turning them from a carbon sink to a net emitter, according to new research conducted in Greenland. The research examines emissions from the site of a retreating glacier in southwest Greenland. The authors “suggest that a change from greenhouse gas sinks in glacial meltwater to greenhouse gas sources in soil water creates a switch from a negative to positive warming feedback during glacial-interglacial transitions”, but add that further warming may increase the flow of meltwater, reversing this positive feedback effect.

Rolling out utility-scale solar across the world could increase the carbon storage of hosting ecosystems by millions of tonnes, new research finds. The research uses a range of datasets to examine how rolling out solar can affect carbon storage. It finds that “notably, optimising land management strategies can potentially enhance carbon density in the hosting ecosystem of existing solar plants”, “thereby facilitating an average reduction of in the carbon footprint of these solar plants”.