Extreme weather and climate change caused “more financial damage in Europe between 2020 and 2023 than it did in the whole preceding decade”, the Financial Times says, citing a new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA). It says the average annual costs reached €44.5bn during the latest four years, some two-and-a-half times higher than in the decade to 2019, according to the agency’s report. The Guardian says environmental damage is “putting [the] European way of life at risk”, according to the EEA report. It adds: “EU officials warn climate breakdown and wildlife loss ‘are ruining ecosystems that underpin the economy’.” Agence France-Presse reports: “Europe is a world leader in the fight against climate change, but must do more to protect its environment and improve its resilience against global warming, the European Union’s environment agency warned on Monday.” France24 also has the news. Separately, the Independent says: “Climate change brings Europe fewer, but heavier hailstones, experts find.”

Ahead of this week’s party conference, the Press Association reports calls from analysts and campaigners for the Labour government to “push ahead with climate plans amid growing pressure against net-zero action at home and abroad”. It says prime minister Keir Starmer is “facing calls to hold firm on Labour’s green policies in the face of growing political pushback domestically”. Analysis from the Guardian asks if “Labour’s climate plan [will] survive the squeeze of tight budgets and rightwing attacks”. It concludes: “Despite the strong showing for Reform in the polls, public support for climate action remains high. Capitalising on that could be a strength for Labour if it can stand up to the vested interests…and show that lowering the cost of living and creating a cleaner, greener future are compatible, not contradictory.”

Another Guardian article looks at the “critical environmental decisions piling up in Labour’s inbox”, including airport expansion and North Sea drilling. The Times interviews chancellor Rachel Reeves: “Her department is said to be weighing up plans to intervene on energy bills and Reeves indicates that there is more to come in the budget.” Elsewhere, the Daily Mail claims Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, “suggested Keir Starmer needed to sack” energy secretary Ed Miliband and “bin his net-zero zealotry”. However, it does not quote her saying these things, instead quoting her saying: “The person that needs to be in that job is somebody who understands really clearly that this must be a workers’ transition…so far [Miliband] hasn’t’”. The Daily Express reports the comments with similar spin. In contrast, the Financial Times reports on how the “glory days” of the UK’s oil and gas industry have been “ended by the global oil crash”.

MORE ON UK

• The Press Association reports on calls for Starmer to attend the COP30 climate talks in Brazil in November, following a report in the FT last week that he might not make the trip.
• The Sun criticises Miliband for flying to climate summits, with an accompanying editorial calling him “Air Miles Miliband”.
• The Financial Times reports that offshore wind giant Ørsted is “in talks to sell a stake in its flagship UK project to Apollo as it tries to shore up its balance sheet”. The Times says the firm is looking to sell a 50% stake in the Hornsea 3 offshore windfarm.
• ITV News profiles three people in the east of England facing the “emotional toll of climate change” as a result of “flooding, wildfires and coastal erosion”.
• The Daily Telegraph says service businesses now use more electricity per year than industry, a shift that it attempts to link to “Labour’s dash to net-zero”. 
• The Times reports that Tesla’s UK profits fell by 40% last year due to discounting, amid what “some commentators believe is…a consumer backlash”. The Daily Telegraph coverage says “sales plunge by £500m as drivers boycott Elon Musk”.

A total of 7.4 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity was added in China in August 2025, decreasing from 11GW in July and hitting the “lowest level in nearly three years”, according to data released by the National Energy Administration (NEA), reports Bloomberg. However, China’s solar module exports surged 9.5% year-on-year in August, reaching $2.4bn, the outlet says, citing customs data. Industry news outlet BJX News reports that, in the first eight months of the year, China’s total power generation capacity increased by 18% compared to the same period last year, with solar power and wind power capacity growing by 48% and 22%, respectively, during the same period.

MORE ON CHINA

• Bloomberg: “China’s green steel transition set back by low electric-furnace output.”
• China’s auto companies will “need permits to export electric vehicles starting next year, adding to signs the country’s officials are tightening their management of the world’s biggest car market”, reports Bloomberg. A CNN feature says China’s EVs are “going global” amid a “cut-throat price war at home”.
• Xinhua: “China’s ecological push in focus as UNESCO biosphere program outlines future roadmap.”
• US president Donald Trump’s accusation that “China manufactures wind power equipment…but hardly uses it itself” is “pure nonsense”, says Science and Technology Daily.
• Chen Haisheng, chairman of the Zhongguancun Energy Storage Industry Technology Alliance and director of the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, tells Yicai that China’s “new energy storage”, mainly lithium batteries, is moving from “large-scale deployment to market-oriented development”.

Politicians from Germany’s CDU/CSU and Green parties have warned that climate change poses security risks and have urged the issue to be addressed by the new National Security Council (NSR), which has been described by chancellor Friedrich Merz as a “central platform for overarching security issues”, reports Handelsblatt. Although Germany’s foreign intelligence service warns that climate change could have “dramatic security consequences” for Germany, climate minister Carsten Schneider is not currently a council member, notes the outlet. German MP Roderich Kiesewetter tells Handelsblatt: “It would be naive to dismiss climate change as purely an environmental issue…It accelerates existing conflicts and drives migration.” Meanwhile, Table.Media reports that the German Meteorological Society and German Physical Society have warned of 3C of global warming “as early as 2050”, though Bild cites climate journalist Axel Bojanowski calling such projections “at best an outsider’s theory” due to insufficient data.

MORE ON GERMANY 

• Der Spiegel reports that Germany’s gas storage is currently around 77% full, down from 96% in mid-September 2024, noting that, in the event of “extremely cold temperatures”, reserves could be “fully depleted” by the end of January 2026.
• Politico examines Donald Trump’s UN statement suggesting Germany’s return to fossil fuels and nuclear energy, noting that, while the Merz government has eased the coal phaseout timeline and plans new gas-fired plants, no new nuclear power plants are planned.
• A comment for the Guardian by journalist Tania Roettger says: “Mercedes-Benz and other big manufacturers want to overturn the EU’s 2035 ban on petrol cars. This would be as disastrous for jobs as for the climate.”

The US supreme court has “cleared the way for the Trump administration to freeze more than $4bn in foreign aid”, the Washington Post reports, calling the decision “a victory for the president’s push to exert greater control over federal spending”. The newspaper continues: “Trump has embarked on efforts to block funds across the federal government on everything from health research to transportation projects to ‘sanctuary cities’. Congressional Democrats estimate that $430bn in federal spending is on hold. The victory before the high court could embolden his efforts.” The Associated Press also covers the story.

MORE ON US

• European government officials are “uneasily digesting” president Donald Trump’s UN speech last week, reports Reuters, which says they are “concerned over erosion of shared democratic values” after his attacks on Europe’s “energy transition and commitment to climate action”.
• Bloomberg says that last week’s UN general assembly showed that “world leaders who appeased the US president’s NATO and tariff demands are defying him on climate change, energy and other urgent issues”.
• The Associated Press’s director of climate news factchecks Trump’s remarks at the UN on climate change, concluding “several claims…are false or misleading”.
• The US Department of Energy has added “climate change” and “emissions” to a “banned words list”, Politico reports. Another Politico report says the department has used “emergency powers to keep a handful of older coal- and oil-fired power plants open past their scheduled retirements”.
• The Financial Times says Trump’s “erratic policymaking” in areas including energy “frays nerves at multinational groups”. It adds: “Some companies weigh whether to move staff or activity from the US, executives and advisers say.”
• Greenwire: “Disruptive climate activists retool for Trump era.”

A news analysis for the New York Times by foreign correspondent David Pierson reflects on a series of Chinese interventions at the UN last week, saying that the country “tried to send the message that Beijing, not Washington, was the responsible power willing to shoulder global duties”. He writes: “China’s leaders used the UN general assembly to roll out pledges on trade and fighting climate change that were notable less for their substance than for the image they projected of China as a pillar of stability and global cooperation.” Pierson adds: “Whether China is doing enough to make a difference, or simply clearing the low bar of expectations set by the Trump administration’s retreat from climate science and global commitments, is an open question.”

MORE CHINA COMMENT

• Reporting on a speech by Chinese premier Li Qiang on Friday, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post says he “expressed support for several policies that Trump had railed against…includ[ing] the need to fight global warming”.
• An editorial in the Observer says that US “wealth and power is built on science”, but the Trump administration is “tearing that edifice apart”. It adds: “Calling anthropogenic climate change a hoax cedes the green-energy revolution to China.”
• In related news, the Daily Telegraph reports under the headline: “Trump’s anti-net zero crusade is [a] gift to China, says mining tycoon [Andrew Forrest].”
• An article in the Diplomat notes that China’s president Xi Jinping was “conspicuously absent” from meetings marking the 80th anniversary of the UN, only addressing a climate summit “from afar”. It contrasts this with other recent events and says: “The optics are clear: China values the UN, but increasingly prioritises its own minilateral groupings for the most meaningful engagement and announcements.”
• Jia Weilie, a professor at Huzhou University, says that China’s new climate pledge is a “highly responsible goal”, according to an article by Global Times.
• Chai Qimin, director of the strategic planning department at the National Centre for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, tells China News that the pledge marks China’s entry into a “more systematic and comprehensive new journey of low-carbon resilient development” around the world.

An editorial in the Financial Times celebrates the “environmental and social benefits” of rail travel, on the 200th anniversary of the “birth of the railway age”. It says: “A rail revival is overdue on grounds of environmental sustainability alone: trains, especially powered by green electricity, emit far less pollution per kilometre than cars or planes.” The Guardian also devotes an editorial to the rail anniversary.

MORE COMMENT

• A second editorial in the Financial Times says Spain is a “rare bright spot among Europe’s otherwise drearily performing economies”, pointing to factors including “cheap renewable energy” and immigration.
• In the Independent, researcher Mike Berners-Lee writes under the headline: “To avoid climate catastrophe, we must take on big oil.” Bloomberg columnist Javier Blas says “big oil will miss the financial discipline imposed by ESG”.
• For the Times, columnist Cindy Yu says China’s “climate paradox is a lesson for Britain”, adding that “Beijing’s green transition sits alongside coal burning because it is based on self-sufficiency”.
• The Washington Post carries an editorial on the “lessons from faulty evacuation alerts in the California fires” that manages to say that “fires are burning with increasing ferocity” without mentioning climate change.
• Also in the Times, Times Radio business presenter Dominic O’Connell reflects on the prospects for oil and gas in the North Sea.
• In the Daily Mirror, businessman Dale Vince says Reform leader Nigel Farage is “out of touch” and says those who “think [net-zero] is too costly” are not basing their views on the “true picture”, which shows that it “will give us cheaper energy and energy independence and economic strength”.

A feature in the Financial Times says the “drive to move beyond fossil fuels” is facing “geopolitical shocks, economic hurdles and soaring energy demand”, but adds that there are “new technologies attempting fresh breakthroughs”. It points to a “nuclear renaissance”, notes that the hydrogen economy has “stall[ed]” and says carbon capture and storage is “not without issue”. The article also states, incompletely, that “developed nations are deploying renewable and low-carbon technologies at a record pace”. Separately, the Financial Times carries a guide to “climate tech”, including rapid EV chargers, meat substitutes, geothermal energy, enhanced rock weathering, low-emissions steel and grid-scale batteries. A related Financial Times news article reports: “A top developer of technology to extract carbon dioxide from the air has signalled that its costs are falling much slower than anticipated, casting doubts on the nascent technique’s role in tackling climate change.”

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Simon Evans, with contributions from Henry Zhang and Wanyuan Song. It was edited by Leo Hickman.

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