ExxonMobil, the US-based oil major, is suing California claiming that two new state laws that aim to fight climate change would “violate the oil company’s free speech rights”, reports the New York Times. The newspaper explains: “The two laws, passed in 2023 and known as the California Climate Accountability Package, would require thousands of large companies doing business in the state to calculate and report the greenhouse gas emissions created by the use of their products, along with the business risks that climate change represents for the companies.” It adds that the rules begin to take effect in 2026 and adds: “Exxon’s lawsuit argue[s] that the laws would force the company to use flawed methodology to calculate these emissions and would misrepresent the role that Exxon and its products play in warming the world. The suit ask[s] a judge to block the state from enforcing the laws against it.”

The Associated Press quotes a spokesperson for the office of California governor Gavin Newsom saying that it is “truly shocking that one of the biggest polluters on the planet would be opposed to transparency”. The Los Angeles Times carries the reaction of Michael Gerrard, a leading climate change legal expert at Columbia University, who says the suit reflects “Exxon’s pattern of aggressively pushing back” against any climate change-related regulation.

MORE ON US

• The New York Times: “An EPA plan to kill a major climate rule is worrying business leaders.”
• The Washington Post covers news analysis that shows rising electricity prices are not being caused by new data centres, as commonly reported, but due to “maintaining the massive system of poles and wires that keeps electricity flowing”.
• Inside Climate News: “Trump and Republicans join Big Oil’s all-out push to shut down climate liability efforts.”

The Financial Times reports on its frontpage that the US risks “falling further behind China in the global electric car race after the Trump administration’s championing of the petrol engine led to a steep drop in EV investments, industry executives and experts have warned”. The newspaper says such voices are warning that the “rolling back of support in the US had the potential to define the industry in coming years, strengthening China’s hand in the EV race and sowing doubts in the EU over its ban on sales of internal combustion engines from 2035”. The article quotes Håkan Samuelsson, chief executive of Volvo Cars, saying: “We need to…be quicker in development to compete with the Chinese. As soon as you weaken these signals, everything will slow down.”

Relatedly, there is continuing coverage of trade tensions over rare-earth resources between the US and China ahead of the expected meeting later this week in South Korea between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. BBC News reports that the “US and China have agreed the framework of a potential trade deal”, which would see a “deferral on China’s tightened rare-earth minerals controls”. Reuters says the leaders have agreed to “pause steeper American tariffs and Chinese rare-earths export controls”.

European Union countries are negotiating proposals to give industries a “more flexible path” to meeting climate goals, as the bloc attempts to win support from governments for a new 2040 emissions-cutting target, according to a draft EU document seen by Reuters. The newswire adds: “[The document] showed countries have drafted plans that would allow the EU to review the 2040 target every two years – potentially allowing Brussels to weaken the goal in future. The draft would also fix into law a commitment that if forests absorb less CO2 emissions than expected, or technologies to remove CO2 from the atmosphere develop slower than planned, other industries will not be forced to cut emissions faster to deliver the 2040 goal…EU countries’ ambassadors will negotiate the proposal next week, before their climate ministers attempt to approve the target on 4 November. The draft proposal did not change the 90% emissions-cutting target, nor the 3% of the goal that can be met by buying foreign carbon credits, rather than domestic efforts – although countries are still debating this. French president Emmanuel Macron said last week credits could potentially cover up to 5%.”

A separate Reuters article says: “The European Union is developing a new plan to curb its reliance on Chinese critical raw materials, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Saturday, as she criticised Beijing for its expanded restrictions on the export of rare earths.”

MORE ON EUROPE

• Agence France-Presse: “Tens of thousands of climate protesters marched in the Hague on Sunday, seeking to push the fight against climate change up the political agenda days ahead of an election dominated by immigration and housing.”
• Ireland’s newly elected president Catherine Connolly has “emphasised the importance of being a voice for peace, neutrality and climate action”, notes RTÉ.
• Offshore wind developers and equipment suppliers are “bracing for a slowdown in business in France where a political crisis has stalled changes to the country’s energy framework and government tenders”, reports Reuters.
• Thousands of demonstrators in Valencia have marked the one anniversary of Spain’s deadly floods, which killed 229 people, by “demanding accountability”, reports AFP.
• Bloomberg: “Nordic builders bet big on world’s largest green steel project.”

Hurricane Melissa is “roaring” towards Jamaica with “destructive Category 4 winds” and is “expected to strengthen further before making landfall on the Caribbean nation with up to 76cm of rain and a life-threatening storm surge”, reports the Associated Press, adding: “It could reach Category 5 strength [later on] Monday with winds greater than 157mph (250kph).” The Washington Post explains “why Melissa’s intensification en route to Jamaica is so extraordinary”, saying: “Melissa’s power is particularly notable. If the storm reaches Category 5 strength as predicted, it will become the third such storm to do so this Atlantic season – the second-highest total for any season on record and part of a trend toward more intense storms. Melissa is churning across some of the warmest ocean waters in the world, which are also warmer than average, fueling violent thunderstorms that are efficiently converting oceanic heat and moisture into powerful updrafts – a process that accelerated Melissa’s strengthening and led to the formation of a clear, symmetric eye.” The New York Times has an article headlined: “Hurricane Melissa’s wind speeds doubled in less than a day.” Agence France-Press reports that “Melissa has been blamed for at least four deaths in Haiti and the Dominican Republic this week”.

Prices on China’s national carbon market for bulk purchases of allowances currently stand at 45 yuan/tonne ($6/tonne), which is below the price set when the scheme was launched in 2021, according to Bloomberg. It attributes the fall in price to “emitters look[ing] to dump surplus allowances before they are canceled later this year”, as well as a “decline” in coal power generation, which has reduced demand. Spot prices in the carbon market have also fallen to the “lowest level in over two years”, the outlet says, although it notes that prices have since rebounded and, unlike bulk contract prices, have not fallen below launch prices.

MORE ON CHINA

• Solar panel installations in China “rose slightly” in September from a near three-year low and output of solar cells also increased, reports Bloomberg. Separately, Bloomberg reports that China’s Goldwind, the world’s largest wind turbine maker, has “posted a 170% jump in profit”.
• Power news outlet Dianlian Xinmei explores how “global energy competition” and the “normalisation of extreme weather” will impact China’s power sector through to 2030.
• China has issued a steel capacity “swap plan” emphasising “more efficient utilisation of scrap steel” to encourage electric arc furnace-based steelmaking, says Reuters.
• New loans in China for “green” projects from January to September 2025 totalled 6.5tn yuan ($912bn), says state news agency Xinhua. “Demand for green finance has continued to rise,” reports finance news outlet Securities Daily.
• Xinhua says the two remaining draft sections of the “ecological and environmental code” have been submitted for “second deliberation” by China’s top legislature.
• Business news outlet Jiemian says China’s new policy on promoting consumption of local renewable energy does little to address the “sharp decline in investment in new energy power plants”. 

The UK’s TV and radio regulator is “allowing GB News [a hard-right digital channel that, despite its name, offers an endless stream of partisan opinion] and others to ‘flout’ accuracy rules and broadcast climate change denial, say campaigners”, reports the Guardian in an “exclusive” based on complaints made by campaign group Reliable Media. The newspaper adds: “Instances cited include describing global heating as ‘the climate scam’ and suggesting the government was going to introduce ‘enforced veganism’. Ofcom has received 1,221 complaints related to the climate crisis since January 2020, when its searchable database began. None resulted in a ruling that the broadcasting code had been breached. In fact, only two such breaches have been found since 2007.”

MORE ON UK

• The Times reports that “recent downpours have not done enough to alleviate drought in England and that “hosepipe bans affecting millions could last deep into winter”.
• Sky News: “More than 2,000 jobs at risk as oil and gas company [Petrofac] enters administration.”
• The Guardian: “‘We have to book bigger rooms’: Green membership surge causes novel problems.”
• The climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph continues its wave of anti net-zero news stories, including how “Labour plans to chop down forests for solar farms” and “energy industry prepares for net-zero funding cuts”.
• Ten lawsuits have been filed against Drax – which operates the UK’s largest power station – after diagnoses of asthma allegedly linked to its wood-pellet fuel, reports the Guardian.
• BBC News: “Green energy jobs should help bring down heating bills, says expert.”

Writing in the Guardian, Bill Hare, an Australian climate scientist who is the chief executive of thinktank Climate Analytics, says: “Australians have a clear and obvious interest in the world taking action to peak global warming as close as possible to the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C limit. Never has there been a stronger need for rapid global decarbonisation; never has there been a stronger need to rid ourselves of fossil fuels and undertake a global transition to clean, renewable energy…So what’s getting in the way of this energy revolution? The biggest barrier to the global energy transition is the fossil fuel industry and its relationship with governments.”

Meanwhile, Cyrielle Cabot for France24 walks through “what’s at stake” at COP30, which starts next month in Brazil, with issues such as deforestation and financing climate action in developing countries “expected to loom large”. And in the Times of India, environment minister Bhupender Yadav writes: “‘Climate justice has a fair price tag of trillions, not billions.”

There is continuing debate within the UK media about the UK government’s “clean power by 2030” target. James Murray in BusinessGreen responds to misleading media coverage of a new report on the topic by the Tony Blair Institute. He writes: “What the report does do is make a relatively nuanced case for the government to give more consideration to the cost implications of rushing to meet the 2030 target, especially when it comes to the upcoming clean-power auction and the costs associated with building more grid capacity as quickly as possible. This is fair enough, but it is also somewhat superfluous. Ministers have previously hinted they will not pay over the odds for new offshore wind projects and it is an open secret they would not be overly disappointed if they fall marginally short of the 95% clean power by 2030 goal. The government even pre-empted the TBI report by briefing the Guardian on its position, making it pretty clear the 2030 mission stays, but will not be treated as sacrosanct if meeting the target means blowing the budget for the next clean-power auction.” The authors of the TBI report have an article in the Daily Telegraph under the headline: “Greenpeace is wrong – we can’t have net-zero at any price.”

MORE UK COMMENT

• The Wall Street Journal’s climate-sceptic comment pages host an editorial headlined: “Britain nears its net-zero breaking point.”
• An editorial in the climate-sceptic Sun on Sunday claims, “to stand any chance [of electoral survival], [Keir Starmer] must drive through cuts to the grotesque £300bn welfare bill and immediately scrap the ruinous net-zero targets which are due to cost £803bn by 2050”. [The newspaper misleadingly cites an OBR report, which concluded that failing to stop climate change would be far more costly. See Carbon Brief’s factcheck.]
• The Daily Telegraph carries its usual range of comment pieces attacking net-zero policies.

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

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