New analysis shows that the share of electricity produced by gas has fallen for the fifth year in a row, reports BusinessGreen. The outlet says that the report from Ember, a thinktank, finds that “while gas-fired power generation increased slightly in absolute terms last year, its growth slowed and its global market share shrank further after solar-power generation grew 17 times faster”. BusinessGreen adds that the percentage of electricity generated by gas dropped from 23.9% in 2020 to 21.8% in 2025. The outlet reports: “Overall, solar generation accounted for around 75% of new global electricity demand growth in 2025, while fossil gas contributed only around 5%, Ember said.”

MORE ON ENERGY 

• The Financial Times reports on solar energy in sub-Saharan Africa.
• The European Commission has approved a €23bn state subsidy scheme for renewable electricity in Italy, reports Reuters.
• The climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph reports claims that plug-in solar panels could pose a fire risk in the UK. It quotes a government spokesperson saying independent tests showed existing products are safe.

UN climate chief Simon Stiell told the opening of mid-year UN climate talks that tackling climate change is the “hardest, but most important, thing humanity has ever tried to do together”, reports Climate Home News. The outlet continues: “Perhaps hoping to forestall the usual diplomatic wrangling that routinely bogs down the talks, he warned governments that there is no time to ‘re-open past debates or renegotiate commitments already made’.” It adds that the opening ceremony of the discussions in Bonn, Germany on Monday “kicked off only an hour late and was not marred by agenda rows, which delayed the start of the talks by a day last year”. 

MORE ON CLIMATE TALKS 

• The incoming president of COP31 climate negotiations, Australia’s climate and energy minister Chris Bowen, tells Agence France-Presse that countries “need to get off fossil fuels”.
• EU negotiation priorities should be “shorter, sharper and more strategic” at COP31 in November, according to an internal document seen by Reuters.

The rate of sea-level rise has doubled in the past decade amid “severe and accelerating” pressures on oceans, says a new UN report covered by the Guardian. The newspaper says that pressures including pollution and industrial fishing are leading to widespread biodiversity loss and “severe strain” on ocean systems. The World Ocean Assessment also finds that “16% of the increase in global ocean heat since 1955 occurred after 2018”, reports the newspaper. It adds: “Ocean currents redistribute heat at global and local scales, but currents are changing and their impacts on future climate breakdown are poorly understood, the report found.” 

MORE ON OCEANS

• Politico reports that the EU intends to fill some of the “gaping hole in ocean research left behind by the administration of US president Donald Trump”.

The Financial Times covers a report by climate campaigners which finds that banks in the US and Japan “significantly increased their fossil-fuel financing last year”, while banks in Europe “reduced their market share”. The newspaper says that “global banks provided $906bn in fossil-fuel financing in 2025” – an increase of 8% since 2024. It says this was “led by JPMorgan Chase”, which provided $58bn to coal, oil and gas companies and projects last year. The newspaper adds: “By contrast, European banks showed the biggest signs of reducing financing to coal, oil and gas. BNP Paribas reduced fossil deals by 28%, while the level was down by 36% at UBS.” 

MORE ON US 

• Reuters reports that a US judge has “scrap[ped]” a Trump administration policy that made it more difficult for wind and solar energy projects to claim tax subsidies.
• US company Ormat Technologies has finalised designs for a geothermal power plant “that would be the largest ​of its kind in the industry”, reports Reuters.

China’s car sales fell overall in May, with new energy vehicle (NEV) sales down 7.5% year-on-year, in its “fifth straight month of declines”, reports Reuters. It added that NEVs accounted for 62.2% of total vehicle sales last month. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post also covers the new data, stating that “Chinese [NEV] assemblers, which dominated the domestic market, got off to a slow start this year as a national policy shift deterred thousands of consumers from buying [NEVs]”. Zhang Yi, associate professor at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, writes in the state-run newspaper China Daily that “lower Chinese prices” for solar panels, batteries and EVs are “beneficial” for Europe’s energy transition, adding that the “China Shock 2.0” narrative is a “fake story”. China’s foreign ministry said that China-EU economic and trade relations are not a “zero-sum game”, reports state news agency Xinhua.

MORE ON CHINA

• China issued a “red alert” for flood risks from heavy rains in Hunan, Guangxi and Guizhou, reports Bloomberg. Flood control measures are active in Fujian, Guangdong and Yunnan, says Xinhua.
• Heavy rainfall in southern China this week is raising the risk of “inundating crops and damaging rice fields”, reports Bloomberg. People’s Daily discusses how China’s agriculture sector is adapting amid “increasingly evident” climate change and more frequent extreme weather events.
• A survey conducted by China Youth Daily finds 85.1% of young people said low-carbon concepts have become “more integrated into their daily lives”.
• China’s coastal sea-surface temperatures in summer 2025 were 0.7C above average, partly due to climate change, reports People’s Daily. China has increased its mangrove forests, a “key” carbon sink, by 44% since 2000, reports China Daily. 
• CCTV reports that China’s “hydrogen-coal co-firing technology” has achieved 50% green hydrogen blending and 100% pure hydrogen combustion for the first time.
• Data centres in China are unwilling to pay extra for “green electricity”, reports Jiemian.

An editorial in the Guardian focuses on a recent report which said that “humanity can raise living standards, reduce inequality and keep global heating within a 2C rise”. The newspaper says: “In an age of ecological dread, that is a bracingly hopeful claim.” It continues that the blocks to achieving these aims include “plutocracy, US power and timid climate politics that leave elites largely untouched”. The newspaper says that a “rich-world lifestyle of high private consumption – frequent flights, large homes, multiple cars, meat-heavy diets – cannot be adopted by the rest of the planet within a 2C carbon budget”. It adds: “What is on offer is a bargain: everyone gets a rich-world level of public provision and downtime; nobody gets oligarchic excess.” The editorial concludes: “The question is why such an attractive bargain has become so difficult to sell.” An article in the climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph says the “potty” report is “gaining traction in Westminster”. 

MORE COMMENT

• Prof Mike Mann of the University of Pennsylvania writes a comment for China Daily under the headline: “Time to turn up the heat on action.”
• Senior marketing strategist Jen Hughes writes in Reuters that “radical transparency about sustainability trumps greenhushing”. 

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

Subscribe for free.