Qatar’s state-owned energy company said it would halt production of liquefied natural gas (LNG), following military attacks on two of its gas sites, the New York Times reports. According to the newspaper, gas prices in Europe have “surged by as much as 50%”. The Financial Times reports on its frontpage that QatarEnergy is the world’s largest LNG company, which supplies almost 20% of global LNG. Separately, the Independent reports that “global oil prices surged on Monday after attacks on ships near the strait of Hormuz heightened fears of a prolonged closure of the chokepoint that carries roughly a fifth of global seaborne oil”. The Hill says: “The price of global benchmark Brent Crude oil was at about $77 per barrel as of Monday afternoon, up from about $71 a week ago and about $66 per barrel a month ago…Analysts say the war could push prices further up in the weeks and months ahead.”

Wired says some analysts predict that oil prices could soon exceed $100 per barrel. Inside Climate News says the war in Iran “could have ‘historic’ disruptions on energy markets”. The Financial Times says that “in sheer volume, this shock could be worse than in 2022”. The Guardian has a “visual guide” explaining how the conflict is driving up oil and gas prices. It notes that around 20% of the world’s oil supplies travel through the strait of Hormuz. Separate analysis in the Guardian looks at the implications for the cost of living. The Financial Times reports that Venture Global and Cheniere Energy, two of the largest US gas producers, are “racing to capitalise” on higher prices. Reuters reports that the US is currently not considering selling oil from the US strategic petroleum reserve. Separately, Reuters says the US will announce plans on Tuesday to mitigate rising energy prices.

Reuters reports that US petrol prices crossed $3 per gallon for the first time since November. BBC News says: “In afternoon trade in Asia, Brent crude was around 3.2% higher at more than $80 (£59.67) a barrel, while US-traded oil was up by about 2.6%.” Reuters reports that the EU’s gas supply coordination group will meet ‌on Wednesday. The Wall Street Journal reports that “the vast majority of Iran’s roughly 1.6m barrels a day of crude exports is bound for China”. Reuters says: “India and other Asian economies are the world’s most dependent countries on oil and gas from the Middle East.” Politico says that “disruption of Iranian oil supplies may make China more interested in turning to Russia”. Bloomberg adds: “Senior gas executives say China is pressuring Iranian officials to avoid action that would disrupt Qatari gas exports or other energy shipments making their way through the Strait of Hormuz.”

MORE ON ENERGY

• Business Insider Africa reports that “for Africa’s fuel-importing economies, the spike [in oil prices] threatens weaker currencies, rising pump prices and a fresh wave of inflation”.
• The Financial Times: “Biggest energy traders use windfall gains to tighten grip on market.”
• Reuters reports that “long queues formed at fuel stations across Sri Lanka on Monday” amid fear of oil shortages.
• Soybean oil has jumped to a two-year high, according to Bloomberg. 
• Bloomberg says that higher fossil-fuel prices “could spark inflation, leading central banks to raise interest rates and make it more expensive to deploy clean energy”.
• The Wall Street Journal outlines “how oil prices responded to previous Middle Eastern wars”.

Household energy bills in the UK could “surge to £2,500 a year if the Iran conflict causes prolonged disruption to global gas supplies”, reports the Times. The newspaper says: “Any sustained increase in wholesale gas prices will feed through to household energy bills when Ofgem next adjusts the price cap from June. A trebling in wholesale prices could see the cap rise to about £2,500 a year, from £1,641 at present, in a repeat of the crisis seen following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, analysts at Stifel said.” The Daily Telegraph reports on its frontpage that “drivers face the prospect of paying an extra £10 for a full tank of fuel”. BusinessGreen reports that the UK government is facing “competing calls for it to urgently bolster energy security”. The Independent says that chancellor Rachel Reeves is “under pressure to prepare an emergency plan” on energy prices at today’s spring statement.

MORE ON UK

• BusinessGreen reports that “MPs have launched a new inquiry into the environmental impacts of the UK’s growing fleet of data centres”. 
• The Guardian reports that the UK is cutting climate-aid programmes, with “schemes worth hundreds of millions of pounds…likely to be substantially reduced”. 
• Sky News reports that the winter of 2025-26 was the wettest on record in parts of the UK, according to provisional figures from the Met Office. 
• The Daily Express covers analysis by the Round Our Way organisation, which finds that climate change is “driving more train delays and cancellations for Brits”.

China’s new “five-year plan”, expected to be unveiled at this week’s “two sessions”, is likely to focus on the resilience of commodity supply, including critical minerals, accelerating the construction of a unified national power market and cutting carbon intensity, as the country seeks to peak emissions by 2030, reports Bloomberg. The outlet says that Beijing will set “new goals” for building long-distance power lines or battery storage and promote “green hydrogen” as a “renewable fuel”. It also says that failing to meet its target of cutting carbon intensity by 18% during the “14th five-year plan” puts a “heavier load” on China if it wants to meet its 2015 Paris climate obligations, but a “renewables boom has put the country on a solid footing”. Separately, Bloomberg reports that China’s five-year plan “is crucial for the world’s climate fight”. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reports that “capping” electric vehicle (EV) production will likely be on the agenda at the “two sessions”. 

MORE ON CHINA

• Bloomberg says that China’s solar generation increased by 40% year-on-year to 1,170 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2025, surpassing wind at 1,130TWh for the first time.
• China completed its first cross-grid green power trading involving multiple provinces, with a transaction volume of 353 gigawatt hours, reports China Electric Power News.
• The MEE drafted the plan for environmental benchmarks during the 15th five-year plan period, reports BJX News. [The benchmarks do not include carbon dioxide.]
• A front-page article in the print edition of People’s Daily says that China has built the world’s largest “renewable energy system” and “new energy industrial chain globally”, making significant contributions to the global low-carbon transition.
• China is advancing space-based solar power stations and plans to conduct “megawatt-level in-orbit experiments” around 2030, according to People’s Daily.
• International Energy Net publishes another article written by an NEA director, focusing on ensuring the safety and resilience of China’s energy system.

“Contributors to the federal judiciary’s reference manual on scientific evidence accused court officials on Monday of letting partisan politics shape its latest edition ​by yielding to demands by Republican state attorneys general to cut a climate ‌change chapter,” reports Reuters. The newswire continues: “Twenty-eight co-authors of the manual’s fourth edition signed an open letter, published on the website of Science Politics critiquing the Federal Judicial Center’s ‘troubling’ removal last month of the climate-related chapter.” It adds that in a separate letter, made public yesterday, 16 Democratic lawmakers “demanded the Federal Judicial Center reinstate the chapter, saying ‘censorship of scientific ​information undermines the key role of this non-partisan guidance.’” The New York Times also covers the news. The Wall Street Journal has an editorial about the author letter. 

MORE ON US

• Inside Climate News reports that US households saw a 5% increase in electricity rates in 2025 on average, but that “results varied substantially by state and region”. 
• The Associated Press: “More than $130m was allocated for EV charger buildout in Nevada. Few were built.”
• The Washington Post explains “why Katie Miller and other MAGA influencers suddenly love solar power”. 
• Politico reports that “environmental groups have sued Georgia regulators over an air permit for new fossil-fuel infrastructure tied to data-centre development”.

The Financial Times Lex column comments on the vulnerability of gas consumers to supply disruptions. It argues that “for decades, the world has been hyper-focused on the potential for disruption to the oil market should the Strait of Hormuz be closed to tankers” because one-fifth of global oil moves through the strait. However, it says that gas, rather than oil, “is most exposed to the strait’s closure”. It continues: “There’s another big difference between oil and gas markets: the world has already reckoned with its dependence on the former but not yet on the latter.” It concludes: “If there is one crumb of comfort for gas consumers, it is that a lot of new LNG export capacity is being built, especially in the US. That will cushion the blow. But the disruption in the Middle East needs to lead to discussions about how to increase the resilience of the international gas system – and speed up the construction of homegrown renewables at the same time.”

MORE OIL AND GAS COMMENT

• Nils Pratley, the Guardian’s financial editor, writes that the world is “still a long way from ‘oil shock’ territory”, but says that a “gas shock” is “a real and present threat”.
• Massimo Di Odoardo, head of gas and LNG analysis at Wood Mackenzie, writes in the Financial Times that “the disruption to LNG flows has sparked concerns about supply to the key regional customers of Europe and Asia”. 
• Bloomberg opinion columnist Andy Mukherjee writes about the impacts of the energy crisis in India, while Bloomberg opinion columnist Javier Blas says the “upheaval may not be as catastrophic for energy prices” as the Ukraine crisis.
• Global energy transition columnist Gavin Maguire writes in Reuters: “The historically low levels of gas inventories across Europe could quickly become a major liability.”
• A Wall Street Journal editorial says global gas prices “shot up…but not nearly as much as they might have thanks to America’s LNG export boom”.
• The Daily Telegraph has an editorial and a comment by economist Gerard Lyons arguing that the conflict “could not have come at a worse time” for the UK chancellor. 

Mariana Mazzucato, a professor in the economics of innovation and public value at University College London, writes in BusinessGreen that “in the wake of Davos, it is clearer than ever that climate action must be organised as a whole-of-society endeavour, with workers, communities, and businesses engaged as the agents of change”. Mazzucato highlights a speech by Canadian prime minister Mark Carney in Davos last month, when he argued that “collective investments in resilience are cheaper than everyone building their own fortresses”. She says: “Carney is right to call for a coalition of the willing to come together and forge new frameworks for global governance. Countries that are serious about solving challenges like climate change and economic inequality must work together to embed mechanisms for consensus building like binding agreements on technology transfers, green finance and shared innovation frameworks.”

MORE COMMENT

• In the Climate Brink, climate scientist Andrew Dessler has published an “obituary” for the US Department of Energy’s climate working group report. 
• Climate Home News: “Africa’s mineral wealth can make it an architect of a more just energy transition.”

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

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