A UN summit on the world’s oceans opens today in Nice, France, reports Agence France-Presse. The newswire says: “[The meeting] will not produce a legally binding agreement at its close like a climate COP or treaty negotiation…But diplomats and other observers said it could mark a much-needed turning point in global ocean conservation if leaders rose to the occasion.” France 24 says 50 heads of state and government arrived in Nice over the weekend “ahead of a high-level summit to tackle a deepening crisis in the oceans driven by overfishing, climate change and pollution”. The Associated Press explains: “The conference will feature 10 panels on topics such as blue finance, sustainable fisheries and plastic pollution. Deep sea mining is expected to feature in broader discussions, while small island states are likely to use the platform to advocate for increased climate adaptation funding. The outcome of these discussions will form the basis of the Nice Ocean Action Plan – a declaration of voluntary commitments to be adopted by consensus and presented at the United Nations in New York this July.”

The Daily Mail reports on a speech given by Prince William in Monaco yesterday, where it says he “called for the world to ‘act with urgency’ to save the oceans”. It quotes him saying: “The truth is that healthy oceans are essential to all life on earth. They generate half of the world’s oxygen, regulate our climate and provide food for more than three billion people. And today, they need our help. Rising sea temperatures, plastic pollution and overfishing are putting pressure on these fragile ecosystems and on the people and communities who depend most upon them.” A number of outlets carry related reporting, with one Guardian article calling ocean acidification the “‘evil twin’ of the climate crisis” and another Guardian piece covering a study that says it is a “ticking timebomb”. Le Monde reports on the “wild gamble of marine geoengineering”. The Guardian reports on Western Australia’s “worst [coral] bleaching event”. A Financial Times special report on oceans includes articles about “blue bonds”, deep-sea mining and shipping in the Arctic.

The UK’s chancellor Rachel Reeves will announce an £86bn funding package for science and technology as part of her government spending review this Wednesday, the Independent reports, citing an official statement released on Friday. BBC News says beneficiaries of the funding will include electric cars and “longer-lasting batteries”. The Guardian and Sky News also have the story. There is ongoing speculation about what else will be in the spending review, with a frontpage story in Saturday’s Times saying Reeves will announce £113bn of infrastructure investment including a “green light for Sizewell C nuclear power plant and a new generation of mini-reactors”. BBC News says the head of the Sizewell C scheme in Suffolk is “optimistic” it will get approval. Another BBC News article says another legal challenge against the plant has been launched. The Guardian looks at the “winners and losers” in the spending review and says: “The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, had a long fight to keep cash for a major programme of insulation, which was a key part of the government’s net-zero strategy. However, there are reports suggesting other schemes could be scaled back to protect the insulation programme.” The Times says the spending review “will decide the future of major CCS [carbon capture and storage] projects to trap carbon emissions under the sea”.

Analysis from BBC News economics editor Faisal Islam asks if the spending review will see the government “escape its own shadow”. He writes: “Some chief executives tell me they cannot fathom why a government with such a huge majority can sometimes appear to be scared of its own shadow…[C]ompanies that have major investors waiting to invest in the factories that could start rolling out the mass adoption of green technologies are wondering whether Downing Street really will back them, given the polls, and possible net-zero backlash.” Another Guardian article is headlined: “Labour warned to keep spending review in line with net-zero or face legal action.” It says: “Friends of the Earth has written a letter, seen by the Guardian, to Keir Starmer, reminding him of the high court’s demands [in a ruling against the previous government’s climate plans] and warning that any major cuts by Reeves to programmes that boost clean energy or cut emissions could be subject to legal challenge in light of the ruling.”

In other UK news, there is ongoing coverage of the “future homes standard”, which will mean almost all new homes are built with solar panels and heat pumps from 2027, says the Times. It says that “gas boilers are to be effectively banned” in new-build properties. Citing a government statement on Friday, Bloomberg says the standard will be published in the autumn. The Daily Telegraph trails the news on its Saturday frontpage and says these households “will save households hundreds of pounds on energy bills”, according to the energy department. A Daily Telegraph editorial says the move will “pile unnecessary costs” on house builders.

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph also reports that the government’s official adviser, the Climate Change Committee, is to “spend £8.2m on a report assessing the risks of global warming to the UK”. The Daily Telegraph reports that a US billionaire will invest £300m to install 300,000 electric car chargers on UK roads. 

On Friday, the Department of Transportation “paved the way for looser US fuel economy standards” in an announcement that said the Biden administration “exceeded its authority by assuming high uptake of electric vehicles in calculating rules”, Reuters reports. The Associated Press reports: “Combined with Senate language in the pending budget bill to eliminate penalties for exceeding standards regulating how far vehicles must travel on a gallon of fuel, automakers moving forward could come under less pressure from regulators to reduce their pollution. Ultimately, the nation’s use of electric vehicles could be slowed.” Another article from the Associated Press is titled: “Billion-dollar battery plant pauses construction amid electric vehicle and tariff uncertainty.” Separately, the Associated Press carries an article under the headline: “Planet-warming emissions dropped when companies had to report them. EPA wants to end that.”

Nuclear firm Westinghouse is in talks with government officials over building 10 new reactors “to meet the goals of President Donald Trump’s executive orders”, the Financial Times reports. It quotes the company’s interim chief executive saying: “There are 10 large nuclear reactors in the executive order and we believe that we can do them all with AP1000 reactors.” It adds: “Based on estimates from the Department of Energy, building 10 large nuclear reactors in the US could cost $75bn without accounting for delays or cost overruns, according to TD Cowen, an investment bank.” The New York Times reports on coal- and gas-fired power plants that had been due to close until “Trump ordered them to keep running”. CNN reports on one of the plants, saying the extended operation “could cost Midwest energy customers tens of millions of dollars”. The Wall Street Journal says electricity prices in the US are set to rise due to “more expensive natural gas”. The Associated Press reports on rising electricity bills in California. Citing new polling, Axios says Republican support for wind and solar is “cratering”. Reuters says solar growth in the US is expected to slow over the next five years. A comment from Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias says the Republican budget bill, if passed, “will raise” electricity prices. He says it will “kneecap America’s short-term wind and solar installations while undermining the hope for innovative new solutions”. Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports on how a “gas deal helped save Equinor’s $5bn New York [offshore] windfarm”.

A number of wind and solar power projects have been halted across multiple Chinese regions “just months after China unveiled a new policy to push such renewable energy sources” to market-based pricing, business news outlet Yicai reports. The outlet quotes an unnamed source from a “state-owned new energy investment company” saying the rates of return for some projects are “no longer economically feasible” under the new policy. Industry news outlet BJX News reports that, according to China’s National Energy Administration (NEA), China’s installed capacity of wind and solar power reached 1,530 gigawatts (GW) as of April, “surpassing” thermal power capacity. China’s renewable energy accounted for “around 35%” of total electricity generation in 2024, the outlet adds. Finance newspaper Securities Daily says China’s era of “massive electricity grid investment” has begun, with hundreds of billions of yuan being poured into the country’s electricity grid in 2025. Reference News, a news outlet managed by state news agency Xinhua, cites a report published by Japanese outlet Nikkei saying that China has surpassed Japan in “hydrogen-related patent competitiveness”. The state-supporting newspaper Global Times publishes a comment article by Jia Weilie, professor at Huzhou University’s Institute for Sustainability, saying the “expansion of clean-coal technology doesn’t equate to increased carbon emissions”, but instead “balance[s] between survival and climate responsibilities”.

On Saturday, China’s commerce ministry “says it granted approval to some applications for the export of rare earths”, Bloomberg reports, adding that, although the notice did not specify “which countries or industries were covered”, the ministry “noted growing demand for the minerals in robotics and electric vehicles (EVs)”. A separate commerce ministry statement on Saturday said “price commitment consultations between China and the EU on Chinese-made EVs exported to the EU have also entered a final stage but efforts from both sides are still needed”, says Reuters.

China should try to tell a more “human energy story”, rather than focusing on “facts and figures”, in order to better convey its contributions to the global energy transition, business news outlet Caixin quotes Angela Wilkinson, CEO of the World Energy Council, as saying. Reference News translates an article by Project Syndicate written by Prof Carolyn Kissane, the founding director of New York University’s Energy, Climate and Sustainability Lab, arguing that the US government’s “inconsistent policies” on energy transition have caused it to “miss the chance to become a global low-carbon leader” and China has now “firmly taken the lead”. Xinhua reports that China’s energy transition is “moving at a fast clip”, “spearheaded” by Chinese president Xi Jinping’s “steady and strategic commitment to a low-carbon development path”. China News quotes Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian, saying that “China has been a staunch doer in green development”.

The UK government’s industrial strategy has been “pushed back to the end of June”, the Financial Times reports, adding that the decision comes “as pressure mounts on ministers to come up with an ambitious plan to cut the country’s punishing industrial energy costs”. The Times says chancellor Rachel Reeves “is scrutinising proposals to provide a £1bn annual subsidy to manufacturers after being warned that Britain faces rapid deindustrialisation if she fails to reduce energy costs”. BBC News says that the chancellor “will promise support for business, possibly including cash to help with sky-high energy costs”. The Daily Telegraph quotes Reeves saying: “I know that one of the questions that we need to answer is how we’re going to make energy more affordable, particularly for some of our most intensive energy-using businesses where the price differential with other countries around the world is just too acute for many to be competitive. And so that’s a question we will answer in the industrial strategy in a few weeks.” Another Financial Times article asks: “Why are the UK’s industrial electricity prices so high?” [See the recent Carbon Brief factcheck on gas driving high electricity prices.] BBC News reports on the debate over “zonal pricing” for electricity, saying that a decision is expected “in the next couple of weeks”. The Scotsman also reports on zonal pricing. The Daily Telegraph reports on calls from the head of energy firm Centrica, who supports the idea of shifting “green levies” from bills into taxation “to help hard-up households”. 

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail reports that Nigel Farage, leader of the hard-right populist Reform UK, is to pledge to reopen coal mines in Wales “to revive British steel-making”. [The last blast furnaces in Wales, at Port Talbot, have closed and the plant’s owner is investing hundreds of millions of pounds in new electric arc furnaces.] The Daily Telegraph also has the story, saying that Farage will pledge to reopen the Port Talbot blast furnaces. The Guardian asks if the government might “U-turn” on the North Sea oil and gas industry: “With Nigel Farage targeting net-zero, could government policy change to protect jobs, revenue and votes?” Another Daily Telegraph article, which is not labelled as a comment piece, is titled: “British manufacturing is dying before our eyes.”

Due to the “low” wind levels in the first quarter of 2025, electricity generation from renewables in Germany decreased by 17% for the first time in two years, while generation from fossil-fuel sources increased significantly, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). However, the outlet adds that, despite the overall decline in renewables, wind power remained the largest source of electricity generation, with a share of almost 28% – just ahead of coal at 27%. Gas accounted for nearly 21% – “significantly more than the previous year” – while electricity generation from solar power rose “by a good third”, reaching a 9.2% share of the total electricity mix, the outlet explains.

Meanwhile, Welt am Sonntag reports that the European Commission has allegedly paid environmental groups, such as Friends of the Earth and ClientEarth, to file lawsuits and run public campaigns against German companies. The newspaper claims to have reviewed previously “secret” 2022 contracts outlining funding to support coal phaseout efforts in Germany. According to the report, ClientEarth was tasked with engaging coal plants in lawsuits to raise operators’ “financial and legal risk”, while the contracts detailed deliverables such as lobbying letters, social media posts and meetings with MPs. Bayerischer Rundfunk notes that, although NGO funding and transparency issues have been debated in Brussels for months, Welt am Sonntag provides no evidence to support its claims. Bild also cites the report, stating how Brussels officials and activists have “coordinated down to the smallest detail,” while Euractiv adds that the Commission allegedly paid up to €700,000 for lobbying and legal action against German companies.

Finally, Der Spiegel explores “Germany’s hopes for a battery miracle”, noting surging demand for storage systems. It adds that nationwide capacity has tripled in three years to over 20 gigawatt-hours (GWh). Berliner Zeitung focuses on a looming “battery tsunami”, as one of the country’s largest storage systems comes online in Schleswig-Holstein. And a study in Nature’s Communications Earth & Environment examines the patterns in climate-change coverage on the German television news program Tagesschau.

In the Financial Times, former US climate envoy and secretary of state John Kerry says that the UN ocean conference opening today in Nice, France is “an opportunity to galvanise multilateral commitments for marine protection”. He writes: “Our global ocean, which feeds billions, supports coastal communities and regulates the climate, is in crisis…Nice could be where we all help turn the tide, and where the US’s oldest ally picks up a mantle we should never have surrendered.”

Writing in the Times, Simon Morrish, chair of horticultural firm Ground Control, comments on the “unhelpful winds coming across the Atlantic on climate”. He says: “It is disturbing that the new administration appears to be wilfully ignorant of the science, as we hurtle past the symbolic 1.5C of global warming, and is throwing its weight behind fossil fuels. The fossil-fuel lobby has a massive role in spreading misinformation about climate change and spent massively to help get Trump elected. It is very reminiscent of the tobacco industry: initial denial, followed by misinformation and false propaganda. We can’t allow all of this to weaken national and global efforts to reach net-zero and head off catastrophic climate change and habitat degradation.”

Elsewhere in comment, Guardian economics editor Heather Stewart says the spending review is “a chance for Reeves to paint a more positive picture”. She points to policies such as the government’s aim for the UK to become a “clean-energy superpower”. For the Times, columnist Iain Macwhirter says the government will “surely” perform a U-turn on North Sea oil and gas. Also in the Times, Cormac Lucey claims Ireland’s climate goals are “unachievable”. A Daily Telegraph article by Adam Smith says: “People like what [Reform] are saying about tax cuts funded by spending less on net-zero and diversity initiatives.” [Reform’s claims have been described as “fantasy economics”.]  The Times carries a comment by climate-sceptic historian Niall Ferguson, which criticises Reform’s plans, but touts “more convincing” suggestions from former UK Independence Party MP Douglas Carswell, according to which “deep state” bodies such as the government’s climate advisers “explain Britain’s current state of brokenness”. The Daily Telegraph also carries a comment by climate-sceptic columnist Camilla Tominey describing the former home secretary James Cleverly “infantile” for calling on the Conservatives to stick to the net-zero target they legislated in 2019.

An editorial in the Washington Post continues the newspaper’s obsession with carbon taxes. Offering support for Republican efforts to roll back “green subsidies”, including “regulatory credits” that support the uptake of electric vehicles, it says these should be replaced with a “robust and rising carbon tax”. It describes the “beauty of a carbon tax”, but ends with an admission that they “have been less politically successful than other policies”. The Financial Times “moral money” newsletter makes the “Maga case for carbon pricing”, explaining: “Republican senators are pushing for carbon tariffs as a way to boost US manufacturers.” A comment by Allysia Finley, a member of the Wall Street Journal’s climate-sceptic editorial board, criticises California’s “burdensome climate policies”.

Climate Home News carries a comment piece by Martin Hession and Maria Aljish, respectively chair and vice chair of the Article 6.4 supervisory body that oversees the UN international carbon market under the Paris Agreement. The pair set out how they believe recent standards adopted by the body “lay the foundation for greater ambition”, explaining: “We now have a clear and rigorous standard to guide the implementation of stronger crediting benchmarks…Carbon credits have long faced scrutiny for overpromising and underdelivering. We are well aware of the need to avoid repeating past mistakes. From the outset, we’ve worked to improve on previous models, applying lessons learned.” They conclude: “We welcome scrutiny, not just for accountability, but as essential to our mission of fair and effective implementation for a high-integrity UN carbon market.”

New research warns that damage to coral reefs due to climate change will “outpace” coral reef expansion. The authors use a model that “reasonably reproduces the observed distribution and recent decline of corals across the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean”. They find that the most “severe declines” in coral reefs due to climate change will take place within 40-80 years, but warn that “large-scale coral reef expansion requires centuries”. According to the authors, their paper “emphasises the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate nonthermal stressors for corals, both in the tropics and in higher latitudes”.

A new study identifies “displacement and violence, caregiving burdens, early marriages of girls, human trafficking and food insecurity” as the main “mental health” stressors for women in lower and middle-income countries due to the changing climate. The authors collate findings from case studies and existing literature to assess why women from lower and middle-income countries are increasingly vulnerable to climate change. They argue that “women need targeted support and recognition of their unique vulnerabilities in the face of environmental challenges”.