Reuters is among a raft of outlets to cover a UN report which warns the world is facing irreversible water “bankruptcy” caused by decades of overextraction of water reserves as well as shrinking supplies from lakes, rivers, glaciers and wetlands. Nearly “three-quarters” of the global population live in countries classified as “water insecure” or “critically water insecure”, the newswire reports, and four billion people face severe water scarcity at least one month per year. The Guardian says that climate change is “exacerbating the problem” by melting glaciers and causing “whiplashes between extremely dry and wet weather”. It quotes report lead author Prof Kaveh Madani as saying the situation is “extremely urgent [because] no one knows exactly when the whole system would collapse” and requires a “fundamental reset of how water is protected and used around the world”. The Washington Post, New Scientist, CNN, Bloomberg and Scientific American also have the story.

MORE ON WATER AND DROUGHT

• The Washington Post notes that more than two-thirds of the US is facing “unusual dryness or drought” – and points to a “few climate drivers” as the cause.
• Reuters reports that Indonesia’s government has revoked the permits of 28 companies over a “violation of environmental rules” that exacerbated the impact of the deadly floods that struck the country last year.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and French president Emmanuel Macron used their speeches at the Davos conference to emphasise that climate and energy security remain “top priorities” for Europe, reports BusinessGreen. Macron’s address was “dominated” by “thinly veiled criticism of Trump’s threats to take control of Greenland” as he slammed the “new colonial approach” being pursued by the White House, the outlet notes. However, it quotes the French president as saying: “Let’s just focus on common interests and common challenges. We know what we have to fix: growth, peace, climate.” Reporting on discussions at the conference, Climate Home News notes​​ that climate change has “slid down the agenda”, but notes a number of panels “addressed issues like electric vehicles, energy security and climate science”.

UK households will be eligible for “thousands of pounds’ worth” of solar panels and “other green tech” to “lower their energy bills” under fresh plans set out by the Labour government today, reports BBC News. Measures set out in the long-awaited “warm homes plan” include the extension of the UK’s subsidy scheme for heat pumps – the boiler upgrade scheme – through to the 2029-30 tax year and an additional £600m earmarked for low-income households to cover the “full cost” of solar panels and batteries, the article says. The Guardian notes that the “£15bn plan” sets out £5bn for home upgrades, £2bn for low-cost loans, £2.7bn for the boiler upgrade scheme, £1.1bn for heat networks and £2.7bn for “innovative finance”. However, it notes, the plan does not include a phaseout date for gas boilers, despite Labour’s pledge to “wean the country off fossil fuels”. 

The Financial Times reports that the five-year spending package “tilts” funding away from insulation and towards other technologies. It also reports on the publication of a “future homes and buildings standards” plan, which sets out requirements for builders to fit “most” new homes with solar panels, heat pumps and high levels of energy efficiency “by default”. The i newspaper, Times, Bloomberg, Press Association and BusinessGreen all have the story. In its attempts to link the story to the approval of a new Chinese embassy in London, the Daily Mail says the plan will “flood the UK with Chinese-made solar panels”.

MORE ON UK

• Development finance institution British International Investment has pledged $40m for a new $1bn finance fund aimed at boosting climate investments in emerging markets, reports Reuters.
• The developer of a planned 125-turbine windfarm off the north coast of Scotland has said the project will not be built unless “unfair” transmission charges are overhauled, reports BBC News.
• The Guardian: “Biodiversity collapse threatens UK security, intelligence chiefs warn”.

China will “coordinate its green transition, economic development and energy security” in 2026 to kick off the 15th “five-year plan” period, which is a “decisive phase for achieving [China’s] carbon peaking target”, reports industry news outlet BJX News, covering a press conference by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planning agency. The outlet quotes an NDRC official saying China will develop low-carbon industries while accelerating phaseout of “outdated and inefficient production”, promote “low-carbon production and lifestyles” and “fully implement” the “dual control of carbon system. Another NDRC official noted the “extreme importance of advancing the construction of a unified national market”, according to BJX News. A third official said that China’s central and western regions play a “uniquely important role in safeguarding national food security, ecological security, energy security and resource security”, such as through coal production and large clean-energy bases, reports China Electric Power News.

MORE ON CHINA

• Southern Power Grid will spend a “record” 180bn yuan (£19.3bn), bringing combined grid investment in China in 2026 close to 1tn yuan (£107bn), reports Bloomberg.
• China urged the EU not to “hurt” investment confidence, following a proposal to phase out Chinese suppliers from “key EU infrastructure”, such as “solar energy systems”, says Reuters. Reuters also reports that the EU plans for “made in Europe” requirements for “public purchases of key green technologies”.
• Caixin reports that exports of China’s “new three” sectors all increased in 2025, but the value of solar cell exports “dropped”, despite volumes growing nearly 73%.
• A “GT Voice” commentary by Global Times says China is showing that the “green transition is not a burden on development, but an opportunity”.
• Guangming Daily publishes a comment by Capital University of Economics and Business professor Liu Hong, saying the EU’s carbon border tax will promote “reform” in corporate compliance in the long-term.
• China established a “carbon footprint labelling and certification pilot network” in 25 provinces, reports CCTV.

Bloomberg reports that Russia’s oil exports “fell to the lowest since August”, as imports into “key buyer India…fell to a more-than-three-year low” in December. On the sidelines of Davos, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent claims that “India has geared down and has stopped buying Russian oil” after Donald Trump “put a 25% tariff on them”, reports Business Standard. India has “not acknowledged any such cutdown”, Times of India says, but its external affairs ministry said it is “closely following” developments on a proposed bill to “impose steep tariffs of up to 500%” on countries importing Russian crude.

The Economic Times reports that Indian oil refiners “lift[ed] their first cargo from Guyana in two years” to “plug the gap in supply” of sanctions-hit Russian crude. On Monday, India signed a $3bn deal to buy liquefied natural gas from the United Arab Emirates, “making it the UAE’s top customer”, reports Reuters. Meanwhile, India’s national budget on 1 February could determine whether “India defies a ‘drill, baby, drill’ world’ and “cement [the country’s] rise as a global energy leader”, the Economic Times writes. 

MORE ON INDIA

• Mongabay looks at how “global-warming induced” tropical cyclones could cause  “longer-term, ecosystem-level impacts” in India’s nine coastal states.
• A Quint comment argues that the Trump administration’s plans to dismantle the National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) should be dubbed “an act of climate aggression against the global south”. 
• In an opinion piece in the Hill, India’s ambassador to the US frames India’s new nuclear law as an “opportunity” for “American firms” to compete “for one of the world’s largest nuclear markets”. 

Just 32 fossil fuel companies were “responsible” for half the global carbon dioxide emissions produced by human activity in 2024, down from 36 a year earlier, according to a report covered in the Guardian. The report – produced by the Carbon Majors thinktank – identifies Saudi Aramco as the “biggest state-owned polluter” and ExxonMobil the largest “investor-owned polluter” last year, according to the newspaper. The outlet points out that state-owned fossil fuel companies make up 17 of the 20 “top emitters”. These companies, it notes, are all controlled by countries that opposed a proposed fossil fuel phaseout at last year’s COP30 conference in Belem, Brazil. Spain’s El País also covers the report.

MORE ON EMISSIONS

• The impacts of meat consumption on biodiversity loss and emissions could be “rapidly and cheaply reduced” if governments applied full VAT on products such as beef, pork, lamb and chicken, according to Guardian.

A Guardian editorial warns that the UK’s failure to update its food policy to reflect modern priorities could end up being a “costly mistake” as prices of “essentials” rise in the wake of “the climate emergency, geopolitical tensions and the fragility of just-in-time supply chain”.  Many countries around the world – including Brazil, Indonesia, Finland and Norway – are building their strategic food stocks, it notes. This is not the case for the UK, which has “no substantial public food reserves” and a strategy that “rests almost entirely on global markets and private intentions” according to the newspaper. It stresses that any “losses” incurred by building up a food reverse “buffer” should “be understood as the price of resilience, much like flood defences”. 

MORE COMMENT

• In analysis of the UK’s new warm homes plan, the Guardian’s environment editor Fiona Harvey and energy correspondent Jillian Ambrose argue that the strategy is “all carrot and no stick”, given that the “longstanding proposal” of ban on gas boilers beyond 2035 has been “quietly dropped”.
• Reuters energy columnist Ron Bousso explores how Trump’s “twin demands” for cheap oil and US energy dominance are “increasingly colliding” with fossil fuel companies’ bottom lines.
• A Washington Post editorial welcomes the decision by Massachusetts to pause a new state-wide clean heat standard – arguing that plans to mandate a shift towards heat pumps are a “chilling and unrealistic mandate” for a state with high electricity prices.

In a long read from Agence-France Presse, environment reporter Laurent Thomet looks at why calculating deaths from climate-driven extreme weather events is “not simple”. It notes that while the death toll from extreme weather has fallen in recent decades, the picture varies by “hazard and region”. It quotes Dr Marina Romanello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown, as saying: “It’s not because the events haven’t become more dangerous. It’s because we have become a lot better at coping with them.” She also says: “What we do know for a fact is that the weather events are becoming more frequent, more intense, depending on the type of event.” Meanwhile Imperial College London’s Theodore Keeping tells the outlet it is “very clear” that extreme heat is becoming deadlier.

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Cecilia Keating, with contributions from Henry Zhang and Anika Patel. It was edited by Robert McSweeney.

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