There is ongoing media coverage of the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw the US from 66 international organisations, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Reuters says: “UN secretary general Antonio Guterres regrets a US decision to withdraw from dozens of UN entities, his spokesperson said on Thursday, stressing that the US funding for a ‘large number’ of those bodies was mandatory.” The newswire says the US is the top contributor to the UN regular budget, adding that “Washington currently owes some $1.5bn”.

According to the Guardian, UN climate chief Simon Stiell called Trump’s decision to withdraw from the UNFCCC “a colossal own goal which will leave the US less secure and less prosperous”. Bloomberg quotes John Kerry, special presidential envoy for climate during the Biden administration, who called Trump’s decision a “gift to China and a get out of jail free card to countries and polluters who want to avoid responsibility”. Reuters says EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra called Trump’s decision “unfortunate”. Gina McCarthy – former White House national climate advisor – called the decision “short-sighted, embarrassing and foolish”, reports BusinessGreen. Inside Climate News quotes “top climate scientists” who say that “the Trump administration’s plan to leave the IPCC and withdraw from the UNFCCC is damaging to the scientific community and to the US’s reputation on the world stage”. The Associated Press, Axios, BusinessGreen, Euronews and Backchannel also carry reaction from experts.

Reuters reports that Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the UNFCCC “may be illegal, according to some legal experts who say that Congress would need to approve its exit”. The Daily Telegraph quotes a senior attorney for the not-for-profit Center for Biological Diversity, who says: “Pulling out of the UNFCCC is a whole order of magnitude different from pulling out of the Paris Agreement. It’s our contention that it’s illegal for the president to unilaterally pull out of a treaty that required two thirds of the Senate vote. We are looking at legal options to pursue that line of argument.” 

MORE ON US

• Reuters reports that the secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme  – a “decades-old Pacific organisation for environmental protection” – says the US “must go through a formal process to withdraw its support”.
• The New York Times says: “In 2025, frequent and severe thunderstorms and the Los Angeles wildfires drove US disaster damage costs above $100bn, reaching that level for the fifth time in the past six years…And that was without a single hurricane striking US shores for the first time in a decade.”
• The New York Times Climate Forward newsletter looks at how “a warming planet has opened up new shipping routes and turned Greenland into a geostrategic asset for the Trump administration”.
• Bloomberg reports that new US dietary guidelines are “heavy on meat and carbon emissions”. 
• Politico reports that Richard Tice, energy spokesperson for “right-wing populist party” Reform UK, says the UK should follow Donald Trump’s example and quit the UNFCCC.

US oil companies are “expected to press the president on providing strong legal and financial guarantees before they agree to commit capital to Venezuela”, reports the Financial Times on its frontpage. The newspaper says that Donald Trump has summoned executives from the biggest energy groups in the US to a meeting at the White House today. It continues: “Earlier this week Trump said the American oil companies could be ‘reimbursed by us, or through revenue’ if they invested in Venezuela. But executives remained cautious, with some citing the erratic policymaking.” It adds: “Chevron is the only American company that holds a US licence to export Venezuelan crude and is seeking to amend its agreement with the US Treasury department to sell more of the country’s oil.” Bloomberg says the meeting is a “Who’s who of American oil titans” and will include representatives from companies including Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips. A separate Financial Times article says that “‘wildcatter’ oil entrepreneurs are racing to secure deals in Venezuela, as they seek to get ahead of energy majors”.

The Guardian reports that Trump plans to use Venezuela’s crude oil reserves to drive down the price of US oil from $56 to $50 per barrel. The newspaper continues: “As well as driving market prices lower, officials reportedly claimed Trump’s plans to control Venezuela’s oil reserves, which are the largest in the world, include cutting Russia and China’s access to the South American country in order to establish a western hemisphere oil production stronghold.”  The Financial Times reports that US shale drillers, who are not on the attendee list for today’s meeting with Trump, are “seething over the president’s plan to flood America with Venezuelan crude”. 

MORE ON OIL

• The Guardian has a video explainer on “why Venezuela’s oil is valuable to Trump”.
• Bloomberg reports that Norwegian energy company Equinor has signed $10bn contracts to “help maintain oil and gas output in Norway for at least another decade”

Australia is facing “catastrophic fire conditions” due to the combination of heat, wind and dryness this week, the New York Times reports. It says the fire conditions are the worst since the “devastating Black Summer bushfires” of 2019-20. According to the newspaper, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology described the country’s ongoing heatwave as “the most significant of the summer season so far”, adding that “temperatures climbed above average by as much as 16C”. The Daily Mail says the heatwave is the most intense to hit Australia in six years. The Financial Times reports that temperatures are forecast to reach up to 47C in inland areas of South Australia and Victoria. It adds that today will be “peak fire danger day, especially for Victoria”. The newspaper continues: “Scientists have long warned that climate change is making extreme weather events more intense across the world.” 

Reuters reports that “three people are unaccounted for as out-of-control bushfires rage in the Australian state of Victoria, destroying homes and burning through vast swathes of bushland”. Bloomberg reports that “authorities have issued several evacuation orders” in the state. The Guardian says: “Victorians have been urged to stay inside as Melbourne’s mercury soared past 42C amid a heatwave engulfing much of Australia to descend on Sydney on Saturday.” Separately, the newspaper reports on people seeking shelter at a disaster relief centre, not knowing if their homes will be intact by the time they leave. 

Bloomberg reports that a phaseout of local subsidies means that in some rural areas in Hebei, the northern province that surrounds Beijing, residents are struggling to afford gas heating in the depths of winter. The subsidies had supported households in switching from household coal furnaces to “cleaner heating sources”, predominantly gas, says Bloomberg. It notes that while the subsidies were “always scheduled to shrink over time”, factors including “price regulations, global energy shocks and strained local finances” increased the amount residents have to pay. State news agency Xinhua reporter Liu Chang says in a commentary that the coal-to-gas switching policy “must lead not only to blue skies, but also to warmth”, adding that the “ultimate measure” of policy effectiveness is the “tangible sense of gain felt by the people”. Liu adds that “district heating”, “solar power” and other options to diversify low-carbon heating solutions in rural areas should be explored. 

MORE ON CHINA

• Several government departments met with Chinese battery manufacturers, urging them to address overcapacity concerns, reports China Electric Power News. Reuters also covers the story.
• Citing Carbon Brief analysis of historical US emissions, a commentary in China Daily by Liu Yuanling, assistant researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, argues that the US “has completely abrogated its responsibilities” by withdrawing from the UNFCCC.
• Dialogue Earth: “China’s clean tech charm offensive wins global south hearts and minds.”
• SCMP reports that China has developed grid technology that “cuts blackout recovery time to a 10th of a second”, which it links to challenges in integrating “more distributed power sources, such as wind farms and solar plants” with the grid.
• An article on the frontpage of the print edition of the People’s Daily under the byline “Zhong Caiping” includes “achievements in ecological and environmental development” as an example of China’s economy “improving”. Another People’s Daily report says “green consumption” is “important” for the energy transition.

A Washington Post editorial compares Trump’s decision to enter Venezuela with former president George W Bush’s actions in Iraq in 2003. The newspaper says that, in 2003, America was a net oil importer and Iraq had the world’s fourth-largest reserves, so “boosting Iraqi production would have benefited US consumers”. However, it says that “the oil industry has transformed in the intervening quarter-century, making Venezuela’s oil less necessary and less attractive, especially for the US”. It notes the US is now one of the world’s leading exporters of oil, adding that electrification of vehicles means that it “takes less oil to power advanced economies”. The editorial also says that “extracting Venezuela’s oil will be no easy task”. 

MORE COMMENT

• Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff says that understanding why Trump is interested in Greenland means looking to the “thawing Arctic ice”. Hinsliff adds: “Forecasts suggest that global heating could create a shortcut from Asia to North America and new routes for trading, shipping – and attack.”
• Dr Ines Camilloni – a professor at the University of Buenos Aires and IPCC Working Group I vice-chair – writes in the Guardian that “if geoengineering is ever deployed in a climate emergency, transparency is key”. She argues that “climate justice demands an inclusive approach”. 
• Australian climate scientist Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick has published a comment piece in the Guardian, under the headline: “As a climate scientist, I know heatwaves in Australia will only get worse. We need to start preparing now.”
• Columnist James Meigs, writing in the Wall Street Journal’s “Free Expression” newsletter, argues that “people, not climate change, drove the Los Angeles wildfires”. 

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

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