HSBC has announced that it will stop financing new oil and gas fields, BBC News reports. According to the outlet, Europe’s largest bank pledged to go net-zero in 2020, investing up to $1tn (£806bn) in clean energy, but “came under criticism” earlier this year, for investing an estimated $8.7bn (£6.4bn) into new oil and gas in 2021. The Daily Telegraph notes that the bank will still continue funding gas projects. The South China Morning Post reports that the bank’s updated energy policy would allow it to continue to provide financing and advisory services to some energy sector clients at the corporate level. The Financial Times says the move “could ease tensions with investors after it managed to avoid a revolt last year over its financing of fossil fuels.” Reuters adds: “Activist groups that have been critical of HSBC in recent years mostly hailed the move by one of the biggest lenders to energy companies in the world.” And the Evening Standard calls the announcement a “‘green’ victory”.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that UK bank Barclays has increased its sustainable and transition finance target to $1tn by 2030. “The move sees Barclays catch up with rival HSBC…and JPMorgan which has set a $2.5tn of sustainable funding target by 2030,” it adds. Barclays has also promised to increase its investments in climate technology start-ups to £500m by 2027, according to the Times.

Wealthy nations have offered a $15.5bn package to Vietnam to help it shift from coal to renewable energy, the Financial Times reports. The paper says: “The funding package, which mirrors agreements reached with Indonesia and South Africa, includes $7.75bn in public funding over the next three to five years alongside a further estimated $7.75bn in private finance. The G7 countries the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan, plus Denmark and Norway and the EU bloc, have backed the package.” Climate Home News adds: “Half of the money is to come from governments, the Asian Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation. The rest will come from private investment co-ordinated by the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero…The deal will help Vietnam to peak its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, bringing forward a previous 2035 projection, limit its peak coal capacity to 30.2 gigawatts (GW) instead of an initially planned 37 GW, and source 47% of its power from renewable energy by 2030.” The outlet notes that most of the money will be given as loans, with only a small amount in the form of grants. BusinessGreen says the plan will save around “500 megatonnes” of emissions by 2035 while creating thousands of “green jobs”. And Reuters‘ global energy transition columnist, Gavin Maguire, outlines why the G7 targeted Vietnam for the initiative.

The National Grid’s “demand flexibility service” has delivered more than 780MW hours of demand reduction and £2.8m in savings over five test periods, the Guardian reports. According to the paper, more than 1m households and firms signed up for the service. It adds: “customers are normally given 24-hours notice to shift their power usage from a peak period – typically 4pm to 7pm. Savings are passed on via energy suppliers to customers who have signed up.” Reuters quotes the Head of National Control at National Grid ESO: “These test results show that if called upon this service will help the ESO balance the national electricity network this winter and is a valuable addition to the ESO’s operational tools.“ This is the first time that households have participated in flexible usage at a large scale in Britain, the Times notes. Bloomberg calls the programme “just one of several tools the grid has to ensure the nation gets through the winter without any blackouts”.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times says: “Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is exploring plans to keep providing all British businesses with help for their energy bills once winter has passed, in what would be a break with current government policy to limit such aid to ‘vulnerable industries’ after March.” This comes as the Guardian reports that “the monthly number of people that Citizens Advice helped with energy-related problems and issues rose to a record high in November” and the Financial Times discusses the rising need for “warm banks”. This comes as the Press Association covers an ongoing power cut in Shetland – which it says is expected to last for several more days. In other news, the Daily Express reports that “hundreds of Britons have collectively slashed £100,000 from their electricity bills after buying the first consumer-owned windfarm in the UK, which first opened in March 2022”.

The European Union has agreed to raise €20bn using its carbon market for investments, which it will put towards ending its reliance on Russian fossil fuels, Reuters reports. According to the newswire, 60% of funds will come from an “EU Innovation Fund” and the remaining 40% will come from proceeds from CO2 permit sales. Separately, the newswire reports that the EU “intends next year to push for more gas deals – including long-term contracts – to replace Russian supplies”. A draft text seen by Reuters says the EU should start buying gas to negotiate lower prices, as well as accelerating talks with reliable suppliers to ensure a winter supply for 2023/24.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that “Russia’s oil revenues dropped in November to the second-lowest level this year as rising exports couldn’t offset widening discounts on the nation’s barrels”. And Reuters reports that Canada will “revoke a sanctions waiver that allowed turbines for Nord Stream 1, Russia’s biggest gas pipeline to Europe, to be repaired in Montreal and returned to Germany”. This comes as the newswire reports that Russia’s deputy prime minister met with Venezuela’s oil minister on Wednesday, where they “discussed oil market volatility and the status of Venezuela’s outstanding debts to Russia”. And Reuters also reports that Russian crude oil has been sold to countries including India, at a price “well below” the $60 price cap agreed by the West.

Delegates from developing nations at COP15 are walking out of discussions, following disagreements over who should pay to protect biodiversity, the Guardian reports. The newspaper continues: “Some countries in the global south want a new fund to be created for biodiversity as part of the final agreement in Canada, alongside increased funding from richer nations. But wealthy donor countries in Europe and the global north are opposed to the creation of a new fund. They say that China, Brazil and other large economies, which have grown substantially in the last 30 years since the UN’s environmental treaties were agreed, should be contributing a lot more. UN donor funding for biodiversity is currently targeted at key regions to protect vital ecosystems and stop ongoing harm. China, Brazil, India, Mexico and Indonesia are the top five historical recipients from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and are to feature in the top five for the next $5.3bn (£4.3bn) funding cycle from 2022 to 2026. Many biodiverse nations from Africa, Asia and Latin America argue that they should get more money to pay for conservation.” The newspaper quotes a negotiator who participated in the walkout: “Developing nations are really upset. Talks have reached a crisis point. Developed countries need to provide more money.” BusinessGreen quotes a statement released after the walk-out: “It is time to fulfil a mandate as old as our Convention and establish a funding mechanism that is dedicated to biodiversity, complementing the resource mobilisation landscape.”

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that talks have resumed after the “impasse”. And China Dialogue have published a piece under the subheading: “Private-sector interest in protecting biodiversity has rocketed in the past couple of years, but is not being welcomed by everyone at the UN biodiversity talks.”

According to a recent study by Beijing-based consultancy Innovative Green Development Program (IGDP), China’s agriculture and food system will “face severe difficulty reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 2060 even after extensive adoption of feasible mitigation actions”, reports the South China Morning Post. It’s “crucial” for China to issue a “comprehensive plan to cover the entire system” in order to offer “a systematic approach to cope with climate change”, the article notes, citing the report. The report also stresses that “under China’s current pathway for economic and social development and decarbonisation, GHG emissions from the agriculture and food system are estimated to reach 2.162bn tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) by 2060, a 30% increase compared to the 1.646bn tonnes of CO2e in 2019”.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg says that China’s “pivot away from Covid Zero” is “poised to boost natural gas demand” in the world’s “biggest” importer, “potentially curbing supply to Europe and other Asian nations”. China National Offshore Oil (CNOOC), one of the nation’s “largest liquefied natural gas buyers”, is now “looking to secure more shipments of the super-chilled fuel for next year”, the article writes. It adds that the return to the market of CNOOC follows a period of “subdued demand, due to virus curbs suppressing economic activity, and may herald a rebound in imports”. S&P Global Commodity Insights writes that China’s natural gas demand in 2023 is “expected to rebound from 2022 levels on the back of a gradual opening up of the economy, but high global energy prices and macroeconomic concerns will continue to pressure gas consumption levels”. The Shanghai-based financial outlet Yicai writes that, according to new guidelines from the Beijing Power Exchange Center, a subsidiary of the State Grid Corporation, “most” energy storage firms in China will be “able to register with the local spot electricity market, opening the way for them to trade power as independent players”.  Elsewhere, Reuters reports that China’s daily coal output hits record high in November to meet the rising demand for heating.

In other news, China Dialogue carries a comment piece by researchers at Ember, which says: “With China–ASEAN cooperation on electricity transition deepening and the transition in ASEAN gathering pace, China should consider speeding up its own transition, if it is to continue guiding the course of electricity transition in ASEAN.” The state-run newspaper China Daily reports that China and France are “seeking closer partnership to cope with climate changes by extending their technological exchanges and sharing the experience to cut carbon emissions”, according to a summit held in Shanghai on Monday. Finally, the state news agency Xinhua has an article, titled: “Chinese new energy buses gallop into Arab market.”

New research finds that US industry trade associations working on climate and energy issues spent more than $3bn over 10 years on political activities, Desmog reports. The outlet adds: “Out of the $3.4bn in total political activity spending, almost $2.2bn of it went towards advertising and public relations. Trade groups in the oil and gas sector were the largest spender in this category, pouring more than $1bn into it.” Separately, DeSmog reports that the house committee has wrapped up a “historic” two-year investigation into the oil industry, releasing “a new set of documents that underscored the oil and gas industry’s ongoing attempts to block climate policies and confuse the public about their long-term investments in fossil fuels”.

Australia has passed legislation capping the price of natural gas for a year, to combat rising energy costs due to the war in Ukraine, Reuters reports. It adds: “The government won support from the Greens Party to pass the legislation after agreeing to provide funding in its next budget to help low-income households switch from gas to electricity.” The Guardian reports that coal and gas companies have put forward “strong public criticism” of the idea for weeks, with “increasingly apocalyptic claims of energy disasters if skyrocketing profits were reined in”. But the companies’ lobbying efforts were unsuccessful, as parliament “shrugged off” their concerns, the paper says. This comes as the Guardian reports separately that Australia’s coal exporters made windfall gains of $45bn last year.

Meanwhile, EnergyMonitor has published a piece under the headline: “Gas in Australia: The elephant in the room.”

There is continuing comment on the innovation in fusion technology at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which was announced on Tuesday. For the first time, the lab achieved “ignition”, generating more energy by the fusion reactions that the energy applied to produce them. The test may have been a “scientific coup”, says an editorial in the Washington Post, but this does not mean that “a fusion-powered utopia is around the corner.” Other, “less exotic sources of clean energy” that are “immediately scalable” remain the most plausible options in the race to net-zero, it concludes. Currently, the lab suggests that cheap, abundant electricity from nuclear fusion is still “probably decades” away, writes New York Times columnist Peter Coy. For fusion technology to become “commercially practical”, the cost of the fuel targets will need to fall to “around 25 cents each”. Still, fusion technology could happen sooner, Coy speculates, “if enough people get behind it.” And Times reporter Constance Kampfner has penned a piece under the subheading: “Scientists in California reported a major breakthrough this week — but it is a project based in France that experts say may lead to the promised land of abundant clean energy.”

The Guardian’s “secret negotiator” laments the rate of progress at COP15 in Montreal. “Even by the glacial standards of UN biodiversity negotiations, COP15 has been slow,” they write, adding: “I am flabbergasted at the lack of progress.” They continue: “Behind closed doors, countries seem equally dysfunctional. The African group seems uncoordinated, the Latin Americans appear divided, the Europeans are not being constructive, the Canadians have not been helpful in talks and the Chinese are quiet.”

Meanwhile, Laura Thomas Walters – a former senior analyst at the UK’s Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – tells environmental campaigner Donnachadh McCarthy in the Independent that she quit her role “as she was unable to do anything impactful in her role, due to active blockading by ministers”. The piece says: “Defra told this column that the government’s annual budget for biodiversity was £0.5bn. This equates to a minuscule 0.023% of UK GDP. In comparison, the budget for new roads alone is £27bn and we just spent an estimated £6bn bailing out the energy company Bulb.” It adds that the UK is “among the world’s most nature depleted nations”. After leaving Defra, Walters joined in “peaceful direct actions” organised by Extinction Rebellion (of which McCarthy is a member) in the run up to COP15, McCarthy writes. The piece concludes with a quote from Walters: “Biodiversity loss is as big a threat as climate breakdown… I left government so I could speak up, to demand the change we need.”

An increase in the growth rate of methane in 2020 was due to higher natural emissions from wetlands and a drop in the atmospheric methane sink, according to new research. Despite a probable fall in methane emissions from human activity during Covid-19 lockdowns, atmospheric methane increased by an “exceptionally high” rate of 15.1 ± 0.4 parts per billion per year in 2020. The results imply that wetland methane emissions are sensitive to a warmer and wetter climate and could act as a positive feedback mechanism in future, reinforcing warming.

A new study seeks to better understand the factors that affect migration decision-making of climate-affected populations. A survey of 32 experts followed by detailed system mapping and network analysis identifies physical infrastructure, social services, social capital, and political stability as places to intervene to increase resilience to drought, flooding, and erosion. This information is needed to more accurately predict migration and adequately prepare future receiving cities, say the researchers.