More than 300,000 people have been displaced in a single province by the on-going flooding in Mozambique, according to its governor, the Associated Press reports. The news outlet adds authorities said that roughly 600,000 people have been affected in the province of Gaza and the neighbouring Maputo region combined – exceeding earlier estimates by humanitarian groups. It notes that this follows “weeks of torrential rain in parts of southern Africa”. Mozambique “has been hit by frequent weather-related disasters that scientists say have been exacerbated by climate change”, explains Reuters.

MORE ON EXTREME WEATHER

• As wildfires in Chile continued for a third day, Agence France-Presse points to a 2024 study that found climate change had “conditioned the occurrence of extreme fire seasons in south-central Chile”.
• Reuters covers a study underway in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to investigate the effect of extreme heat on inhabitants of the city’s “favelas”.

China’s thermal power generation fell in 2025 for the first time in a decade, as growth in renewable energy generation “met growth in electricity demand”, reports Reuters, citing new data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that confirms analysis previously published by Carbon Brief. The newswire says thermal electricity fell 1% in 2025 to 6,290 terawatt-hours (TWh), in a “positive signal” for China’s energy transition. However, reports Bloomberg, China’s coal production still hit a record last year, rising 1% from 2024 to 5bn tonnes, even though power plants “burned less of the fossil fuel due to a flood of cleaner electricity”. Energy news outlet International Energy Net carries an article by Hu Hanzhou, director of the NBS energy statistics department, outlining that wind power generation rose 10% to 1,053TWh and solar power generation rose 24% to 1,573TWh. 

Meanwhile, China’s total electricity consumption exceeded 10,000TWh for the first time, twice China’s 2015 total and more than twice the US’s annual consumption, says state broadcaster CCTV. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reports that China’s economy grew 5%, but that it was driven by exports, which accounted for 33% of growth. An article by People’s Daily says that China’s “green industries…flourished” in 2025, allowing economic growth to shift from being factor-driven to innovation-driven. It adds: “The value-added output of equipment manufacturing grew by 9%, with new energy vehicle production exceeding 16m units.”

MORE ON CHINA

• China will choose a group of zero-carbon factories – those which “continuously reduce carbon dioxide emissions…and gradually move toward near-zero” – to “set benchmarks for wider replication”, reports Xinhua.
• The Financial Times reports that investment in China’s Belt and Road Initiative has grown in 2025 to a “record $214bn”, due to “gas megaprojects and green power”.
• Germany confirmed its subsidy program for electric vehicles (EVs) will be “open” to manufacturers from China, reports Bloomberg. Xinhua carries an unattributed comment article titled: “China-EU deal on EV dispute is pragmatic, exemplary.”
• The People’s Daily interviews villagers about the impact of China’s coal-to-gas switching, citing one saying: “Coal-to-gas conversion is a beneficial initiative for both the nation and its people…Yet the heating costs are simply too high.”
• China Daily reports that China’s energy self-sufficiency rate is projected to reach 85% by 2030, according to a recent industry report.
• The Paper covers a list of extreme weather events published by Henan province, noting that “other provinces and municipalities” saw similar types of events.

Germany has reintroduced electric vehicle (EV) subsidies in a bid to “accelerate the transition to less polluting vehicles”, three years after the previous government scrapped an earlier subsidy scheme during a budget crisis, Agence France-Presse reports. It explains that EV sales in Europe’s largest car market are still growing, but “progress has been patchy”. The nation’s Green party and environmental groups “have criticised the new policy for including hybrid vehicles, which have much higher emissions than just pure EVs”, according to Deutsche Welle. The scheme also covers EVs with range extenders, which involve a small fossil-fuel powered engine to recharge a vehicle’s main battery pack, reports Reuters. It says the government has assigned €3bn (£2.6bn) for the scheme, which will likely cover 800,000 vehicles until 2029. Subsidies will be open to EVs from all manufacturers, including those based in China, reports the Financial Times.

MORE ON EVS

• The EU plans to impose minimum “made in Europe” requirements on public purchases of certain low-carbon technologies, including electric vehicles, to “bolster local industry and cut dependence on Chinese imports”, reports Reuters.
• EV carmakers Nio, Aion and Zeekr are set to launch in the UK this year, taking advantage of the lack of “punitive tariffs” on Chinese companies, according to the Financial Times.
• Tesla and Volvo are set to benefit from a new Canadian policy to slash import tariffs on “made-in-China” EVs, according to Bloomberg.
• Octopus chief executive Greg Jackson has said that European car manufacturers should be prepared to compete with EVs from China, reports the Press Association.
• A new report on attracting gigafactory investment suggests that the UK should loosen its targets for the phaseout of petrol and diesel cars, so it can provide greater support for the domestic automotive and battery industries, reports the Financial Times.

UK prime minister Keir Starmer has told a press conference that climate impacts mean there will need to be more focus on security in the Arctic, amid tensions with the US over the future of Greenland, reports BusinessGreen. The Times quotes Starmer’s speech, in which he said: “The security of Greenland matters, and it will matter more as climate change reshapes the Arctic. As sea routes open and strategic competition intensifies, the high north will require greater attention, greater investment, and stronger collective defence, the US will be central to that effort, and the UK stands ready to contribute fully alongside our allies through NATO.”

There is continued coverage of the situation in Greenland, with the Daily Telegraph publishing a list of “five reasons why [US president Donald] Trump wants Greenland”. One of the reasons it provides is to obtain a “treasure trove of natural resources, including rare earth minerals”, which have applications including “green energy”. The Times lists access to new shipping routes and fossil-fuel reserves in its article on “why the Arctic Circle is in everyone’s sights”. Germany’s Table Media has an article about “how the climate crisis is shaping politics and the economy” in Greenland.

MORE ON UK

• Steel, cement and chemicals industry bodies have issued statements outlining how the UK’s plan to introduce a new carbon border tax next year is “riddled with flaws and will accelerate the decline of UK industry”, according to the Financial Times.
• The UK government has announced $43m of new funding for clean fuels and zero-emission aircraft projects, reports BusinessGreen.
• The Scotsman reports “exclusively” on a new report from the Nuclear Industry Association that argues energy bills would be lower if Scotland could build new nuclear capacity.

The planned closure of Australia’s largest coal-fired power plant is set to be delayed by two years to 2029, due to “concerns about the national energy grid’s ability to satisfy demand”, reports the Guardian. It notes New South Wales environment minister Penny Sharpe saying in a statement that energy security projections showed that the state would have sufficient power supply when the Eraring power plant closed in 2029 “thanks to new renewable generation and storage coming online”. Reuters explains that a recent report by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) concluded that Sydney “could face blackouts in the second half of this decade if the plant retires as planned”. Nevertheless, the news has been criticised by campaigners with concerns about local health and environmental impacts, reports ABC News. Bloomberg explains that around 75% of Australia’s coal capacity is set to retire over the next decade, but notes that “the rollout of renewable energy has been slower than anticipated”.

MORE ON AUSTRALIA

• In a comment piece regarding the Eraring power plant closure delay, Sydney Morning Herald business journalist Elizabeth Knight says “what this decision does not represent is support for coal as a future energy alternative”, stressing the investment that Origin – the company running the plant – has made in clean power.

Tsvetelina Kuzmanova, EU sustainable finance lead for the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), has an article in Climate Home News about fractured geopolitics going into the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. She writes: “Amid the pressure, it is crucial that the EU maintains its ambitions on energy security and decarbonisation…This is not about climate leadership alone, but a question of power and independence.” Kuzmanova says that recently European debates have framed climate ambition as “a liability to competitiveness”, but this is not the case. She concludes: “If Europe does not decisively shift towards investing in electrification, grids and industrial transformation, it will remain exposed to pressure tactics, with oil and gas supplies shaping Europe’s future and making it reactive rather than proactive at meetings like Davos.”

MORE COMMENT

• Retired lieutenant general Richard Nugee, former non-executive director for sustainability at the UK Ministry of Defence, has an article in BusinessGreen about “how increased defence spending offers an opportunity for green sectors”.
• Financial Times associate editor Rana Foroohar has a piece about oil prices that concludes: “Perhaps petro-politics and higher oil prices will spark a faster green transition. That would be a rare silver lining for the energy story in today’s chaotic world.”
• The Sun has another editorial taking aim at UK energy secretary Ed Miliband. [See Carbon Brief’s analysis of 2025 newspaper editorials, including 51 the Sun published criticising Miliband.]
• Frequent net-zero critic Ben Marlow has a piece in the Daily Telegraph about steel that describes the benefits of “Labour’s clean power crusade” as “wildly overstated”.

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

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