Global oil prices have fallen slightly “after the US operation to oust Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro created uncertainty over the future of the world’s largest crude reserves”, reports the Financial Times. It continues: “Venezuela produces less than 1% of global oil output, with exports constrained by US sanctions and a naval blockade. But the country holds about 17% of the world’s proven crude reserves…giving it the potential to increase supply significantly.” Traders now “have to assess what the impact of the US intervention will be on the oil market, at a time when analysts are warning of an approaching glut of crude”, it adds. In an interview with Fox News on Saturday, US president Donald Trump said his country will be “very strongly involved” in Venezuela’s oil industry from now on, reports Axios. The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Reuters and Agence France-Presse all have articles on why oil prices have dipped, while CNBC analyses the impact on wider global energy markets.

Multiple outlets take a look at the feasibility of the US reviving the Venezuelan oil industry, including the Financial Times, CNN, Sky News, Guardian, Wired and New York Times. At the weekend, Trump said US companies will fix Venezuela’s “badly broken” oil infrastructure and “start making money for the country”, reports BBC News. Bloomberg says the move “could be a years-long and challenging process costing upwards of $100bn”. Trump’s comments throw “into doubt” the claims that many foreign nations – including China and Russia – currently have on Venezuelan oil, says Bloomberg. The Times and Bloomberg report specifically on the threat to China’s oil supplies. Chevron is currently the only US oil major operating in Venezuela, notes Reuters. The Wall Street Journal reports that oil companies “didn’t receive advance notice” of Trump’s move into the country, while the Guardian says that oil majors have been “silent” on any future involvement in Venezuela.

In comments over the weekend, Trump also “sent fresh shockwaves to Greenland”, reports the Times of India. Speaking at Mar-a-Lago, Trump said: “We need Greenland for national security, not for minerals. We have so many sites for minerals and oil and everything. We have more oil than any other country in the world. We need Greenland for national security.” In response, Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, has urged Trump to “stop the threats”, adding that Greenland is “not for sale”, reports the Daily Telegraph. Shortly before Christmas, Trump named Jeff Landry, the Republican governor of Louisiana, as his “special envoy” for Greenland, notes the Times. France has “reiterated its support” for Greenland this morning, reports Reuters.

Covering new analysis by Carbon Brief, the Press Association reports that UK renewables “set new records in 2025, but electricity generation from gas still rose as coal plants went offline, nuclear power declined and demand grew”. The figures indicate that “electricity demand rose 1% – following years of declining demand – as more electric vehicles, heat pumps and data centres increased the need for power”, the newswire says. It adds: “Renewables supplied more of the UK’s electricity than any other source of power, making up 47% of the total, outstripping gas at 28%, nuclear at 11% and net imports at 10%.” The article quotes Carbon Brief’s deputy editor Dr Simon Evans, who tells the outlet: “The rise in gas even as renewables hit record highs shows the triple challenge of decarbonising the grid, while electrification boosts demand and old nuclear power plants retire.” Agence France-Presse also covers the analysis, while BBC News mentions it in its own analysis of provisional data from the National Energy System Operator (Neso).

In UK news over the new year, the Times reports that electricity demand has seen a “surge”, with “renewables helping to meet the extra demand”. The Times previews the government’s forthcoming “warm homes plan”, with a frontpage story on how “homeowners will be eligible for grants to install solar panels, heat pumps and battery storage in an attempt to create new ‘zero-bill’ homes”. In additional reporting, the Times says the plans include a “£30 levy on gas bills, which would be used to lower electricity bills”. The plan is set to be launched in the “next few weeks after months of wrangling with the Treasury”, the story says. The Guardian also previews the plan, while a separate article reports in an “exclusive” that the future homes standard, due to be published this month, is unlikely to stipulate that homes must be fitted with batteries in a “climbdown after pressure from housebuilders”. In fresh reporting, the Times says that the “zero-bill” plan is “under fire” from two unnamed Labour MPs. Their comments repeat multiple myths about heat pumps. 

MORE ON UK

• The Financial Times reports that the UK oil and gas industry “suffered its worst-ever year for exploration in 2025”, while the Daily Telegraph says that “Norway has announced a string of North Sea oil and gas discoveries close to UK waters”.
• The installation of electric vehicle (EV) chargers in the UK has “slowed for the first time”, reports the Sunday Times. The Daily Telegraph puts the story on its frontpage. Nonetheless, says the Guardian, research suggests that EVs will “overtake diesels” in the UK by 2030.
• UK media regulator Ofcom is “under pressure to investigate” a GB News interview with Donald Trump in which he said climate change was “a hoax”, reports the Guardian.
• Scientists have warned that the Scots pine could be “wiped out” in the UK because of climate change, reports the Daily Telegraph.
• A National Trust review finds that extreme weather events are the “new normal” for UK wildlife, reports the Times.
• The climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph continues its campaign of publishing articles attacking net-zero, including the power use of councils that declared a climate emergency, how unionising green jobs “will force up energy prices”, an electrical equipment “shortage”, a church’s net-zero “crackdown”, a high court challenge to a solar farm, a “conflict of interest row” over National Grid shares, the air miles of energy ministers, “wasted wind power” costs, the nationalisation of the electricity market “by stealth” and how rejoining the EU electricity market would require the UK to “relinquish much of its post-Brexit freedoms”.

The EU’s landmark carbon border levy came into force on 1 January, reports the Financial Times, “despite fierce opposition from trading partners and warnings from European industry that it will increase costs and red tape”. The carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), which covers six sectors including steel, cement, aluminium and electricity, is “intended to prevent EU companies that have to pay for their emissions being undercut by cheaper, more heavily polluting competition”, the newspaper explains. The Guardian notes that “many countries expected the EU to back down on the ‘green tariff’ rules, in the same way that other environmental regulations have recently been watered down, but the bloc has pressed ahead despite protests from China, the US, Australia and others”. In a statement, China’s Ministry of Commerce described the CBAM as “unfair” and “discriminatory”, while warning it would take countermeasures to defend the country’s interests, reports Bloomberg. New Scientist and Euronews also have the story, while another Financial Times article includes the CBAM in its “key tests” for climate action in 2026.

Developers of five offshore wind farms that were ordered last month by the Trump administration to halt construction are suing to restart work on at least three of the projects, reports the New York Times. On 22 December, the interior department ordered companies to halt work on five wind farms in various stages of construction along the east coast, citing unspecified national security concerns, the newspaper explains. Separately, Danish energy giant Ørsted, Norwegian firm Equinor and US developer Dominion Energy are all now “seeking preliminary injunctions that would allow construction to continue as the litigation proceeds”, the article says. It adds: “At stake overall is about $25bn of investment in the five wind farms. The projects were expected to create 10,000 jobs and to power more than 2.5m homes and businesses.” The Financial Times also has the Ørsted story.

MORE ON US:

• The president of the European Research Council has warned that the Trump administration’s attacks on US academia are hurting Europe’s scientific community, reports the Financial Times.
• Experts have warned that deep budget cuts and firing sprees at emergency response agencies by the Trump administration have left the US less prepared for “natural disasters”, reports the Guardian.
• US EV manufacturer Tesla has been overtaken by China’s BYD as the world’s biggest EV seller, reports the Times. The Financial Times Lex column says that, while Tesla is losing ground to China, the “battery war isn’t over”.
• New polling suggests that “most Americans now connect the worsening climate crisis with their cost-of-living pressures, with clear majorities also disagreeing with moves by the Trump administration to gut climate research and halt windfarms”, says the Guardian.
• The Guardian looks at the “wins and losses” for climate-related litigation in the US during 2025.

Around 70 nations – including India, Saudi Arabia and Argentina – failed to submit updated climate plans to the UN in 2025, reports Climate Home News, “despite the 2015 Paris Agreement’s requirement that countries do so every five years”. According to Climate Action Tracker, about three-fifths of countries have submitted their latest nationally determined contributions (NDCs), the outlet says, with most missing deadlines set for February and September. Of the remaining countries that still have not submitted, many are “low-emitting small or poorer nations, especially in Africa”, adding: “But major economies that have not submitted an NDC – some of which also have energy transition deals with donors – include Egypt, the Philippines and Vietnam.”

The Met Office has confirmed 2025 as the UK’s warmest and sunniest on record, reports BBC News. It explains: “Provisional calculations show that with an average temperature of 10.09C, this exceeds the previous record of 10.03C set in 2022. It means that 2025 joins 2022 and 2023 in the top three warmest years and it’s only the second year where the mean annual temperature has exceeded 10C. The last twelve months were also the sunniest on record with 1648.5 hours recorded, 61.4 hours more than the previous record set in 2003.” The Guardian quotes Met Office scientist Mark McCarthy, who tells the outlet: “This very warm year is in line with expected consequences of human-induced climate change. Although it doesn’t mean every year will be the warmest on record, it is clear from our weather observations and climate models that human-induced global warming is impacting the UK’s climate.” The Daily Mail, Reuters and Agence France-Presse also have the story.

The expanding influence of the US over global oil production means that US president Donald Trump “now has his very own oil empire”, writes Bloomberg columnist Javier Blas. With such resources, says Blas, “Trump has an economic and geopolitical lever no US president has had since Franklin D Roosevelt in the 1940s”. He explains: “Having de facto control of the western hemisphere’s petroleum wealth is a geopolitical game-changer. For decades, US military adventurism was constrained by the impact of any war on energy costs. Today the White House has primacy over oil-producing allies and adversaries alike – whether it’s Saudi Arabia or Iran, Nigeria or Russia.” The past 18 months have “already shown what these new hydrocarbon riches mean for US foreign policy”, Blas adds: “Trump’s administration has taken once unthinkable steps: from bombing Iranian nuclear facilities to helping Ukraine target Russian oil refineries. Grabbing Nicolas Maduro from his safehouse in the outskirts of Caracas was the most shocking example yet of what happens when oil doesn’t constrain the Pentagon anymore.”

In further reaction, the Economist says that Trump’s “snatching” of Maduro was “spectacular and swift”, but the “economic reward from it will be neither”. John Cassidy, staff writer at the New Yorker, discusses the “folly of Trump’s oil imperialism”, noting: “The president has made clear he wants to exploit Venezuela’s vast oil reserves; history suggests that it won’t be easy.” On his Substack, veteran climate author and activist Bill McKibben writes that the countries with the largest oil reserves are “almost without exception the same places [the US has] been involved in endless fighting or, in the case of Canada, endless threatening”. Finally, focusing on the UK, a Daily Telegraph editorial says the “global scramble for cheap energy exposes Britain’s folly”.

In commentary published over the festive break, an editorial in the Guardian looks at the “everyday injustice” of adapting to climate change. While “discussing preparations for global heating can feel like a distraction or even an admission of defeat”, it says, “there ought to be scope to get ready for a hotter, more unstable climate as well”. The editorial adds: “For the rich world, adaptation is prudent. For the poor world, it is survival…Catastrophic floods in Asia and worsening droughts in Africa this year point to the growing need to accelerate climate adaptation.” In a second editorial on the “new space race”, the Guardian says a “more pressing problem” is the speed at which humanity is using natural resources: “There are essentially three ways out: become more efficient by squeezing more GDP per unit of energy; green the production, distribution and consumption of the economy to bring capitalism in line with ecological limits; or move energy-intensive processes off-world.”

Elsewhere, an editorial in the Financial Times comments on the “malaise in multilateralism”, noting that COP30 – along with other major meetings – “limped to a close on a desultory note”. The UN “badly needs a reboot under new leadership”, the newspaper says: “It should sharpen its focus on how to avert the two greatest risks to humanity right now: war between great powers and climate change.” A Times editorial comments on the UK Labour government’s forthcoming warm homes plan, noting: “There may be merit in encouraging more homes to go solar…but there is a question of whether such large subsidies are an effective use of government funds.” Finally, a Sunday Times editorial on the UK’s “great potential” claims that “poor energy strategy over decades has landed us with ruinous costs”.

MORE IN UK COMMENT

• Financial Times associate editor Pilita Clark chooses “tipping point” as her word of the year for 2025. The Guardian’s environment editor Fiona Harvey chooses “multilateralism”.
• An Independent editorial on the much-delayed high-speed rail line HS2 says the “growth of electric vehicles and the prospect of decarbonising the entire transport network” has taken away ”much of the argument that HS2 would help mitigate climate change”.
• In his “reasons to be cheerful for 2026”, Sunday Times business columnist Philip Rodney includes the UK continuing to “punch above its weight” in “green finance and clean energy”.
• In the Guardian, deputy opinion editor Kirsty Major comments on the “reality” of homes becoming unsellable because of flooding, climate justice reporter Nina Lakhani looks at what is giving her “hope” over climate change and columnist Zoe Williams says the EV revolution is “still on course”.
• In the Daily Mail, an editorial about Boxing Day trail hunting criticises the government’s “plan to cover fields in solar panels”, while climate-sceptic columnist Stephen Glover attacks energy secretary Ed Miliband. The Daily Telegraph’s Matthew Lynn and two editorials in the Sun on Sunday also attack Miliband (again).
• In the Sunday Times, climate-sceptic columnist Rod Liddle criticises King Charles’s “green revolution”, including his attendance at the recent “idiotic COP meeting”.

At the very end of 2025, a journalist and photographer from the New York Times departed from New Zealand on an icebreaker ship with around 40 scientists heading to Antarctica. The eight-week research trip will see the group travel to the edge of Antarctica’s ice to study Thwaites, nicknamed the “doomsday glacier”. Climate reporter Raymond Zhong writes: “One team of scientists, intending to study the warming waters under Thwaites, will attempt to drill through a half-mile of the glacier’s ice and install instruments in the seawater below. Other teams will lower equipment from helicopters into the ice-strewn seas and venture onto ice floes to place buoys. Another group will attach sensors to seals, which can dive and gather data in waters that are inaccessible to ships.” In the newspaper’s Climate Forward newsletter, Zhang explains that he will be publishing updates “throughout our journey on what the scientists are learning and how they conduct research in such an inhospitable place”. The journalists have a live blog, which includes their first encounter with an iceberg and a first Q&A.

MORE IN US COMMENT

• A Washington Post editorial argues that “innovation” on electric vehicles “will do far more for the energy transition than any government ever could”.
• Bloomberg columnist Lara Williams says that, rather than looking “like a failure”, the Paris Agreement has “done a remarkable job of sparking a green revolution”.
• Writing in the New York Times, David Victor – professor of innovation and public policy at the University of California, San Diego – says that climate goals are “becoming more realistic”.