There is continuing coverage of the Trump administration’s plans to “dissolve” the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Colorado. Scientific American says the centre has been “long considered the crown jewel in the US’s earth science infrastructure” and that “scientists who study climate, weather and other earth sciences have decried the move” as “taking a sledgehammer” to an “iconic” centre dedicated to studying our planet. According to the publication, climate scientist Prof Katharine Hayhoe posted on BlueSky: “Dismantling NCAR is like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet. Unbelievable.”

Nature reports that Russell Vought, Donald Trump’s budget director, confirmed the planned closure in a post on Twitter, claiming: “This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.” On Wednesday, the consortium that runs NCAR received a letter of intent from the National Science Foundation on the planned breakup of NCAR, consortium president Antonio Busalacchi tells Nature. The publication continues: “The letter requested information regarding divesting, transferring or restructuring the various components of NCAR. It mentioned NCAR’s research aircraft fleet and its supercomputing centre in Cheyenne, Wyoming, as components that might be relocated.” There is further coverage in the Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press and Reuters.

MORE ON US

• The Washington Post reports that the Trump administration has “admitted” in a court filing to “targeting blue states for energy grant cuts”.
• The Trump administration’s decision to remove $7.6bn in grants to California and other Democratic-led states has “prompted a probe by a federal watchdog”, says Bloomberg.
• The federal government has ordered a Washington coal plant to keep running after its retirement date, “marking the third time the Trump administration has invoked emergency authorities to keep a power plant running”, reports Bloomberg.
• The rate of sea level rise on US coastlines has more than doubled over the past 125 years, according to a new study that “rebuts” a widely criticised climate assessment from the Trump administration published earlier this year, says the Washington Post.
• Reuters reports that the Trump administration has advanced a solar project “for the first time in months”.

Oil firm BP has named Meg O’Neill, chief executive of Woodside Energy in Australia, as its next chief executive, following the abrupt exit of Murray Auchincloss, Reuters reports. The move signals a “renewed push to boost returns and double down on oil and gas after retreating from an ambitious renewables strategy”, says the newswire. It adds that O’Neill is “BP’s first external CEO in its more than century-long history and the first woman to lead any of the world’s top five oil majors”. The Times reports that outgoing BP boss Auchincloss “previously served as chief financial officer alongside [former CEO] Bernard Looney…The pair had pursued a radical strategic shift into green energy that resulted in sustained underperformance in BP’s share price”. It continues: “Auchincloss has reversed many of its commitments, announcing a ‘fundamental reset’ of its strategy earlier in the year, but has been under pressure from [investment firm] Elliott and others to be more radical.” There is further coverage in the Financial Times, Guardian and Bloomberg.

The FT reports that “Brussels has admitted” that the EU’s world-first carbon border tax, the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), is “too broad” and “too clunky”, as it set out plans to “close loopholes” before it comes into force next month. The CBAM is “meant to level the playing field between EU companies paying high carbon and energy prices and cheaper, ‘dirtier’ products imported from countries with no emissions costs”. The newspaper continues: “The measure, which covers imports into the EU of steel, aluminium, cement, fertilisers, electricity and hydrogen, has drawn strong opposition from the bloc’s key trading partners including China, India and Brazil.” After carrying out a “practice run” of the mechanism this year with importers, the commission found that “our system is too broad, too clunky, had too many loopholes” and was akin to “a good cheese with some holes in it”, said Wopke Hoekstra, the EU’s climate commissioner, according to the FT. It adds: “To close the gaps, the commission said it was going to extend the tax to include downstream products such as washing machines, industrial radiators and garden tools.” Reuters reports that the EU has “ruled out” making the UK exempt from CBAM “until the two sides link their carbon markets”.

MORE ON EU

• The Financial Times reports that carmakers have “soured” on the EU’s reversal of a 2035 ban on petrol cars, with some calling it “disastrous”.
• Reuters reports on the views of analysts and experts that electric vehicles are “still the future” in the EU, despite the bloc’s petrol car ban reversal.
• Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has “threatened to walk away from a blockbuster trade deal with the EU after key countries asked Brussels to delay a vote to approve the agreement”, says the Financial Times.
• The EU has now formally approved a deal to phase out Russian gas by 2027, reports Reuters.
• The EU has also rubber-stamped a decision to delay its anti-deforestation law by a year, says Carbon Pulse.

The UK’s opposition Conservative party has pledged to “cut funding for green energy projects to boost defence spending and ensure the country is ready for war”, reports BBC News. It continues: “Leader Kemi Badenoch said if her party won power it would reallocate £17bn to invest in the UK’s military because ‘defence of the realm must be the first priority of any government’.” The broadcaster says the Labour government “accused the Tories of ‘fantasy figures’ and of leaving the armed forces ‘hollowed out and underfunded’ when they were in government”. The Daily Telegraph also has the story, noting that Badenoch has also pledged to create a “£50bn ‘sovereign defence fund’, made up of public and private investment, to replenish the armed forces”.

MORE ON UK

• The government has “played down reports that it is planning to bring forward the publication of a review of electric vehicle sales targets from 2027 to next year” amid concerns from the car sector, says the Guardian.
• The Guardian reports on how residents of Gloster, Mississippi, a town close to a wood pellet facility used by UK biomass company Drax, are suing the firm over alleged air pollution violations.
• The Daily Telegraph reports on analysis by the data provider Montel finding that the UK could meet its target of reaching 95% low-carbon electricity by 2033, three years behind schedule.

China’s new energy vehicle (NEV) sales are expected to reach 20m units in 2026, with the proportion of NEVs in the country’s total vehicle fleet projected to rise from 10% in 2025 to 15% by 2026, according to China EV 100, a Chinese thinktank focusing on NEV development, reports the state broadcaster CCTV. The outlet also says China’s auto market will see a “modest” 2% increase in sales by 2026, according to China EV 100. Meanwhile, Bloomberg says that moves in the US and Europe to “pull back” from EVs give Chinese automakers “more opportunity to cement their lead in the transition away from internal combustion engines”.

MORE ON CHINA

• Reuters reports that China’s ambassador to Russia, Zhang Hanhui, has said that construction of the Far Eastern route for gas supplies from Russia to China is “steadily progressing”, with exports scheduled to start in 2027.
• China Electric Power News reports that the NDRC and NEA have jointly issued a notice on improving the “benchmarking framework” for “clean and efficient coal utilisation”, requiring that coal utilisation in China adopts the “most stringent energy efficiency benchmarks and pollutant emission requirements”.
• People’s Daily publishes an article in its print edition saying that, this year, China has seen the “strongest results in ensuring energy supply” since the start of the “14th five-year plan”, according to the NEA.
• Yicai reports that the world’s “largest green hydrogen-ammonia-methanol integrated project” has entered operation in the north-eastern Chinese province of Jilin, marking a “milestone in the deep integration of renewable energy and the chemical industry”.
• Bloomberg: “Why China’s megadam in Tibet is so controversial.”
• Dialogue Earth says that, while China calls on developed countries to provide climate finance through “grants and concessional loans”, it is “increasingly participating in climate finance via private investment channels”.

After five months of negotiations, Brazil’s government has approved a climate plan that aims to reduce emissions by 59-67% by 2035, reports ((o))eco. The document includes eight plans focused on reducing emissions and 16 on adapting to climate impacts. According to the outlet, the climate plan had not been updated for a decade and had to include “adjustments to meet the demands of the agribusiness sector”. Folha de São Paulo also covers the news, adding that Brazil’s agriculture ministry has threatened to block the climate plan due to its requirement for reducing deforestation. In response, the country’s environment ministry, which coordinated the work, has added references to financial instruments for forest protection and sustainable production, such as financial funds or rural credit lines, adds the newspaper.

MORE ON LATIN AMERICA

• El Espectador reports that, after various attempts, Colombia’s government has approved a law aimed at acknowledging victims of climate displacements, granting them rights and “comprehensive, continuous and preventive care”.
• Gustavo Petro’s administration has officially recognised the first Indigenous territories in the Colombian Amazon, updating the country’s political map, reports Mongabay Latam. It adds that these territories will be ruled by their own education, health and justice systems.
• The EU parliament has extended by one year the deadline for implementing a new deforestation regulation, which impacts meat and soy exports from Argentina, according to La Nación. The extension will provide producers and companies with additional time to comply with environmental regulations.
• According to Venezuela’s Correo del Caroní, negotiators from Latin America are questioning the “number, content and financing” of the 59 adaptation indicators agreed at COP30.
• The Mexican government will invest $4.752bn in 20 renewable energy projects to “strengthen Mexico’s national electric system”, including 15 photovoltaic plants and five wind farms, reports Quadratín Jalisco.

An editorial in the Guardian describes the EU’s weakening of its 2035 ban on petrol car sales as a “collective loss of nerve in Brussels”. It continues: “During her first term as European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen made the EU’s climate agenda her defining mission. Modernisation and decarbonisation were seen to go hand in hand, delivering the key to future prosperity. But that was then. The climbdown on cars is the clearest signal yet that economic headwinds, geopolitical uncertainty and the rise of the net zero-sceptic far right have rattled the EU’s resolve.” The editorial concludes: “This week’s backsliding is bad news for the planet and bad news for the future of Europe’s car industry.”

MORE COMMENT

• For Climate Home News, Malawi’s chief climate negotiator Evans Njewa says “tripling adaptation finance is just the start” and “delivery is what matters”.
• The Wall Street Journal has an editorial in its climate-sceptic comment pages on “California’s solar stranded assets”.
• Conservative MP and former energy minister Claire Coutinho has appeared on a Daily Telegraph podcast being interviewed by Allison Pearson, a columnist who is a trustee of a UK-based climate-sceptic lobby group.

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Daisy Dunne, with contributions from Yanine Quiroz, Simon Evans and Henry Zhang. It was edited by Leo Hickman.

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