Poland’s largest utility, PGE, has announced it wants to get rid of its coal assets and become carbon neutral by 2050, reports Climate Home News. The website explains that the plans are dependent on the Polish government agreeing to manage the firm’s coal assets, which currently account for more than 80% of its electricity output – with the move also requiring state aid approval from the European Commission. According to Climate Home News, PGE president Wojciech Dąbrowski “reportedly said that if it did not separate its coal assets, the business would go bankrupt in a year and a half”. The website adds: “Analysts praised PGE’s enthusiasm for renewables, but said the company should take responsibility for closing down its coal assets, not pass them to another arm of the state.” In a feature for Yale Environment 360, Paul Hockenos writes that Poland’s “once-mighty coal industry is in retreat” as a result of “shaky economics” and the EU’s climate targets. Separately, Reuters reports that Poland is seeking to secure more revenues from the EU’s emissions trading system (ETS). It reports: “At meeting of EU environment ministers in Luxembourg on Friday, Poland will propose changes to the system of allocating ETS permits and the creation of a new ‘energy solidarity fund’ to support low-income countries, according to a Polish government paper seen by Reuters.”

Meanwhile, in other coal news, the Financial Times reports that investment funds “worth $3tn” have “attack[ed]” South Korean and Japanese firms over their plans to develop the Vung Ang 2 coal-fired power station in Vietnam. The article notes that the project will be financed by Japanese banks despite a new policy “adapted by Japan this year [that] sets a higher hurdle for supporting new coal projects overseas”. The new rules do not apply to projects already at the planning stage, the FT explains, such as Vung Ang 2 “as well as Indramayu in Indonesia and Matarbari Phase 2 in Bangladesh”.

The New York Times carries the findings of a detailed poll of US voters it commissioned showing strong support for Democrat Joe Biden’s climate plan. The presidential hopeful’s plan to spend $2tn on fighting climate change was supported by 66% of those polled, the paper says, with 26% against. The poll also found 44% in favour of fracking versus 42% against. The findings are reported by the Hill under the headline: “Poll: Two-thirds of voters support Biden climate plan.” It says the plan “is doing well with voters even as they are split on their support for fracking”. The outlet adds that Biden’s Republican rival Donald Trump “has not released a formal climate plan and the poll did not cover his position on climate change”. [Carbon Brief has a tracker showing the rival candidates’ positions on a range of climate and energy issues.]

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports on two analyses of Biden’s climate plans, saying one shows the package “won’t do all it promises”, while the second shows it will “do a lot more than the status quo”. The Hill picks up the first of the reports, saying it shows that Biden’s plan “lags behind the green new deal when it comes to reducing carbon emissions by making homes more energy efficient”. Separately, Reuters reports that US carmakers are “gearing up for tough new vehicle emissions rules and policies favouring electric vehicles”, if Biden wins the election. Finally, E&E News via Science reports that the Trump administration has “quietly restarted the National Climate Assessment after public outcry over its delay”. It explains that a “key step” in the project – finding authors to write the report – had been delayed “for months”, but has now restarted.

The EU target to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is moving closer to being legally binding, Reuters reports. The newswire says EU environment ministers are expected to agree the shift at a meeting this week, but adds that the European Parliament would also need to sign off on the move. It also says a decision on raising the EU target for 2030 will be left for a summit of national leaders in December. Meanwhile, Politico reports on how Europe’s “green ambitions” are “run[ning] into an old foe: farmers”. And Bloomberg reports on how Europe’s small businesses are “fighting climate change”.

Reuters reports comments from Zhao Yingmin, China’s vice-minister of ecology and environment, saying conditions in the country are “grim” and fall short of public expectations despite efforts at improvement over the past five years. It quotes him saying: “While seeing the improvements…it should be clearly recognised that the quality of the ecological environment remains far from people’s expectations for a better life.” The newswire adds: “Zhao did not give detail of the next five-year plan, but said China would step up efforts to control fossil fuel consumption and promote low-carbon technology, while promising greater contributions to tackling climate change.” Meanwhile, Axios picks up recently published Carbon Brief analysis (also published yesterday by Carbon Brief in Chinese) on how China might reach its new goal of carbon neutrality by 2060. And another Axios reports reactions to a statement, published on Monday, in which China criticised the US record on climate change.

BusinessGreen publishes a speech by UK transport secretary Grant Shapps to the aviation industry, in which he says: “[W]e know demand for air travel is very likely to grow in decades to come. But the industry has to transform its environmental impact if it’s to be viable.” Shapps says the government’s “jet zero council” has a “single overriding goal: to develop UK capability to achieve net zero emission flights”. He also says the government will “consult shortly to update our position on aviation and climate change”. Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph reports that UK airport operators are “urg[ing] the government to suspend air duty on passengers and retain VAT-free sales airside” as they struggle with the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

Separately, in the Times Red Box, Nick Crossfield, UK and Ireland managing director of train manufacturer Alstom, writes under the headline: “Trains should drive the green industrial revolution.” He says: “The government has set our industry the clear target to remove all diesel trains by 2040, through a combination of electrification, batteries and hydrogen…Hydrogen is the perfect ready replacement for regional diesel trains in areas that have not been electrified.” (Crossfield explains that Alstom and partners Eversholt Rail have a “shovel ready” plan to convert trains to use hydrogen.)

In a feature for the Daily Telegraph, business journalist Ed Clowes looks at the transformation of Ørsted, the Danish former oil “giant” once known as Dong that now focuses on wind and is “now worth almost as much as BP”. Clowes writes: “From 2010, the company began divesting from power companies, whilst pumping more money into wind farms. One of the most contentious moments of Dong’s turnaround came in 2014, when the company sold 18% of its equity to investment bank Goldman Sachs for $1.5bn. The money would be spent on Dong’s ambitious offshore wind projects, it said at the time.” He concludes: “Ørsted is now the largest offshore wind farm developer in the world and is viewed as a model for the successful transition from fossil fuels to green power.”

Separately, the Daily Telegraph has published another feature in its series on “Big Oil’s Godzillas” (see yesterday’s Daily Briefing). Rachel Millard looks at how “state-owned oil giants are resisting the shift to green energy, but it could cost them their futures”.

The record-breaking 2018 northern hemisphere heatwave could not have happened without human-caused climate change and would have been even more severe if levels of warming were higher, research says. The study uses modelling to examine how severe the heatwave would have been in a scenario with no climate change and scenarios were global warming has reached 2C and 4C. The authors say: “The results reveal that the human-induced background warming was a strong contributor to the intensity of the NH2018 event, and that resulting extremes under similar atmospheric circulation conditions at higher levels of global warming would reach dangerous levels.”