The UK’s energy and net-zero secretary Ed Miliband is expected to say during his speech at the Labour party conference today that the hard-right populist Reform party, if ever elected into government, will “betray” every young person as well as future generations by “waging a war on clean energy”, reports the Press Association. Milliband will announce a number of initiatives designed to bring down energy bills and grow green jobs during his speech in Liverpool, it adds. BusinessGreen reports that Miliband is expected to “hit back at ‘global network of right-wing billionaires’ and launch a renewed push for unionisation across the clean-energy industry”. The Daily Mirror notes that Miliband will say: “We face a fight like never before. Reform would wreck everything we are doing.” The Times reports that Miliband will use his speech to say that the consensus on tackling climate change in the UK has “broken down” and blame the “imported US culture wars for the rise of anti-net-zero sentiment”. It adds that “in an effort to take on critics in the union movement”, the energy secretary will pledge to double the number of people employed in clean energy, creating more than 400,000 jobs by 2030. Politico covers comments by Gary Smith, the general secretary of the GMB union, urging Labour to “rethink” its energy policy or risk losing support from working-class communities.

MORE ON UK:

• The Daily Telegraph covers comments from chancellor Rachel Reeves that she supports “homegrown energy”, including oil and gas extracted from the North Sea.
• DeSmog covers a push by lobbyists for the UK’s “AI boom to be fuelled by gas”.
• The Guardian reports that nearly a third of workers at the Prax Lindsey oil refinery in north Lincolnshire will lose their jobs, after it collapsed into administration this summer.
• BBC News reports on criticism from the union Unite following the news of job losses at the oil refinery, with the East Lindsey branch chairman calling for Ed Miliband and Michael Shanks to be removed from their positions. 

Australia could “split” the hosting of the COP31 climate in 2026 under a potential compromise with Turkey, reports the Guardian. Prime minister Anthony Albanese tells the publication that he accepts that Turkey is determined that Ankara will stay in the race to host the 2026 event. Albanese notes that he wishes the host country was not decided using consensus rules, but pledges to continue diplomatic talks with the government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, it adds. There is a precedent from previous climate summits to be co-hosted or located across different locations, according to government sources, the article notes. Albanese tells the Guardian: “We’re just engaging [with Turkey]…A clear majority of nations want Australia’s bid, but it’s clear also that this is a complex situation and we’ve got to try and resolve it.”

MORE ON AUSTRALIA

• Bloomberg reports that one of Australia’s biggest coal-fired power plants – the Rio Tinto’s Gladstone power station – could close six years earlier than previously announced. 
• The Guardian covers the results of a survey that has found Australian voters back the level of ambition proposed in the Albanese government’s 2035 emissions reduction target, with 13% wanting steeper cuts.

There is continuing coverage of the latest “crackdown” on discussing global warming in the US government, with the Guardian reporting that the US Department of Energy has told employees in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) to avoid using the words “climate change”. An email from an agency acting director seen by the publication says: “Please ensure that every member of your team is aware that this is the latest list of words to avoid – and continue to be conscientious about avoiding any terminology that you know to be misaligned with the administration’s perspectives and priorities.” Employees in the EERE have been told to avoid using the term climate change among others both in internal and public-facing work, the article notes. It quotes one anonymous agency staffer, who tells the publication that this is a continuation of the anti-environmental agenda US president Donald Trump has pushed since entering the White House. 

MORE ON US

• Reuters reports that US community solar installations fell by 36% in the first half of 2025, compared to the same period last year. 
• The Financial Times covers comments from clean-energy investor Generate Capital that “rocketing power rates could jeopardise investment in the sector”.
• Newsweek reports that defence secretary Pete Hegseth has railed against “woke” policies, including stating there will be “no more climate change worship”. 
• Bloomberg says that the closure of the US federal government will “curtail or halt some US climate disaster preparedness and environmental programs”. 

Actor and former governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger has downplayed the Trump administration’s “climate scepticism” and thrown his weight behind a Vatican environmental initiative, reports the Los Angeles Times. Speaking at a three-day climate conference at the Vatican, Schwarzenegger said “individual choice, local regulations and the Catholic church’s moral leadership were far more important to ‘terminate’ global warming”, according to the publication. Reuters reports that the initiative led by Pope Leo XIV will include encouraging world leaders to address climate change and transition away from fossil fuels. It quotes Schwarzenegger, who says: “Every single one of (the) 1.4 billion Catholics can be a crusader for the environment and can help us terminate pollution.” The New York Times notes that Pope Leo will give his first address on climate change at Castel Gandolfo on Wednesday. 

New breakthroughs in building a “new power system” will be a “top priority” during China’s “15th five-year plan” period, says the Economic Information Daily, a newspaper sponsored by state news agency Xinhua. It adds that “annual grid investment is expected to further increase [in 2026-2030] from the already high levels achieved during the 14th five-year plan period”. State broadcaster CCTV writes in an “economic commentary” that a “green” innovation is one of five types of innovation that will be “especially important” under the 15th five-year plan. The Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily publishes an article under the byline Zhong Caiwen, which indicates the party leaders’ views on economic affairs, saying “green development is the defining feature of China’s high-quality economic growth”. Fu Chengyu, former chairman of Sinopec, tells Fortune that he believes “only China can lead the way” on the global energy transition and the “fourth industrial revolution”.

MORE ON CHINA

• The MEE has issued draft allowance plans for the steel, cement and aluminium sectors for 2024 and 2025 in its national carbon market, according to Cailian Press.
• China plans to implement “energy-saving, pollution-control and carbon-reduction measures” in several non-ferrous metal industries, MySteel reports in coverage of a new action plan. The plan also calls for developing “advanced rare earth materials alongside enhanced recycling of used batteries and solar panels”, says the South China Morning Post.
• The NEA and NDRC have issued measures for managing “energy planning”, calling for its “proper alignment” with ecological protection and carbon emission policies, China Energy Net reports.
• Former US climate negotiator Sue Biniaz writes in Just Security that China’s “weak, overly conservative” climate targets have “alarmed many in terms of stalling momentum at exactly the wrong time”.
• China has reached a “new milestone” in developing a coal-fired power unit featuring the “highest pressure, highest temperature, highest efficiency and lowest coal consumption” yet, China Energy Net reports.
• Sun Zhongde, director of China’s National Atomic Energy Agency, writes in People’s Daily that the new atomic energy law will “better promote the high-quality development” of China’s nuclear sector.

At least 10 people have been killed and more than 11,800 people rescued in flood-hit regions of India’s western state of Maharashtra, the Indian Express reports. While rainfall in the coastal capital Mumbai has “cross[ed] the 3,000mm threshold for this monsoon season”, the Business Standard reports that floods “have damaged nearly 40% of land under cultivation” in the state. In the neighbouring state of Karnataka, Basavaraj Ingin, the head of a farmer association, tells the Hindu that “about 90%” of the standing crop have been impacted by rains. Ingin is quoted saying: “It is a total crop failure for the farmers this year in the region. There’s nothing left that the growers could harvest.” According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), extreme weather events during the June to September monsoon season have “claimed at least 1,528 lives across India”, Press Trust of India reports. 

MORE ON INDIA

• Carbon Copy looks at the startups that are “betting on AI, satellites and new data streams” to “plug forecasting gaps”. 
• Scroll.in speaks to the women “grappl[ing] with trauma and anxiety” in India’s first rehabilitation village for people displaced by coastal erosion.
• Carbon Copy: “India to release updated climate plan ‘during, or just ahead’ of Brazil COP in November.”

New government figures show that renewable energy sources reached a record share of the UK’s electricity for April, May and June, reports the Press Association. Wind, solar, hydro and bioenergy together accounted for 54.5% of the country’s generation over the quarter, it adds. This marks a 2.8% increase on the same period in 2024, driven in part by a 10% increase in offshore wind generation and a 27% increase in solar output, the article notes. BusinessGreen reports that, in 2024, 74% of the country’s generation came from renewables and nuclear, “putting the government on track to cement the UK’s status as ‘clean-energy superpower’ and deliver a predominantly clean electricity grid by 2030”.

MORE ON UK: 

• BBC News covers a warning from the Wildlife Trusts that the UK is “shockingly underprepared” for changing weather patterns caused by climate change.
• The climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph reports that the UK has the “highest electricity prices in the developed world”. (Gas, not renewables, is the biggest driver of energy prices, as noted by Carbon Brief.)
• Bloomberg covers estimates from Cornwall Insight that energy bills will fall at the beginning of 2026, but this will be “short-lived” due to the “cost of decarbonising and maintaining the grid”.
• DeSmog reports that the UK’s largest oil and gas trade body Offshore Energies has “criticised Reform UK’s plans to ‘turn off the tap’ on renewable energy”.
• BusinessGreen covers government plans to expand the installation of solar panels on hospitals and schools.

A comment piece in the Guardian by Bill McGuire, a retired professor of geophysical and climate hazards, argues that, while “green measures and net-zero policy are being ditched…in the name of ‘pragmatism’”, without emissions cuts we are in “deep, deep trouble”. The “hope” that followed the signing of the Paris Agreement “has long gone”, global warming has “accelerated” and the world has “turned its back” on measures to tackle this, he writes. McGuire points to North Sea oil and gas approvals and airport expansions in the UK, as well as targets being “watered down” in the EU and Trump’s “tireless” efforts in the US to “erase all and any climate initiatives”. He argues that the excuse most often used for “turning away from green measures, for expanding fossil-fuel production, for ignoring the science, is pragmatism”, calling this approach “dangerous drivel”. McGuire concludes: “The truth is that on a rapidly heating planet, a pragmatic approach means that we are playing Russian roulette with all six barrels loaded. The only question is just how big a mess we will make when we pull the trigger.”

MORE IN COMMENT:

• The Guardian’s Australia environment and climate correspondent Graham Readfearn argues that News Corp has embraced the “fantasy genre” by turning the “climate crisis into ‘laughable’ science fiction”. 
• Semafor’s climate and energy editor Tim McDonnell writes that “[New York] Climate Week revealed the energy challenges ahead”.

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Molly Lempriere, with contributions from Aruna Chandrasekhar, Henry Zhang and Anika Patel. It was edited by Leo Hickman.

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