Oil major Shell has pledged to roughly halve the carbon footprint of each megajoule of energy it uses or sells by 2050, report the Guardian, Reuters and Financial Times. It has an interim target of 20% by 2035. The target is similar to one put forward by shareholder activists at the firm’s AGM earlier this year, and defeated by the board, the Guardian notes. Shell is to spend $1-2bn on wind power, biofuels and electric cars each year during 2018-2020, which the Guardian says represents a doubling of an earlier plan to invest $1bn by 2020 in the firm’s “new energies” division. The article notes this remains a “small fraction” of the company’s planned $25-30bn annual investment. Shell says hydrocarbons will remain at the heart of its business over the next two decades. The firm has a target to generate $25-30bn in annual cash flow by 2020, reports the Financial Times, which says Shell will “slightly reduce” the proportion of its investment allocated to conventional oil and gas projects, raising its “new energy” budget to $1-2bn, from $1bn previously. The firm says its new energies division will be one of its main growth engines, targeting returns of 8-9%, reports Reuters, citing Shell’s chief financial officer.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) opened a public meeting in West Virginia yesterday on plans to roll back the Obama administration’s signature climate change policy, the Clean Power Plan, reports the New York Times, which notes that more than 270 people signed up to speak at the hearing. The single public hearing, required as part of the repeal process, was held in the heart of coal country in West Virginia, a move described to the New York Times by one commentator as: “like holding the only hearing on financial deregulation at the Wall Street Hilton — it does not denote a keen interest in alternative views”. The two-day hearing, spread over three meeting rooms to accommodate the number of people wishing to speak, is not being attended by EPA chief Scott Pruitt. Health groups, environmentalists and a former coal miner were among those criticising the repeal plan, reports Reuters, which adds that the hearing also heard from many coal supporters. Bloomberg also covers the hearing. Separately, Bloomberg reports on efforts by the Trump administration’s temporary head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to push through subsidies for coal power before he is replaced. A further Bloomberg article explains how the plan “will raise people’s power bills”.

The UK government is “actively working” on a way to support new onshore wind schemes, climate minister Claire Perry told the House of Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy select committee yesterday, reports BusinessGreen. Perry said onshore wind is “absolutely a part of the future” despite a manifesto commitment to rule out new projects in England. EU state aid rules mean the government is unable to auction contracts limited by geography, but officials are working on a way around the problem, Perry said: “I am working on ways with the team to see how we might bring forward onshore wind, particularly for areas in the UK that want to deploy it, because… I think it is an important part of the mix.” Perry also told MPs the government was committed to phasing out coal by 2025, despite having yet to set out a clear policy to ensure it happens.

Some 16% of cars sold worldwide will be electric vehicles by 2025, according to analysts at UBS, reports Bloomberg. Sales would hit 16.5m per year by the middle of the 2020s, up from 1m per year today. in the UK, sales of alternative fuel vehicles, including EVs and hybrids, could overtake diesel sales as early as 2019, according to analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, based on recent trends in sales that have seen diesels fall by 20% year on year with alternative fuel sales rising by 40-60%.

Norway’s $1tn sovereign wealth fund may take five years to reduce its investments in energy companies, once it adopts a policy to drop oil and gas companies from its equity index, reports Reuters.The move has to be reviewed by Norway’s finance ministry – due to provide its view by autumn 2018 – and by a vote in the country’s parliament, which would come in June 2019 at the earlier, Reuters adds. Oil and gas stocks represent 6% of the fund, or around $37bn.

Green energy and support for low-income households add £90 (9%) to average household energy bills, says an article on p49 of today’s Daily Mail, countering claims from Centrica boss Iain Conn that the figure will rise to £200 next year. “Every time energy firms hike prices they blame punitive green taxes imposed by the Government,” the article begins. “Just last week British Gas said the levies will add £200 to your bill by next year. ” The article goes on to quote the Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy saying it “does not recognise” this figure, instead pointing to the £90 calculated by energy regulator Ofgem. The article also cites figures from the Committee on Climate Change, which estimates low-carbon and social levies add £140 to bills, rising to £174 by 2020 and only reaching £205 in 2030.

“The most encouraging aspect of the government’s industrial strategy…is its strong focus on low-carbon production”, writes Jay Hambro in an article for the Telegraph. Hambro is chief executive of commodity firm SIMEC Energy, which plans to convert the Uskmouth coal plant in Wales to use biomass and is a shareholder in the planned Swansea Bay tidal lagoon. Hambro also works for metals group GFG Alliance, which is aiming to produce low-carbon “greensteel” using recycled scrap.

Rising temperatures could dramatically affect the yields of key crops in the south west of the US by 2050, a new study finds. By the middle of the century, heat stress from global warming is expected to reduce cotton and maize yields in the region by 37 and 27%, respectively, the research shows. “Our results contradict the notion that the warmest counties cultivating field crops will be the most impacted,” the researchers say. “Rather, future temperature, total crop area and crop sensitivity contribute to more complex county-level impacts.”