“Only two bidders” took part in the Trump administration’s auction for drilling leases in the Arctic national wildlife refuge, reports Bloomberg. The outlet says “big oil companies sat out the sale”, which it says was a “key test of the oil industry’s appetite to drill in the rugged frozen tundra”. The New York Times says the auction ended with “just nine bids covering only about 10% of the available land, undercutting President Trump’s claims that drilling in the pristine wilderness area would set off an economic boom”. It adds that nearly half of the $3.7m raised by the auction “came from the state of Alaska’s publicly owned economic development corporation”. The Hill says the “small number of bids and bidders also demonstrates limited corporate interest in drilling in the controversial spot”. Reuters calls the auction outcome “tepid”.

MORE ON US

• Al Jazeera says the Trump administration’s cancellation of wind projects has “raised questions about the predictability of the business and investment environment”.
• The Associated Press reports claims by the US Department of Energy that a prototype small nuclear reactor reached “criticality”. The newswire notes the Antares reactor is “years away from commercial use”.
• The Press Association reports comments by Trump calling countries that subsidise wind energy “stupid”. It adds that Trump has just announced $700m for coal power.
• An editorial in the Washington Post criticises the coal subsidy, arguing that there are “cheaper and more efficient energy sources” that emit less pollution.
• Reuters reports energy secretary Chris Wright saying that lower petrol prices will only appear once oil starts flowing through the strait of Hormuz. [The comments were made before today’s breakdown of the ceasefire.]

The EU is “developing plans to cut taxes on renewable energy and make electricity systems more flexible”, reports Bloomberg. Citing a draft document that it notes “may still change before adoption”, the outlet says the European Commission plans to introduce a regulation next month with “goals for smart meter adoption and tax changes designed to promote clean energy”. The publication adds: “The proposal is to be unveiled next month alongside an electrification strategy for the EU.”

MORE ON EU

• Euractiv previews proposals for reform of the EU carbon market: “With industry divided, EU climate officials are hoping to push through a tightening of the ETS.”
• Politico says the commission is “preparing new measures to prop up the EU’s chemicals industry” against a “wave of cheap Chinese imports”.
• The Financial Times says Eurozone fuel sales in April 2026 fell by the largest amount year-on-year since October 2023 after a surge in prices due to the Iran war.
• Bloomberg says the commission has “called on Spain to move away from using gas-fired power plants to stabilise its electricity system”.

UK prime minister Keir Starmer is “locked in eleventh-hour wrangling with ministers about cutting capital spending to fund a boost to the UK defence budget”, reports the Financial Times, adding that “energy and transport departments [are] likely to face the largest cuts”. The story, trailed on the newspaper’s frontpage, says: “Starmer has asked all government departments to reduce capital spending, such as infrastructure projects, by 1% to raise about £6bn by 2030, according to people briefed on the matter. But departments being targeted to make bigger cuts to their expenditure include Ed Miliband’s energy and net-zero department and Heidi Alexander’s transport department.” The Sunday Times says on its frontpage: “Starmer will target net-zero and transport as he looks for cuts to fund his flagship defence investment plan.” Further coverage in today’s Times, citing “one source”, says: “Starmer is preparing to cut spending on net-zero projects such as carbon capture and storage to pay for an increase in defence spending.”

MORE ON UK

• The Times reports: “[EU relations minister Nick] Thomas-Symonds revealed that the UK had begun negotiations for it to rejoin the EU internal market for electricity, which could cut bills for consumers and increase security of supply.”

• The Daily Telegraph says that Jürgen Maier, head of Great British Energy, is to step down after completing his two-year term in October.
• The Financial Times says Rolls-Royce is “under fire” for outsourcing parts of its planned small modular reactors, rather than using UK-based firms. BBC News says a new electric steel furnace in Port Talbot may be delayed.
• The Daily Telegraph reports claims that “households could spend around £1.4bn subsidising European electricity bills by 2030”, but quotes a government spokesperson saying this is “misleading”.
• The Times reports the long-standing views of Gary Smith, head of the GMB, under the headline: “Labour’s net-zero ‘madness’ is destroying jobs, union boss says.” The Daily Mail quotes him saying Labour energy policy “drive[s] our members to Reform”.
• BBC News and the i newspaper look at what councils led by the hard-right climate-sceptic Reform UK could mean for climate action.

The Guardian reports that “campaigners have urged the government to resist calls to further water down electric car sale rules” in light of analysis showing that “vehicles on UK roads will emit an extra 17m tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2030 mostly because of changes last year”. It says the “zero emission vehicle” (ZEV) mandate, which has already been “weakened”, is set for review by early 2027. BBC News reports: “A Labour MP [Steve Yemm] has said support is growing in the government to bring forward a review of the mandate for cars to be fully electric by 2035.” The Daily Express also covers Yemm’s comments. Meanwhile, the Press Association says that a “boost in demand for EVs drove the UK’s new car market to its strongest May” since 2019.

MORE ON EVs

• A Lex comment for the Financial Times is titled: “Expensive oil is making electric vehicles look positively cheap.”
• The Times reports: “Running a petrol car will cost twice as much as electric this year.”
• The Guardian says UK and EU car industries are “urging the European Commission to…suspend, for a second time, tariffs on imports of electric vehicles”.

China’s major solar-panel manufacturers are betting on “higher-margin battery exports to boost revenue” as sales growth in the solar sector slows amid “weaker domestic installations, slowing exports and record-low prices”, reports Reuters. The sector’s effort to pivot to new areas of growth, which includes space solar projects, follows a number of measures “over the last few years in an attempt to reduce output and set a price floor”, according to Bloomberg. The outlet quotes Zhu Gongshan, chairman of GCL Technology, saying that the “traditional concept of a standalone solar manufacturer will gradually fade as companies seek to capture growing demand for batteries, particularly from power-hungry data centres”. International Energy Net reports that the energy storage project supporting China’s largest single-site solar power base has begun operation, which will facilitate the annual consumption of more than 450 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of solar-generated electricity, reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 375,000 tonnes per year and enhance the region’s capacity to absorb renewable energy.

MORE ON CHINA

• Chinese premier Li Qiang has called for the country to adhere to “green development”, ensure energy security and promote ecological conservation, reports Xinhua.
• A new report finds that 30 Chinese provinces have all improved low-carbon performance over the past decade, says the Paper.
• Bloomberg reports that China’s oil imports “plunged in May to the lowest level in a decade and could languish for the coming months”.
• Xinhua says that “green transition” not only provides a “fundamental solution to environmental challenges”, but also injects “momentum” into economic growth.
• Climate Energy Finance’s Tim Buckley writes in China Daily that China’s decarbonisation is being accelerated to enhance “energy independence”. Xinhua says that “ecological conservation and economic progress are not competing goals, but mutually reinforcing ones”.
• Zimbabwe says a Chinese company plans to build a lithium carbonate plant in the country, reports Bloomberg. Reuters says that Chinese nickel companies are looking to build projects in Africa amid “rising policy pressure” from the Indonesian government.

Adam Tooze, FT contributing editor and author of the Chartbook newsletter, argues that it is “madness” for the world to be facing energy shortages in the wake of the effective closure of the strait of Hormuz, when solar-panel factories are not being used to their full potential. He says: “Consumers are calling out for alternatives to unreliable fossil fuels. And yet we are in a world of surplus solar panels. Let that sink in.” Tooze continues: “Chinese companies have the capacity to produce a vast 1,000 gigawatts of panels per annum…And yet factories are idling.” He runs through the “well-rehearsed arguments for discounting this dizzying state of affairs”, before concluding: “The clean electrotech revolution will triumph. Dirt-cheap solar panels and batteries are its shock troops. But mark 2026 as the moment when the world found itself with ‘more than enough’ solar panels and we shrugged.”

MORE IN COMMENT:

• In a comment for Forbes, Ingmar Rentzhog, CEO of media platform We Don’t Have Time, writes about clean energy “outspending fossil fuels nearly two to one”.
• A New York Times feature titled “searching for shade when it’s 125F [52C]” looks at life in the Dadu district of Pakistan, “prone to sandstorms, drought and flooding”.
• Sunday Times data editor Tom Calver questions data showing the UK’s “net-zero economy” is worth £100bn, saying this is “not to be sniffed at, but…worth digging into”.
• Time’s Justin Worland looks at how “climate disasters can fuel anti-establishment politics”.
• Financial Times associate editor Rana Foroohar says AI, clean-energy and defence spending could be driving a “new investment super-cycle”.
• Times contributing editor Cindy Yu says that the threat of climate change is “real”, but argues “clean green tech makes us dependent on Beijing”.

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Simon Evans, with contributions from Henry Zhang and Anika Patel. It was edited by Leo Hickman.

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