US president Donald Trump has urged his own government – specifically the US Department of Energy – to “drill, baby, drill”, adding “I mean now”, in a post on his Truth Social platform, Reuters reports. It adds that US energy secretary Chris Wright responded: “We’re on it!” The newswire reports that, in another post, Trump wrote in all caps: “Everyone, keep oil prices down, I’m watching! You’re playing into the hands of the enemy, don’t do it.” The comments come “amid fears that the aftermath of the US attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities could cause energy prices to spike” due to disruption of oil and gas flows from the Middle East, the article explains. Yet, as the newswire notes, US oil production already reached record highs during the Biden administration. Moreover, as Axios points out, the Department of Energy does not control how much oil is drilled – “private companies do that, though federal regulations, trade policies, leasing and other federal decisions can affect production”. It adds that US fossil-ful output growth has, in fact, “stagnated this year amid producers’ caution during a stretch of lower prices before the conflict”. Bloomberg says that, with the industry “wary of false starts”, US oil companies “are likely to use hedging contracts to lock in revenue for future output rather than spend heavily on new drilling”. The article says that these producers have been scaling back amid a “slump” in prices triggered by concerns about Trump’s threats of global tariffs. Meanwhile, a “spike in energy costs could prove especially difficult for American consumers and businesses this summer, given that it could arrive at about the same time that Mr Trump plans to revive his expansive, steep tariffs on nearly every US trading partner,” the New York Times reports. “Frackers have no immediate plans to pump more crude,” according to the Wall Street Journal. It adds that there is a “long list of factors” behind this, “from a global economic slowdown to pressure from tariffs and a wave of new crude supplies inundating already well-sated markets”. 

So far, CNBC reports that the oil market has been “largely unfazed” by the US attack on Iran, “with futures trading largely flat through much of Monday morning”. Axios says “crude oil prices jumped – but didn’t head for the stratosphere”. In the latest news, the Associated Press reports that Trump has claimed Israel and Iran have agreed to a “complete and total ceasefire”. However, it adds that the status of this ceasefire is unclear, with Israel reporting continued missiles from Iran. Nevertheless, the news has prompted a drop in oil prices, the Times reports. Writing in the Financial Times, Amrita Sen, director of research and co-founder at Energy Aspects, says the latest developments “could very well be the catalyst for higher prices in the coming years as Iranian production declines just as other sources of supply peak”.

Energy bills in the UK could almost triple to £4,500 a year if Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz in the wake of the US bombing the nation’s nuclear sites, according to a warning from financial services firm Stifel covered by the i newspaper. The shipping lane in the Gulf is “one of the world’s most strategically important trade routes”, where about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) passes through, the newspaper explains. Analysts at Stifel say that, if LNG production from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates is disrupted, it “risks a repeat of 2022’s energy crisis [after Russia invaded Ukraine], just worse the second time around”, the article notes. The Times also covers the analysis and quotes Chris Wheaton, an analyst at Stifel, who says the company is “much more worried about European gas prices than we are about oil prices”. While Iran’s parliament has voted in favour of blocking the strait, in the past the nation has never carried through on these threats, the newspaper notes. It explains that the move would likely hurt Iran’s allies, such as Qatar, more than it would harm the US. BBC News has an explainer article titled: “Strait of Hormuz: What happens if Iran shuts global oil corridor?” CNBC has an article about “how high oil could go”, if Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz. The Financial Times reports that oil majors such as BP and Eni have begun evacuating staff from Iraq amid fears that Iran may begin bombing energy infrastructure in the region.

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that, while launching her government’s “long-awaited industrial strategy” yesterday, UK chancellor Rachel Reeves has called for “de-escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, warning that rising global oil prices could hit the UK economy”. A key measure in the new strategy is a plan to cut electricity bills for the most energy-intensive businesses, the newspaper notes. BBC News reports that, because the government plans to exempt thousands of businesses from some “green energy levies”, the Conservatives are using the opportunity to criticise the Labour government’s net-zero policies. It quotes acting shadow energy secretary Andrew Bowie, who says Labour is “finally admitting” the “high” cost of net-zero. In fact, as the Times reports, clean energy is one of the eight “high-growth” sectors identified in the new strategy. The government wants to at least double investment in the sector to more than £30bn a year by 2035, specifically targeting wind power, nuclear power, carbon capture and storage (CCS), hydrogen and heat pumps, the newspaper says. According to BusinessGreen, the government has confirmed an extra £700m in funding for the state-backed firm Great British Energy to boost its investment in domestic clean-energy manufacturing facilities and supply chains. BusinessGreen also covers the “near universally warm welcome” that the industrial strategy has received.

Separately, the Financial Times reports on more warnings that the UK’s bioethanol industry – including a proposed £250m investment in a “green fuels superhub” – will be threatened by a new UK trade pact with the US, unless the government intervenes. The May agreement “offered US ethanol producers a 1.4bn litre tariff-free quota, equivalent to the entire UK’s annual demand for bioethanol”. Finally, the i newspaper reports that the UK government may count some of its spending on “net-zero projects” towards a Nato target to spend 5% of the UK’s income on “national security”.

The Trump administration in the US has announced plans to “open up” 58m acres of national forests to road construction and development, the New York Times reports. The move eliminates protections that have been in place since 2001 and have “preserved the wild nature of nearly a third of the land in national forests”. The so-called “roadless rule” has meant that mining, logging and roadbuilding could not take place across swathes of forest, according to the Los Angeles Times. In a statement, US Department of Agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins described the rule as outdated and overly restrictive, arguing among other things that without it the federal government will be able to manage fire risk better, the newspaper notes. It adds that civil society groups pushed back against this argument, with one stating that expanding commercial logging “exacerbates climate change, increasing the intensity of wildfires”. Reuters says the move aligns with Trump’s goal to “lift environmental regulations that he says are roadblocks to industry”.

In more US news, the Hill reports that Republican Senate majority leader John Thune is “moving full-speed ahead” towards a vote this week on his chamber’s version of Trump’s tax and spending bill, which would scale back tax credits for energy projects. This is despite “pushback” and “misgivings” from Republican colleagues about its harmful impact on renewable energy developments, the article explains. Senate Republicans are “scrambling to rewrite” major parts of the bill, according to Politico. Republicans are “poised to include billions of dollars in benefits for the oil and gas industry” in the bill, reports Inside Climate News.

The Associated Press covers polling that suggests support for clean energy and tax credits for renewables has fallen in recent years. Amid the rollback of tax incentives and policy uncertainties under the Trump administration, Bloomberg reports on analysis that finds businesses cancelled or delayed more than $1.4bn in new factories and clean-energy projects in May, bringing the total this year to $15.5bn. The article notes that Republican districts were “hardest hit”. Meanwhile, Ford has announced that it is committed to opening an electric-car battery plant in Michigan, even if the Trump administration makes the project ineligible for tax incentives, according to the New York Times.

China’s National Meteorological Centre (NMC) has warned of heatwaves in northern China, with temperatures in some regions expected to exceed 40C, reports the state-supporting Global Times newspaper, adding that southern provinces are expected to “experience torrential downpours and flood risks”. State news agency Xinhua reports that floods triggered by “days of torrential rains” have forced more than 400 students to evacuate their lodgings in southern China’s Guangxi province. Weather China carries an article saying that “heavy rain and high temperatures will remain the main weather theme” for this week in China. 

Meanwhile, China’s installations of solar power surged in May, reaching a “new monthly record” of 93 gigawatts (GW), “four times more than in the same period in 2024”, according to data released by the National Energy Administration (NEA), reports Bloomberg. The surge comes as solar companies “rushed to finish projects” before the start of renewable price reforms in June, the outlet says. It also notes that 26GW of wind power and 4.6GW of thermal power were added in May, according to the NEA. The Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily reports that the surge of China’s wind and solar industries are not only a “testament to the country’s own unwavering energy transition”, but also reflect its “outward-looking vision to foster global green transformation”. State-run newspaper China Daily reports that “waste-to-energy” has been carried out in China to create a “zero-waste city”, providing “clean electricity” to residents and reducing carbon emissions.

Stephane Sejourne, the EU’s commissioner for industrial strategy, says that the EU should “create joint reserves of rare earths to prevent supply chain disruptions and economic blackmail from China” while promoting “alternative raw material sources”, reports Reuters. China Daily says that Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers are “ramping up investment” in Africa. Bloomberg reports that the prices of cobalt, a metal used in batteries, have “surged” in China following the Democratic Republic of Congo’s extension of its cobalt export ban. 

Finally, Bloomberg reports that China’s “coal glut is resulting in an increasing number of unwanted cargoes being offered abroad”, with Japan, Indonesia and South Korea among the top destinations.

Negotiations around new EU rules to tackle corporate “greenwashing” can no longer continue after Italy withdrew its support for the bill, according to Politico. The move means a “landmark EU law clamping down on companies making misleading environmental claims is all but dead”, the outlet adds. Italy’s decision follows a “confusing series of announcements from the European Commission” which suggested the commission itself would withdraw its proposal last week, then stated its support for the proposal, the article explains. A separate Politico article goes some way to explaining the commission’s behaviour, stating that one of the EU’s climate leads, Teresa Ribera, “fought a running battle inside the European Commission over recent days to try to salvage an effort to stamp out corporate greenwashing”. Reuters says the commission had argued that the policy would overburden small companies. It describes the move as the latest attempt to “weaken or simplify [the EU’s] green agenda, as the EU attempts to contain a political backlash against ambitious environmental policies, and to slim down regulation for struggling industries”.

In France, lawmakers from hard-right and conservative parties have amended an energy-planning bill to include a moratorium on new solar and wind projects, reports Bloomberg. This has prompted a warning from energy company Engie SA that such a move would threaten €5bn ($5.8bn) of solar and wind projects that the firm is considering over the next decade, the article notes. Meanwhile, Spanish power utilities lobby Aelec has blamed the grid operator’s “poor planning” for the recent blackout, “rejecting the earlier [grid operator] REE claim that power plants were responsible”, says Reuters.

Reporting from the UN climate talks in Bonn, Climate Home News says a series of consultations last week into a “roadmap to boost climate finance for developing countries” revealed that “governments have yet to align on its contents”. The “Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.3T” was launched at the COP29 climate summit at the end of last year and is meant to chart a path for mobilising $1.3tn a year by 2035, the article explains. The Azerbaijan and Brazil presidency teams are drafting the roadmap, but this will mean “reconciling widely divergent views among countries about what sources of finance the roadmap should draw on – and what form the money should come in”, says the outlet. (Carbon Brief’s journalists arrived in Bonn yesterday for the second week of negotiations and will be following the talks closely.)

Meanwhile, South Africa’s national treasury has announced that the World Bank has granted the nation a $1.5bn loan to upgrade its transportation infrastructure and “help it transition toward a low-carbon economy”, according to the Associated Press. In other news, South Africa’s state-owned Public Investment Corporation and UK development finance institution British International Investment (BII) have “formed a partnership to boost investment in African infrastructure”, Reuters reports. The article says the partnership is intended to “mobilise private capital in Africa at scale to expand climate funding”, it adds. (As Carbon Brief has reported, BII has drawn criticism for maintaining investments in African fossil-fuel projects.) Speaking at the launch of the US-Africa Business Summit, Angolan president Joao Lourenco has called on US companies to expand their investments in Africa “beyond traditional oil and mineral extraction to industries such as automobiles, shipbuilding, tourism, cement and steel”, reports Bloomberg.

Carl Pope, who was the executive director of the Sierra Club, a major US conservation charity, from 1992 to 2010, writes in the New York Times about his biggest “regret” during his “50 years in the environmental movement”. He states: “I decided [in 2005] the organisation should largely ignore methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and focus on carbon dioxide, the most prevalent heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere and a byproduct of burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. My colleagues and I understood that methane, which comes from man-made and natural sources, would eventually have to be curbed to slow climate change. But the data suggested that it was a relatively minor contributor to global warming and could wait. And so I neglected methane for decades, as did many climate regulators, activists and negotiators. It wasn’t until three years ago that I came to see the gravity of my mistake: that methane is an urgent problem and that one source of it is a relatively low-hanging fruit in the fight against climate change.” He continues: “I now believe that cleaning up methane leaks from the production and shipping of oil and gas – one of the most significant sources of these emissions – is the best hope we have to avoid triggering some of the most consequential climate tipping points in the next decade. I think realistically it is our only hope.”

Writing in the Guardian, financial editor Nils Pratley compares the UK government’s industrial strategy with the previous Conservative government’s industrial strategy from 2017. “The big difference…was supposed to be the latter’s emphasis on reducing the sky-high cost of electricity for UK industry. Does it deliver?” he asks. Pratley says the strategy is “more like a sketch of a plan” on this score, noting that measures to cut energy bills will not come in until 2027 and only target a fraction of UK businesses. Plus, he notes that the costs of “net-zero levies” will have to be funded, pointing to the uncertainty in relying on carbon pricing to raise funds which the government says it partly will. “None of which is to deny the basic logic of trying to remove renewable levies for key non-domestic users. We need those companies to survive the costs of energy transition and contribute to the running of the system in the future,” he writes. Climate-sceptic energy consultant Kathryn Porter claims in the Daily Telegraph that Labour’s plan to lower energy bills is “working off a deluded trust in net-zero”.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg columnist Lara Williams has an article about the UK’s burgeoning carbon capture sector, which speculates that this could be the “next industrial frontier” for the nation. She concludes by noting that UK wealth is highly concentrated in London and that expanding carbon dioxide (CO2) removal could address this. “Putting investment and energy into leading a new global industry with regionally diverse jobs will help change that,” she concludes.

Climate anxiety is most likely to affect young people, women and those with “left-wing” views, according to a meta-analysis of 94 studies. The analysis draws on studies involving more than 170,000 people in 27 countries. It also finds that climate anxiety is negatively associated with wellbeing, but positively associated with climate action. The authors add: “Implications for supporting vulnerable groups, channeling climate change anxiety into action and recommendations for future research are discussed.”