The Trump administration has “outlined a coordinated plan to revive the mining and burning of coal, the largest contributor to climate change worldwide”, the New York Times reports. It says the US interior department announced that it would open 13.1m acres of federal land for coal mining and reduce royalty rates for companies extracting the fossil fuel. The newspaper adds that the Department of Energy said it would offer $625m to upgrade coal plants around the country. Bloomberg says these announcements “mark the latest effort by the Trump administration to steer US energy policy to help ensure coal remains part of the US electricity mix” – despite warnings about the climate and cost impacts. The outlet says it is “unclear whether the new initiatives will meaningfully alter the trajectory of coal, which has declined for years”. The Guardian says that reviving coal has been a “priority of [Trump’s] second term amid increasing energy demand due to the proliferation of artificial intelligence data centers”. 

MORE ON US 

• The Washington Post reports that the US will avoid direct impacts from Tropical Storm Imelda after it was tempered by Hurricane Humberto in the Atlantic.
• The Los Angeles Times says that Tesla has “urged” the US Environmental Protection Agency to “preserve a key climate finding”. Elsewhere, the New York Times reports on the “new era” of lower electric vehicle sales in the US. 
• A report from Bloomberg Intelligence finds that soaring electricity demand “will drive a $350bn nuclear spending boom in the US”, according to Bloomberg. 
• Bloomberg says that California governor Gavin Newsom is shifting his approach and “court[ing] big oil” after “leading a yearslong crusade against fossil fuels”.
• Activists who “sued the US government in 2015 for promoting fossil fuel policies and failing to protect them from climate change” are going to an international tribunal for review, according to Inside Climate News.

The UK Labour party is fighting against a “global network of rightwing billionaires” who are undermining net-zero plans for their own “vested interests”, the energy secretary Ed Miliband tells the Guardian. The newspaper adds: “[Miliband] said that the Conservatives and Reform UK were ‘importing a net-zero culture war’ and that accelerating the green transition would be key to winning the argument with the public.” The Guardian says Miliband is due to announce a target of creating 400,000 clean-energy jobs in a speech at the ongoing Labour party conference later today. Speaking at the conference yesterday, chancellor Rachel Reeves “step[ped] up attacks on Reform and hail[ed] Labour’s support for new nuclear, carbon capture and rail projects”, BusinessGreen reports, but made “no mention of wider climate and net-zero strategy”. Also at the conference, the Daily Telegraph says that the energy security minister Michael Shanks accused the Scottish National Party of “blocking” an expansion of nuclear power. Meanwhile, BBC News reports that a Labour MP says the government “should fit solar panels to ‘pensioner bungalows’ as part of a strategy to combat Reform UK”.

MORE ON UK

• Great Britain’s electricity demand was “fully covered” by clean-energy sources for a record 87 hours this year, the Times reports, based on analysis from Carbon Brief. 
• Prime minister Keir Starmer should attend the COP30 climate summit to show that “there is still climate leadership”, the UK’s former climate minister Kerry McCarthy tells Politico.
• New research shows that biomethane – “gas derived from farm waste” – is not a suitable alternative to the “widespread adoption of heat pumps…despite the claims of fossil fuel lobbyists”, the Guardian says. 
• BusinessGreen reports that construction of the UK’s first “large-scale heat transmission system” will begin in 2028, “paving the way” for low-carbon heat in an estimated 300,000 London homes from 2032.
• Several “green aviation” projects have been awarded £4.4m in UK government funding, BusinessGreen says.

Reuters reports that at least 19 people have been killed and 21 are still missing after Typhoon Bualoi hit Vietnam, becoming the “most devastating storm” to impact the country this year. The newswire says that the typhoon landed in the northern central part of the country on Monday, “bringing huge sea swells, strong winds and downpours”. At least 88 people have been injured and more than 100,000 houses damaged, Reuters adds. The Associated Press reports that the typhoon “weaken[ed] to a tropical storm” that moved into Laos on Monday. It adds that Bualoi “had already caused at least 20 deaths in the Philippines since Friday”. BBC News notes: “Climate change has exacerbated extreme weather, with typhoons becoming stronger and more frequent.”

MORE ON EXTREME WEATHER 

• Two people were killed in Cuba as Tropical Storm Imelda “dropped heavy rain in the northern Carribean”, the Associated Press reports.
• Researchers have found that major capital cities around the world now experience 25% more extremely hot days each year than in the 1990s, the Guardian reports.
• A wildfire that “raged through” one-third of a national park in Namibia has been brought under control, the Guardian says.

EU criticism of China’s new climate pledges “shows ‘double standards and selective blindness’”, China’s foreign ministry tells Reuters, in response to EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra’s comments that China’s target is “disappointing”. According to the newswire, China says “such rhetoric disrupts” global climate cooperation, adding that “that is what is truly ‘disappointing’”. The newswire also says China “called on the EU to change…its habit of talking loud but acting small” on climate. An editorial in state-run newspaper China Daily reacts to Hoekstra’s “irresponsible remarks”, arguing that the EU’s performance as a “climate leader” has “been uneven and increasingly under strain”. The state-supporting Global Times argues in an editorial that with “many of Europe’s once-ambitious climate goals” being abandoned, the world has “warmly welcomed” China’s target. Reference News translates a South China Morning Post article saying that “China and Europe have opportunities for cooperation” on low-carbon technology, but “criticising China’s industrial policies cannot help Europe progress”. 

MORE ON CHINA

• The Financial Times reports battery manufacturer CATL is sending thousands of workers to build “cutting-edge” battery factories in Spain, which the newspaper says “has raised questions about CATL’s willingness to share its industrial secrets to the benefit of local people and businesses”. In response, a Global Times editorial argues that the move highlights “green industrial chain collaboration”, adding that “European media should abandon narrow-minded perspectives” on CATL’s decision.
• China, Japan and South Korea signed a “joint action plan for environmental cooperation” up until 2030, China News reports.
• China has built the world’s “largest water conservancy infrastructure system”, ensuring “flood control…and ecological security”, 21st Century Business Herald says.
• China’s plan to reduce oil-refining capacity faces challenges from “wily [independent] teapot operators”, with estimates that only 60m tonnes will be closed by 2030, Bloomberg says.
• Gansu Daily reports that the world’s “largest coal-fired power plant carbon capture demonstration project” has officially started commercial operations in China.
• An article on the front page of People’s Daily’s print edition quotes Zhang Xiliang, director of the Institute of Energy, Environment and Economy at Tsinghua University, saying that China needs to align its national carbon market with “dual control of carbon”, introduce “paid allocation of allowances” and strengthen management of carbon-market registration and trading institutions.

Countries that are “most vulnerable to global warming” are “worried” about their ability to take part in the COP30 climate talks in Belém, Brazil this November, Bloomberg reports. The outlet says that “representatives of developing and at-risk countries say they’re considering scaling back their presence” amid limited and expensive accommodation options. Looking ahead to COP31, the Guardian reports that Turkey says it is working on “innovative solutions” in its “race” with Australia to be the host of next year’s climate talks. Meanwhile, Reuters reports on the number of leaders from developing countries who told wealthier countries last week “that they are falling far short of promises to fund measures to combat rising sea levels, droughts and deforestation”. The newswire notes that developed countries “have struggled to meet climate-finance commitments”. It adds that Marshall Islands president Hilda Heine told the UN general assembly: “It is past time for the rich world to meet its obligations and get money to where it’s needed most.” 

The Financial Times’ China correspondent Edward White writes in the newspaper about how “as electricity becomes the new oil the developing world may be a forerunner in co-operating with China”. He says it is “clear” from visiting a truck factory and interviewing analysts that “diesel trucks in China are heading down the same path that cars with internal combustion engines have gone down over the past few years”. He notes that a “rapid displacement of diesel trucks” is underway, and that “similar shifts” are being seen in solar panels, wind turbines and batteries. He writes: “This is offering hope to many countries to reduce – perhaps one day eradicate – a reliance on oil, petroleum and diesel imports while giving China opportunities to deepen its geopolitical influence.” 

MORE COMMENT 

• William Becker writes in the Hill: “Climate change is eroding our quality of life and Trump is making it worse.” 
• In Bloomberg, opinion columnist Liam Denning writes about how “energy affordability offers a viable, if tricky, line of attack on Republicans” in the US. 

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