The UK government is considering proposals to speed up the roll-out of renewable energy, cut emissions and increase energy security, the Independent reports. However, the paper warns that energy prices could also rise as a result. It says: “At the moment, renewable energy projects are awarded so-called contracts for difference (CfD) based purely on who can build at the lowest price. The system has been seen as a major success story, helping to reduce the price of new offshore wind power by nearly 70% in just seven years to less than £40 per megawatt hour (MWh) for the cheapest projects…But the new system would allow the companies extra money if the projects compete on areas other than just price.” The Guardian says non-price factors could include “supply chain sustainability, addressing skills gaps, innovation and enabling system and grid flexibility”. It continues: “The move comes partially in response to the net zero review by the former energy minister Chris Skidmore and amid a global race to provide greater subsidies for renewables projects following Biden’s $369bn (£297bn) Inflation Reduction Act package.” Reuters adds that “under CfD, generators are guaranteed a fixed, pre-agreed price for the electricity they provide over the term of the contract and sell their low-carbon energy into the market”.

Elsewhere, the Guardian reports on an amendment to the energy bill currently going through the House of Lords, which would make it impossible to open new coalmines in England. According to the paper, the amendment reads: “Within six months of the day on which this act is passed, the secretary of state must by regulations prohibit the opening of new coalmines and the licensing of new coalmines by the Coal Authority or its successors.” The Independent says: “The House of Lords supported the Liberal Democrat-led move by 197 votes to 194, majority three.” It adds that the move “comes after levelling-up secretary Michael Gove approved what is set to be the first new coal mine in the UK in 30 years”. 

Elsewhere, the Financial Times covers a warning by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders that “the UK does not have a single dedicated charging point for electric lorries, making it ‘impossible’ for logistics companies to switch from diesel vehicles”. According to the paper, the motoring trade body has “called on the government to publish a strategy by early next year detailing the rollout of charging points for heavy goods vehicles and greater purchase incentives for battery-powered lorries”. The Guardian adds that there are fewer than 12 years until the first ban on diesel engines comes into force.

In other UK news, the Daily Telegraph carries a warning from the chancellor Jeremy Hunt that “Joe Biden’s flagship green energy policy risks plunging the world into the economic ‘dark ages’”. Hunt has “urged world leaders not to put up trade barriers,” the paper says. This comes as the Times warns “proposals for a £200m gigafactory making batteries in Scotland could be scrapped in favour of the US” thanks to subsidies offered under Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.

Environmental campaigners are suing the European Commission over its decision to include gas and nuclear in an EU guide to “green” investments, the Guardian reports. The paper continues: “Two separate legal challenges are being lodged on Tuesday at the European Union’s general court in Luxembourg – one by Greenpeace and another by a coalition including Client Earth and WWF…The cases are the latest legal action against the EU’s ‘taxonomy for environmentally sustainable economic activities’. Last year a lawsuit was launched by Austria and supported by Luxembourg.” According to Reuters, Greenpeace “argues that the EU has violated its own climate laws, citing the CO2 emissions produced by gas power plants, and said the rules risk diverting investments away from renewable energy”. Bloomberg also covers the story.

In other European news, Reuters reports that the European Parliament is holding its final vote today to decide “whether to approve sweeping reforms to make EU climate change policies more ambitious, including an upgrade of the bloc’s carbon market”. Meanwhile, the Financial Times carries a warning from the chief executive of one of the world’s leading chemical companies that “Europe will sabotage its chances of developing a green economy if it pushes ahead with proposals to ban so-called forever chemicals on health and safety grounds”. And the Financial Times has published a “big read” under the headline: “The farmers challenging the EU’s green agenda”.

“Numerous heat records have been broken across Southeast Asia, China and other parts of the continent in recent days,” the Washington Post reports. The paper says: “On Friday, Thailand surpassed 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45C) for the first time ever, topping out at 114 degrees (45.4C) in the town of Tak amid the country’s New Year’s celebration… Meanwhile, hundreds of weather stations across China have seen their warmest April temperatures on record”. This comes as the Independent reports that 11 people in India have died and hundreds have been hospitalised with heat stroke, following a “a massive, open air award function attended by thousands in western India”. Indian politician Feroze Varun Gandhi has written a comment piece in the Hindu arguing that “policymakers must take mitigatory action early, while instituting structural infrastructure measures to help Indians adapt”. Elsewhere, the Washington Post reports that “Washington is experiencing its warmest year on record to this point on the calendar”.

US brands will benefit the most from new US tax breaks on electric vehicles, which come into force tomorrow, the New York Times reports. The outlet says that only 10 vehicles will initially qualify for tax credits of $7,500 – less than one quarter of the batter-powered cars currently on sale in the US. It adds: “The rules give US carmakers at least a temporary advantage over competitors like Toyota, Volkswagen and Nissan. No foreign automakers were on the Treasury list, which is expected to grow as companies adjust their supply chains.” The Washington Post adds that an additional six models qualify for half of the tax credit amount. Meanwhile, Politico says Biden’s push for electric vehicles has spurred a “lobbying frenzy” driven by mineral and battery companies. EnergyMonitor reports that, although the US currently lags behind China in electric vehicle sales, “Biden’s ambitious pollution rules make the US a serious competitor in the EV race”.

In other US news, Bloomberg reports that “the Pentagon is sounding alarms over Biden administration plans to advance offshore wind projects along the central Atlantic US coast, warning that almost all of the new terrain eyed for development conflicts with military operations”. And the Wall Street Journal reports that Weyerhaeuser – America’s “most prolific logger” – is using “new climate math to court green investors, while cutting down as many trees as ever”.

China is “one of the countries with the fastest reduction in energy intensity” in the world, according to a report called “blue book on the development of China’s low-carbon economy (2022-2023)”, writes a Chinese news website Science and Technology Daily. The report is jointly released by the China Petroleum Enterprise Association and the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. It says that, in 2022, the energy consumption per unit of GDP in China decreased by 0.1% compared to the previous year and CO2 emissions per unit of GDP decreased by 0.8%. Since 2012, the country has achieved an average annual economic growth rate of 6.6% with an average annual energy consumption growth rate of 3%, while the energy consumption per unit of GDP has decreased by 26.4%, the blue book highlights. It points out that China has built the world’s “largest” clean power generation system with wind, solar, hydro and biomass power generation with capacity “all ranking first” globally. 

Meanwhile, China will promote the grid connection and production of the “gigantic” wind and solar bases in the Gobi desert and other arid regions in 2023, says a guideline released by China’s National Energy Administration (NEA), reports Xinhua. The country’s top energy regulator says that the installed capacity of wind and photovoltaics in China will increase by about 160GW (gigawatts) throughout the year, adds the state-supporting newswire. Citing industry insiders, Xinhua says that the cost of photovoltaic power generation is expected to decrease in the future. Chinese energy website IN-EN.com reports one of the first batch of national pilot projects for climate investment and financing will start in the city of Shenzhen in south China. The article stresses that “integrating policy incentives and [utilising] financial leverage to maximise their impact” is the key to “implementation of climate investment and financing in large-scale”.

Elsewhere, the state-run industry newspaper China Energy News carries the views of Du Xiangwan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, who says that “energy conservation and efficiency improvement are the top priorities of China’s energy strategy”. Financial Times Chinese carries a comment piece by Lauri Myllyvirta, co-founder and lead analyst of the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. He writes that China’s installed capacity of clean energy has reached a “new high”, while the number of newly built coal-fired power plants has also “significantly” increased. China will achieve carbon peaking and this might happen in 2024 when the growth of clean energy exceeds the growth of energy demand, he adds.

Finally, the state broadcaster CGTN writes that Arjin Mountains, a large “uninhabited” area in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, has been “getting warmer and wetter over the past 30 years due to climate change”, quoting Chen Xi, head of the Xinjiang Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). 

There is continuing coverage in the UK media of the decision to rename the Brecon Beacons. The Independent says “the park’s management claimed the association with a wood-burning, carbon-emitting blazing beacon was ‘not a good look’ as the name was dropped in favour of its Welsh counterpart Bannau Brycheiniog”. However, it adds that senior Tory leadership have criticised the attempt to look “trendy”, saying it could “‘undermine’ the region’s international identity”. The Daily Telegraph says Downing Street has weighed in, warning that the public will reject the name change. “Woke officials changed the name over bizarre fears it made a mockery of efforts to curb emissions,” the Sun says in its coverage of the story. An editorial in the Sun calls the name change “pointless”, “woke” and “virtue-signalling”. Elsewhere, author Harry Mount has written a full-page comment piece in the Daily Mail under the headline: “Infantilising claptrap! Renaming the Brecon Beacons because the name clashes with the climate change agenda is a victory for woke philistines”. An editorial in the Daily Telegraph says the move is “PR pandering”, while Jamie Blackett writes in the Daily Telegraph that the Brecon Beacons “has become a frontier for cultural Marxism”. And the Welsh former BBC broadcaster John Humphrys has written a piece trailed on the frontpage of the Daily Telegraph under the headline: “The pointless name change of the Brecon Beacons won’t save the planet.”

In other UK news, the Guardian reports that the World Snooker Championship was disrupted by a Just Stop Oil activist, who poured a packet of orange powder paint over a table on Monday evening. The Daily Telegraph carries the story on its frontpage. The Independent and Politico also cover the story.

Finally, a frontpage “exclusive” story in the Daily Express reports that this could be “one of the worst seasons on record for birch pollen” as climate change makes hay fever season longer.

So far Chinese EV year-on-year sales growth has “slowed dramatically” compared with 2021 and 2022, writes the Financial Times Lex column. As the maker of most of the world’s electric vehicles, China “controls battery supply chains”, it says, despite lacking “large domestic deposits of lithium-bearing minerals.” As a result, slowing EV sales in China have hit battery demand and spot prices for lithium carbonate – a condition that may be improved by an economic recovery in China, the column suggests, “though the speculative frenzy has probably ended”.

In the Guardian, columnist Zoe Williams writes that her “U-turn” on low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) was prompted when she “woke up one day to find myself on the same side as Laurence Fox”. She adds that in her own LTN, her car use declined “precipitously”, and that reports of lower traffic, improved air quality and disease prevention, “did sound plausible”. Meanwhile, Jerome Roos, a fellow in international political economy at the London School of Economics, conducts an appraisal of global crises in the New York Times. Roos writes: “[A] major European land war that has uprooted millions and unleashed a global energy crisis is now inadvertently accelerating the shift to renewable energy.”

Methane emissions from US oil and gas fields over 2010-19 were 70% higher than reported by the US Environmental Protection Agency, new research finds. The authors use surface and satellite observations of atmospheric methane to determine emission trends for individual oil and gas production regions in North America, and relate them to production and infrastructure. They find that emissions in Canada and Mexico decreased over 2010-19, but in the US, emissions increased from 2010 to 2014, decreased until 2017, and rose again afterward. The paper adds that the “methane intensity” – the proportion of methane gas that leaks into the atmosphere – decreased from 3.7% in 2010 to 2.5% in 2019. “If the methane intensity for the oil/gas supply chain continues to decrease at this pace, we may expect a 32% decrease in US oil/gas emissions by 2030 despite projected increases in production,” the authors conclude.