The UK government has released its industrial decarbonisation strategy, which sets out plans to cut the amount of CO2 from factories and other industrial processes by two-thirds within the next 15 years, Bloomberg reports. It notes that the strategy includes a goal for industry to switch 20 terawatt hours (TWh) of its energy from fossil fuels to low-carbon sources by 2030 – “the amount of power used to keep the lights on in all homes in Spain for a month”. The piece also adds that the government is “betting on the development of hydrogen to help replace fossil fuels, especially in energy intensive industries”. The Guardian reports that the strategy includes plans to spend more than £1bn cutting emissions from schools, hospitals and industry and encouraging the growth of new low-carbon technologies in the UK. It adds that this “does not represent new spending, but refers to already announced spending that is now being allocated to specific projects”. The newspaper says decarbonising steel will be a major challenge, stating that the government “wants steel-makers to reach net zero by 2035”, noting that this would imply phasing out coking coal – the type set to be produced at the controversial proposed coal mine in Cumbria – by at least that date. The Daily Telegraph picks up on the inclusion of a low-carbon “kitemark” on products to enable consumers to choose greener varieties. There are more details of the industrial decarbonisation strategy in BusinessGreen’s article, as well as criticism from the opposing Labour party, who compare the funding unfavourably to stimulus packages released by other nations.

Meanwhile, the i newspaper reports that green groups and businesses including Leon, Sainsbury’s and Ovo have this week written to environment minister Zac Goldsmith calling for the government’s tree-planting target to be made legally binding, as data shows “planting rates are falling far short of the ambition”. A frontpage story in the Yorkshire Post warns that climate change poses a “big threat” to the region, noting that the largest regional commission in the UK is being launched in part to shield Yorkshire “from another ‘brutal’ energy transition”.

Separately, the Times’s frontpage announces the launch of a new TimesEarth series in its Times2 supplement. It says the series “will tell you everything you need to know about climate change — and why 2021 is the year we can all play our part in reducing the UK’s carbon emissions”. It begins with an article by Lucy Siegle titled, “20 things you can do right now to stop climate change”.

Finally, the i newspaper has a piece looking at what the controversial new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, currently under consideration in parliament, would mean for the the future of climate change protest in the UK.

Climate change has taken centre stage in the UK prime minister Boris Johnson’s vision of “global Britain” after a government review of foreign policy placed climate as “the UK’s foremost international priority”, the Guardian reports. It says Johnson also told MPs that the UK would “lead by example”, encouraging nations to take on net-zero emissions targets and hosting the COP26 climate summit at the end of the year. The fact that the foreign policy assessment prioritises climate “will provide a boost to civil servants in the UK and in embassies around the globe, who have been stepping up the urgency of preparations for COP26”, the newspaper states. However, it also includes feedback from climate campaigners who say the statement is at odds with recent actions including the row over the government’s support for a new coal mine and its decision to cut overseas aid. A Daily Telegraph editorial on the review states Johnson is seeking to adopt “a more nuanced tone towards China”, leaving room “to engage constructively with Beijing on issues of mutual interest, such as climate change”.

Separately, there is more coverage of a review of post-Brexit green policies by environmental coalition Greener UK, which, according to BBC News, found the “so-called ‘green Brexit’ promised by the government has not been delivered”. The news website reports that protections for chemicals, nature, air quality and waste are weaker than they were before the Brexit referendum in 2016, while those for climate, farming, fisheries and water quality are at a similar level. BusinessGreen notes that the government has “consistently argued against claims from green groups that Brexit would usher in a ‘race to the bottom’ on environmental and climate standards”. The Independent has a comment piece from Wildlife Trusts CEO Craig Bennett titled, “If you’re waiting for a ‘green Brexit’, you might find yourself disappointed”. (Carbon Brief published analysis at the start of the year of what the final Brexit deal means for climate change and energy.) An article in Energy Monitor states that after the departure of the UK, which was “one of the strongest pro-nuclear voices in the EU”, the bloc may be on its way to a “nuclear phase-out” as Germany may block public funding for new nuclear plants.

Meanwhile, in France, Politico reports that lawmakers in the National Assembly have approved a plan to change the country’s constitution to reinforce environmental protection, adding text that says “France…fights against climate change”.

“Top Indian government officials” are considering whether to set a net-zero target for the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of the century, according to Bloomberg. The article cites “people familiar with the matter”, who say senior officials, bureaucrats and foreign advisers are considering how to meet a 2050 deadline and assessing the possibility of a 2047 target “to mark the centenary of India’s independence from British rule”. Bloomberg notes that the world’s third-biggest emitter is under mounting pressure to set such a target ahead of the COP26 climate summit later this year, but notes that it would “require overhauling its coal-dependent economy”. The piece adds that the timing and extent of India’s commitment will likely depend on pledges other nations make on April 22, when US president Joe Biden gathers world leaders for an Earth Day summit.

He Jiankun, the deputy director of China’s National Expert Committee on Climate Change, says that the country’s 14th five-year plan (FYP) – which runs from 2021 to 2025 (see Carbon Brief’s in-depth Q&A) – is “very critical” in helping China reach the carbon emission peak by 2030. Speaking to National Business Daily (in Chinese), He says that China’s carbon consumption should aim for zero growth during the 14th FYP period in order to reach a consumption peak at the end of the five years before dropping. He also points out that regional governments must not have the urge to expand their heavy and chemical industries’ production capacity to deal with the economic challenges brought by Covid-19. Shanghai-based news website Jiemian reports on the new government instruction for the nation to build an electricity network based on “new energy”. The article (in Chinese) calls the directive “vital” as it has, for the first time, clarified “new” energy’s “dominant position” in China’s future electricity network. It says that the order will bring “epic opportunities” to three industries: wind power and photovoltaic, energy storage and energy digitalisation. The instruction in question was part of a series of directives surrounding China’s carbon goals issued at a top-level meeting presided over by Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday. Separately, Global Times reports that north-western China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region is taking the lead in the nation’s renewable energy push. Citing official data and a Chinese analyst, the state-run tabloid says the region’s wind and solar photovoltaic power capacity has reached a record high of 35.83 gigawatts (GW) that “even outpaces some developed countries”.

Meanwhile, a Chinese weather expert has shared his view on the causes of a severe sandstorm in Beijing on Monday. Zhang Bihui, director of the Environmental Meteorological Centre of China Meteorological Administration, tells Xinhua News Agency (in Chinese) that higher temperatures in Mongolia and north-western China, coupled by less rainfall, were one of the two causes. Zhang notes that the temperatures in those regions had been 5-8C higher than usual before the sandstorm took place. “Relatively stronger” Mongolian cyclones were the other cause, according to Zhang.

Finally, Reuters reports on a new study by the Center for Global Sustainability (CGS) at the University of Maryland that concludes China should quickly decommission more than 100GW of inefficient coal-power plants and phase out most of the remaining facilities by 2045 in order to meet its climate targets. The New York Times has a piece looking at tensions within China between “prominent Chinese climate scientists and policy advisers” who want to eliminate coal power and “powerful provinces, state companies and industry groups” who say coal will be required for “years to come”.

The International Air Transport Association (Iata) is in talks with its members, consisting of 300 airlines from around the world, over new climate change pledges, its chief executive Alexandre de Juniac tells the Financial Times. The article says that, according to de Juniac, an “ambitious pledge to commit to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 may form part of a declaration at the trade body’s annual meeting in June”. The newspaper notes this would be a significant step up from the current targets of halving 2005 emissions by 2050 and carbon-neutral growth after 2020. Separately, Reuters reports that the EU “wants to work with” the US government to curb aviation emissions.

In more transport news, there is continued coverage of Volkswagen’s green ambitions, with Politico looking at how the company “aims to beat Tesla at its own game” and a Bloomberg headline reading, “if Tesla is the Apple of electric vehicles, Volkswagen is betting it can be Samsung”. The Financial Times says that Volkswagen plans to sell 1m electric or hybrid cars this year, “a near tenfold increase since 2019”, while Reuters reports that its “electric. ambitions” have driven the company’s “market value towards $150bn”.

A piece by four climate researchers in Nature outlines some of the issues that are arising as “ever more” countries, institutions and companies announce net-zero targets. They write that while these action plans from countries and companies are “welcome signs of intent”, they must be fair, rigorous and transparent. “Plans are hard to compare, and definitions loose. The details behind ‘net-zero’ labels differ enormously. Some targets focus solely on CO2. Others cover all greenhouse gases. Companies might consider only emissions under their direct control, or include those from their supply chains and from the use or disposal of their products. Sometimes the targets do not aim to reduce emissions, but compensate for them with offsets.” The scientists call for all organisations and nations setting net-zero targets to clarify three aspects: “their scope; how they are deemed adequate and fair; and concrete road maps towards and beyond net-zero”. Over the course of the article, they outline what exactly they mean by these demands and how they can be achieved, including a “checklist” at the end that can be used to ensure everything is covered.

Meanwhile, a comment piece by Dominic Rushe, business editor for the Guardian, examines how after decades of “backing polluters” Wall Street now “says it’s going green”. It states: “A steadily growing trend in investment went fully mainstream in 2020 as a record number of corporations pledged to go ‘net zero’ and move to cancel out the carbon emissions they produce to halt a catastrophic rise in global temperatures.”

China could “achieve the 1.5C or well-below 2C climate goals” if it quickly retires its poorly performing coal power plants and then phases the others out by 2045 and 2055 respectively, a new study finds. The paper evaluates the 1,037 coal plants currently operating in China according to “technical, economic and environmental criteria”. 18% of plants currently score poorly across all three of these criteria, according to the study, making them “low-hanging fruit for rapid retirement”. The authors then develop a plant-by-plant phaseout plan for each province in China by combining their plant retirement algorithm with an integrated assessment model.

A new study shows that limiting global warming to 1.5C rather than 2C would avoid the intensification of heat extremes by 32-46% across North America, and the intensification of precipitation extremes across the north, south and south-east of the continent by 23-41%. The study calculates eight extreme climate indices based on the fifth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) and the North American–Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiments (NA-CORDEX). It finds that, under a warming climate, both CMIP5 and NA-CORDEX project “intensified heat extremes and reduced cold extremes across the country, intensified and more frequent heavy precipitation in large areas of the north, prolonged dry spells in some regions of the west, south, and midwest, and more frequent drought events in the west”.