There is continuing coverage of the news that the Climate Action Network (CAN) alliance of NGOs has called for the COP26 UN climate summit to be postponed, with Climate Home News reporting that the UK “is resisting” and has “promis[ed] extra measures to address concerns about safety and inclusiveness in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic”. The publication quotes Alok Sharma, the UK’s COP26 president-designate, saying the recent IPCC report “underlines why COP26 must go ahead this November”. It adds: “In his statement on Tuesday, Sharma said the UK government will cover the full quarantine costs of delegates coming to COP26 from developing countries on the ‘Covid-19 red list’, regardless of their vaccination status.” The i newspaper reports that Sharma “says [the] conference will go ahead in Glasgow despite calls for delay”. BusinessGreen also has the story.

Under the headline: “Vulnerable countries slam ‘middle class’ activists’ call for climate summit delay,” Politico says the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) group of nations most exposed to warming has “furiously denounced” the calls for a delay. It quotes Mohamed Nasheed, CVF ambassador saying: “Even in the face of death, we must meet. The alternative is the death of the planet…It’s all very well for middle-class Europeans to say that … but we need a result. For us not having a result … is far, far more worse than anything else. So we need this to happen.” The Financial Times reports: “Compared with other COPs, the 2021 event is far behind in providing logistical support to visiting government delegations, said one diplomat from a developing country involved with the preparations.” It adds: “Dozens of heads of state, including US president Joe Biden, are expected to attend, providing a huge security challenge for the city.” BBC News, Press Association via Belfast Telegraph, Reuters, the New York Times, the Hill, Forbes, Bloomberg and the Independent all cover the news. The Guardian reports the story under the headline: “COP26 will be ‘rich nations stitch-up’ if poorer countries kept away by Covid.” ECIU has a Q&A on why there are calls for COP26 to be postponed. Meanwhile, BBC News reports that the CVF are “calling for an ‘emergency pact’ to tackle rising temperatures” at COP26. It adds that the group “says the event is critical and cannot wait”. The broadcaster continues: “The vulnerable group says that progress on climate change has stalled and COP26 should move forward with what it terms a ‘climate emergency pact’. This would see every country put forward a new climate plan every year between now and 2025. At present, signatories of the Paris Agreement are only obliged to put forward new plans every five years.”

Separately, BusinessGreen reports that British Airways is “aiming to offset the lifecycle CO2 from flights between London, Edinburgh and Glasgow by ‘up to 80%’ over the course of the upcoming COP26 climate summit”, having signed a biofuel supply deal with BP. The airline will buy “lower carbon SAF [sustainable aviation fuel] made from waste cooking oil” equivalent to the amount used in flights to COP26, the outlet reports. In related news, US airline Delta Air is to buy a “test batch of sustainable aviation fuel” from oil firm Chevron, Reuters reports, adding: “Delta has pledged to replace 10% of its jet fuel with SAF by 2030.” The Financial Times reports that Zurich Insurance “has pledged to slash emissions from air travel, the latest big global employer to seize on working practices introduced during the pandemic to cut its carbon footprint”.

There is widespread coverage of a joint statement issued by the Pope, Archbishop of Canterbury and global leader of Orthodox Christians who have, says the Daily Telegraph, come together for the first time to warn of the “catastrophic consequences” of climate change for future generations. The newspaper adds: “For the first time, the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion have jointly warned of a ‘critical moment’ regarding the urgency of environmental sustainability, its impact on poverty, and the importance of global cooperation.” Sky News says the “world’s most prominent Christian leaders have joined forces to persuade people to urgently address the climate change crisis”. It continues: “Their first joint statement [calls] on everyone to ‘choose life’ by ‘examining their behaviour’ and making ‘meaningful sacrifices for the sake of the earth’.They suggested how people are already ‘paying the price’ and warned how ‘tomorrow could be worse’. The Times notes how “the Most Rev Justin Welby, Francis and His All Holiness Bartholomew I, the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, said that we have ‘maximised our own interest at the expense of future generations’”. Reuters says: “Francis heads the 1.3 billion-member Roman Catholic Church, Bartholomew is the spiritual leader of the world’s some 220 million Orthodox Christians and Welby is the senior bishop of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which has about 85 million members. All three have been very active in environmental affairs and concur that climate change and global warming is at least partially caused by human activities such as the use of fossil fuels.” The joint statement can be read in full on the Vatican website.

There is widespread coverage of Alok Sharma’s Tianjin trip in the Chinese media. Xinhua, the state news agency, reports that China’s vice-premier, Han Zheng, met with the visiting COP26 president-designate via video link from Beijing on Tuesday. Among other things, Han pointed out that China and the UK should “play to their respective strengths and enhance dialogue and cooperation” in tackling climate change, the official outlet says. Sharma is quoted saying that the UK appreciates China’s tremendous efforts in the field and hopes to expand exchanges and cooperation with Beijing. CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, has run an 80-second news clip of the virtual conference between the two sides.

Global Times, a state-run newspaper, carries a piece titled: “Kerry just left, the UK also sends someone to China.“ It says that “the information that Sharma, a senior UK official on climate issues, arrived in China on the 6th has attracted media attention”. Guancha, a Shanghai-based news and commentary website, also writes: “Kerry, US president’s climate envoy, has just left. Here comes the UK climate official.” Reuters reports the comments of China’s vice commerce minister Wang Shouwen: “China and the United States have common ground in the area of climate change and cutting carbon emissions, but cooperation cannot be separated from wider trade issues between them, a senior Chinese trade official said on Wednesday.” The Times reports on Sharma’s visit under the headline: “We won’t be bullied into going green, says China.” The Times also quotes a Global Times editorial, which it translates as saying: “China has already announced its own climate road map and will stick to its own pace…Uncertainties and risks remain for multilateral platforms such as the Glasgow summit due to Washington’s toxic approaches and it is imperative for the UK and the global community to avoid the global climate conference being held hostage by US political [ideologies].” Relatedly, the Independent has an opinion piece titled :“Stop using China as a distraction from our own appalling carbon emissions record.”

Meanwhile, CNBC reports that China may give more details on how to achieve its “ambitious targets” of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 at the upcoming COP26 in Glasgow. The business channel cites a blog post written by the vice-chairman of Wood Mackenzie Asia Pacific, Gavin Thompson, who listed five things to expect from Beijing at the climate summit. Beijing Youth Daily, a state-run newspaper, says that the Chinese capital city is “actively planning” its carbon neutrality pathways and has proposed a “two-step” strategy to hit the goal. Separately, Argus Media reports that China “will further boost its supply guarantee system for lithium, cobalt, nickel and other key materials to support rapid developments in the country’s new energy vehicle (NEV) industry”.

In other news, S&P Global Platts reports that China will need a “full power grid overhaul” to meet its 2060 net-zero target, citing experts. The outlet writes that “China will need to fundamentally revamp its power generation and distribution system by 2060”. It notes that the transformation would be “part of its roadmap to decarbonise the power sector and accommodate a fuel mix that largely replaces fossil fuels with cleaner energy sources”. The article quotes “experts at a recent conference in Nanjing”. Finally, Hong Kong is “seeking a role” in the development of China’s carbon market by “leveraging its capabilities as an international financial centre”, according to the Asset.

US president Joe Biden has used a visit to “storm-battered areas of New Jersey and New York City” to make a speech on climate change, the New York Times reports. It continues: “President Biden warned Americans on Tuesday that Hurricane Ida’s lethal destruction was the sure sign of a nation and world ‘in peril’ from climate change and said drastic action would be needed to prevent extreme weather patterns from worsening.” The paper quotes Biden saying: “They all tell us this is code red…The nation and the world are in peril. And that’s not hyperbole. That is a fact.” It says he also used the speech to push the $1tn bipartisan infrastructure deal. Reuters quotes Biden saying climate change is an “existential threat”. The New York Times carries a full transcript and a video of the speech. Politico says Biden used his tour to say the “infrastructure plan [is] needed to deal with climate change”. The Hill also has the story.

In other US news, the Hill reports: “Democrats on a key congressional panel are hoping to secure at least $2.6bn in government funding for weather and climate change research at federal agencies.” Bloomberg reports that trade groups are calling for regulations on methane emissions from the oil and gas industry, rather than the fee proposed in the Democrats’ $3.5tn budget bill. Forbes has a piece on the proposed Clean Electricity Payments Programme that is part of the bill.

Elsewhere, the Hill reports that the Caldor fire in California is “cool[ing]”, but adds that the state “faces a dozen new fires”. The Los Angeles Times has an editorial saying California “should commit to going carbon neutral by 2045”. The Hill reports that more than 400,000 people are without power “nine days after [Hurricane] Ida hits Louisiana”. Meanwhile, a comment for the Wall Street Journal by Robert Bryce, research fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, argues: “Mismanagement and the push for renewables are degrading the reliability of the US electrical grid.” Reuters says that the US oil industry has reported its worst losses in 16 years in the wake of the damage. Finally, another Reuters article says the state of Illinois is “inch[ing] closer to saving two nuclear plants”.

The now-scrapped £1.5bn green homes grant scheme for England was “botched” by the government, the Guardian reports, according to the official spending watchdog, the National Audit Office (NAO). The paper continues: “Officials rushed its design, put in place an undeliverable timetable, and failed to heed industry warnings”. It adds: “The NAO has called on the government to set out how its various home energy efficiency plans fit together within its overarching plans for decarbonisation by the end of the year, including detailed timetables.” The Financial Times says the scheme has been “condemned as badly planned and rushed”, in what it calls a “damning analysis” from the NAO. It reports: “The Green Homes Grant had been expected to help 600,000 households make their properties more energy-efficient and install low-carbon heating, and support up to 82,500 jobs. But it was beset by problems from the time it launched in September 2020 and was abruptly scrapped in March. The government estimated that it helped around 47,500 households and created just 5,600 jobs in total.” Sky News and Press Association via the National report the findings and say administration of the scheme cost £1,000 per property involved, according to the NAO. The Times says the “[f]ailed green homes scheme blew £50m on admin”. BusinessGreen quotes the NAO saying the scheme was “set up to fail”.

In other UK news, the Financial Times is among those reporting on the public inquiry into the proposed coal mine in Cumbria. It runs under the headline: “Warning of damage to UK leadership on climate change from new colliery.” The article continues: “‘If countries such as China and India see that the UK is consenting to new coal mines at the same time we are telling them that they need to reduce their dependence on coal, the UK will lose any moral authority it might have previously had on this issue,’ Friends of the Earth argued on the first day of the inquiry.” The i newspaper leads on a similar angle, but adds: “[M]iners said it remained an ‘inconvenient truth’ that coal is necessary for making steel.” BBC News tops its story with concerns from the firm behind the proposed mine over the inquiry being “‘hijacked’ into a wider debate about emissions”. It adds: “Gregory Jones QC, for the company, told the hearing ‘objections to this mine amount to little more than emissions offshoring’.” The Guardian reports: “The coal extracted from the planned Cumbrian mine may go further overseas, rather than be used in Britain and the EU as the company has claimed, the public inquiry into the scheme heard on its opening day…WCM [West Cumbria Mining] has said its ‘indigenous’ coal would principally supply British steelmaking and industry in EU countries.” In related opinion, climate-sceptic commentator Ross Clark writes in the Daily Telegraph under the headline: “Radical environmentalists need to get a grip – we’ll still need coal for the foreseeable future.” He argues: “To produce mass steel, you need coal”. Meanwhile, Reuters reports that steel giant ArcelorMittal is receiving German government support for a plant in Hamburg that will make steel “us[ing] green hydrogen to reduce iron ore in a CO2-free steelmaking process”. It adds: “Uwe Braun, chief executive of ArcelorMittal Hamburg, said the plant would enable his company to produce 100,000 tonnes of DRI [direct reduced iron] for steelmaking with green hydrogen by 2025.”

Finally, Sky News reports that former Conservative prime minister Theresa May has told her party not to see economic growth and climate action as “mutually exclusive”. It reports: “The former Tory leader criticises those in the party who claim so-called ‘red wall’ voters will not support tough climate targets. And she warns the Conservatives must do more to appeal to those concerned about the environment in the years to come.” BusinessGreen reports that May has used a speech “to call on Tory colleagues sceptical of the case for decarbonisation to recognise the huge economic and environmental opportunities on offer”.

Wind turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa says it has developed the first offshore wind turbine blades that are fully recyclable, the Financial Times reports. It adds the move will “potentially sav[e] hundreds of thousands of the bulky objects from landfill and resolv[e] an issue long highlighted by the industry’s critics”. It explains: “Sceptics of renewable energy have used images of blades piled in landfill sites to question the green credentials of wind power, which produces no emissions but requires materials such as steel and copper whose production remains carbon-intensive. About 85% of a turbine, including the steel towers, can already be recycled, but the blades have proved more challenging.” Bloomberg, Reuters and BusinessGreen also have the story.

Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker, is to invest $13.6bn in battery technology, the Financial Times reports, adding: “The Japanese group outlined its plans as it attempted to quell criticism it had been slow to shift to electric cars because of its dominance in hybrid vehicles that use both petrol and battery power. Executives said the company, which has a partnership with Tesla supplier Panasonic, also remained on track to develop next generation solid-state batteries by 2025.” The Hill says the money will be spent over the rest of this decade to 2030. Forbes also has the story. Reuters has an explainer on solid state batteries.

In other car industry news, the Financial Times reports the comments of Volkswagen chief executive Hermann Diess saying it would be “impossible” to shift to electric vehicles more quickly. The paper says: “VW is already spending €35bn on developing electric cars, but environmental campaigners are demanding that it does more.” The firm plans to set up a €300m venture fund to support decarbonisation projects and startups, Reuters reports. Politico reports the comments of outgoing German chancellor Angela Merkel saying the car industry is “part of the solution” to climate change. Finally, Forbes reports that South Korean carmaker Hyundai is “making [a] big hydrogen push with cheaper fuel cells” for cars and trucks. The Financial Times says the firm is “aiming to become the world’s first automaker to power all its commercial vehicle models with fuel cell systems by 2028”. The paper quotes an analyst forecasting that fuel cell vehicles would account for 1% of Hyundai’s sales by 2030, compared with at least 30% electric vehicles.

In a piece for the Financial Times, the paper’s European economics commentator Martin Sandbu says Canada’s “carbon-tax-and-dividend” scheme offers a lesson for other countries. He explains: “[I]t is the most promising approach if countries are to overcome the biggest remaining hurdle on the path to decarbonisation…mobilising the political will and mass public support for solutions we know are needed but that are more radical and demanding than anything done so far.” Sandbu continues: “Climate change politics is in danger of being subsumed by the culture wars that have riven western societies. It is easy to cast these policies as simply intended to penalise the lifestyles of everyone but urban liberals. And many, from ill-intentioned states to carbon-reliant businesses, have an interest in surreptitiously fuelling climate scepticism…The final hurdle on the road to decarbonisation, then, is not to convince the public that climate change is real, but to overcome suspicions that any policy is dishonest, ineffective and places the burden on those who least deserve to bear it.”

In another comment piece, Matthew Lynn in the Daily Telegraph writes under the headline: “EU wants everyone to pay the cost of going green – except the wealthy.” His inaccurate article on the EU’s “Fit for 55” climate package says: “[I]t turns out there is one group that is exempt from the fight to slow down global warming. The very rich. And indeed EU officials themselves.” The article cites two examples to support this contention, one that has only been proposed by an Italian minister and another that is incorrect. [He says: “The EU is also planning to exempt private jets from its planned tax on aviation fuel.” This is not correct.]

Meanwhile, an editorial in the Wall Street Journal comments on the recent call from more than 200 medical journals for greater climate action. The editorial accuses the journals of “groupthink”, “political bias” and “deceptive statements”. The newspaper’s piece is subtitled: “Don’t they know that poverty kills far more people than heat does?”

In a piece for the New York Times, staff editor Spencer Bokat-Lindell writes that delays to cutting emissions over the past few decades mean that “global warming is now guaranteed to intensify in the next three decades” adding: “[T]hat means that mitigation alone, while still as necessary as ever, i no longer sufficient to prevent suffering.” He goes on to argue for a “national plan for climate adaptation” but also points to the limits to adaptation.

Climate models from the sixth coupled model intercomparison project (CMIP6) indicate greater future summer warming over northern Europe and the Mediterranean than models from CMIP5 – largely due to their higher climate sensitivity – according to a new study. The authors compare CMIP6 projections of seasonal average temperature and precipitation with their CMIP5 equivalents for northern Europe, central Europe and the Mediterranean. They find that CMIP6 models project a stronger drying trend than CMIP5 models in central Europe, adding that the stronger drying trend also extends into a large part of northern Europe.