The head of one of the UK’s largest manufacturers has warned prime minister Rishi Sunak that he risks losing the country’s lead in clean-energy production by failing to respond to US president Joe Biden’s large green stimulus package, City AM reports. It picks up on an “exclusive” interview by Sky News with Liam Condon, chief executive of chemicals and metals company Johnson Matthey, who says his firm has intellectual property that could help the UK become a world leader in the production of low-carbon green hydrogen. Now that the US is providing hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies for those making similar products, the UK is squandering this part of the “green industrial revolution”, Condon says. Sky says the comments “come amid growing consternation that the UK government has so far refused to provide any response to the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)”. Separately, the Guardian reports that “influential economist” Andy Haldane, who is on Jeremy Hunt’s council of economic advisers, has stated that the UK is “not really in the race at any kind of scale” when it comes to developing new, low-carbon industries. The Independent reports that Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf has urged the UK government to commit to a “more ambitious strategy” to attract green investments to the country. The Press Association reports that Conservative former ministers, including former energy minister Chris Skidmore and former COP26 president Alok Sharma, have voiced support for changes to a major energy bill that were introduced by the House of Lords. Among the changes are “a ban on new coal mines and steps to increase the energy efficiency of housing and business premises”.

The Times reports on the conclusion of battery materials experts called before the House of Commons, who say the UK has “missed the boat” in the first wave of the electric-battery revolution and will still be playing catch-up by 2030. The experts describe the government’s new “critical minerals strategy” as a “wishlist without substance” because “without the money backing it up it is just words”. They also warn that, as a result, the UK risks losing parts of its automotive industry to central Europe, which is planning the construction of dozens of gigafactories. Relatedly, the Financial Times reports that Switzerland-based Glencore is planning on building Europe’s largest battery recycling plant in Italy by 2027.

In yet more criticism of the UK government’s climate plans, the Environmental Audit Committee and solar industry have urged the energy secretary to tackle barriers hampering roll out of solar capacity in UK and leading to “15-year wait times for solar connections”, BusinessGreen reports.

Finally, the Financial Times reports that lobbyist David Canzini, who, while working for the UK prime minister Boris Johnson, opposed a windfall tax on oil-and-gas companies and pushed Johnson to take a less positive stance on onshore wind farms, is now working for the COP28 climate summit in UEA later on “communications”.

The world’s biggest oil company Saudi Aramco has reported a first-quarter net income of $31.9bn, down 19% from the $39.5bn it made in the same period a year earlier, according to the Times. This trend was “primarily driven by the fall in crude prices and lower output”, but investors were still “cheered” with the promise of additional “performance-linked dividends” despite the falling profits, the newspaper continues. The article quotes Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser, who says the company’s long-term outlook “remains unchanged as we believe oil and gas will remain critical components of the global energy mix for the foreseeable future”. At the same time, the Guardian reports that Nasser says the company is trying to reduce its carbon footprint. The Lex column in the Financial Times says Saudi Aramco is “ramping up spending on oil and gas”, which may boost its shares. The article notes that this year’s $45bn-55bn budget is a third more than last year’s, adding that such fossil fuel investments “promise higher short-term returns” than the investments in renewables being pursued by other oil majors. At the same time, it adds that “Aramco’s narrow focus is also a risk” as the energy transition “will leave stranded assets”.

In other “big oil” news, City AM reports that the Church Commissioners, which manages the Church of England’s £10bn endowment fund, will vote to oust Shell’s chief executive Wael Sawan and chairman Sir Andrew Mackenzie at their upcoming shareholder meeting this month. This move comes “in response to a perceived lack of progress over climate change objectives”, it adds. Separately, the Guardian reports on new analysis that finds fossil fuel extraction and exploration is taking place at almost 3,000 sites in protected areas around the world – and the UK has the most of these sites. Meanwhile, BP is set to make a final investment decision next year on a cluster of carbon capture projects in northern England, including a gas-fired power plant in Teesside, according to Reuters. 

Finally, the Times reports that Goldman Sachs has warned that European gas prices could rise in the second half of this year “and nearly treble from present levels in the winter”. In the UK, the Evening Standard reports that consultancy Cornwall Insight thinks the price cap on energy bills will fall by more than £1,200 for the average household when it is next updated.

Italian oil major Eni is facing the country’s first climate lawsuit as environmental groups allege that the company “has been aware for more than five decades that burning fossil fuels is the leading cause of climate change”, DeSmog reports. It says that Greenpeace Italy and ReCommon will charge that Eni used “lobbying and greenwashing” strategies to downplay the dangers posed by its business model. DeSmog notes that the case draws inspiration from a “similar case targeting Anglo-Dutch oil major” Shell in the Netherlands to force Eni to slash its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 45%t by 2030. The Guardian, which picks up the story from DeSmog, reports that the allegations rest in part on a study Eni commissioned between 1969 and 1970 from its Isvet research centre, which makes clear that “left unchecked, rising fossil fuel use could lead to a climate crisis within just a few decades”. According to Reuters, the lawsuit also names the Italian Economy Ministry and state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), which jointly control the company with a stake of around 30%.

Meanwhile, in Guyana, Reuters reports that the nation’s Environment Protect Agency has appealed a court decision that last week declared that the agency and oil major ExxonMobil breached oil-spill insurance obligations for the company’s first offshore project in the country.

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have announced that the death toll from the floods in the east of the country has reached nearly 400, Africanews reports. The article says heavy rainfall in South Kivu province last Thursday caused rivers to overflow, which in turn caused landslides that engulfed several villages. The Guardian adds that 5,500 people are still missing, with thousands of survivors left homeless, and makes a clear link to climate change. It cites local activists and community leaders who say that “despite recurring extreme weather events”, adaptation to climate change “has not yet been properly prioritised by the DRC government, amid competing priorities”. BBC News also makes the link in its reporting, noting that UN chief António Guterres says the floods in the region are another illustration of accelerating climate change.

Meanwhile, in neighbouring Rwanda, Deutsche Welle reports that at least 130 people died in early May amid severe flooding and landslides, while thousands more were displaced as entire villages were engulfed. The article notes that climate change is intensifying flooding around the world and says “Rwanda, which is naturally vulnerable to floods, has become a flashpoint”. AllAfrica reports that historical sites and monuments along Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast, such as Fort Jesus on the island of Mombasa, are under threat due to the impacts of climate change.

Asia’s “brutally hot weather” is expected to hit China this summer, reports Bloomberg, “threatening a new round of power shortages that last year disrupted global supply chains of everything from cars to solar panels”. It adds: “The electricity supply situation will be tight across the entire nation this summer, state-run China Energy News reported, citing the State Grid Energy Research Institute. Central, eastern, and southwestern provinces are likely to experience shortages during periods of peak demand, according to the institute.”

Meanwhile, the South China Morning Post writes that, in the first quarter of 2023, China’s shipment value of electric vehicles (EVs), lithium-ion batteries, and solar batteries experienced a significant increase of 54.8% in terms of US dollars, compared to the same period last year. It adds that there is a growing trend of “deglobalisation” in new-energy supply chains, but according to analysts, it will be challenging to remove China from its position as the primary market leader. The Financial Times reports that, amid difficulties in raising funds domestically to “stimulate economic development after the pandemic”, Chinese local governments are “wooing…sovereign wealth funds” from the Middle East and Asia. A senior official says that numerous local government representatives, such as those from Shenzhen and Guangzhou, have recently contacted Middle Eastern funds with the objective of increasing investment in biotechnology, new energy, and infrastructure and construction industries. 

In other China news, Radio France Internationale, a French state-owned radio news, reports that French president Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to make a state visit to Germany in July, amidst increasing tensions on a variety of subjects, including energy policy and China. Reuters has an article by columnist Clyde Russell, who writes that the “China’s imports of major commodities lost momentum in April” as the robust start to the year “faded” due to uncertainties surrounding the strength and composition of the recovery in the world’s second-largest economy. It adds that imports of crude oil, coal, iron ore and copper all declined from the prior month. 

Finally, following a deadly accident in Inner Mongolia in February that led to nationwide safety inspections, China has suspended operations at 32 coal production sites in this region, reports Bloomberg. Another Bloomberg report says that, starting from 1 July, China will implement stricter emission regulations for vehicles, adding pressure on traditional car manufacturers and dealers “to sell vehicles that don’t have a lot of appeal to consumers”. In addition, hundreds of thousands of cars will be classified as “monitor only” under the new regulation, the news outlet adds. 

More than AUD$2bn ($1.4bn) has been committed to expand Australia’s emerging hydrogen industry as part of AUD$4bn ($2.7bn) spending on renewable energy in the Labor government’s annual budget, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. The newspaper says the Treasury expects the “Hydrogen Headstart” programme to be implemented as a credit per kilogram on the price of production, as well as supporting development of industrial infrastructure in suitable locations, such as Wollongong, Gladstone and Whyalla. The article describes the subsidies as both a move “to combat growing international competition for the green fuel’s market share in Asia” and “a direct response to the US”, which last year unveiled its own hydrogen support package. ABC News says the programme is “being seen” as a response to US president Joe Biden’s “massive” $370bn Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). It notes that “there are no details yet about how the $2bn will be spent”. Reuters highlights other low-carbon spending in the Australian budget. This includes “part of the AUD$15bn ($10.2bn) National Reconstruction Fund to support green industries” and AUD$57.1m ($38.6m) for a programme aimed at drawing foreign investment into Australia for projects to process critical minerals for use in “clean technologies”. As the Guardian notes, the budget also includes energy rebates, meaning households on income support payments “will have hundreds of dollars slashed from their energy bills this winter, as part of a key cost-of living package”.

Indonesia has emerged as the world’s second-largest supplier of cobalt with 5% of the global supply, up from minimal volumes before 2021, according to the Financial Times. These findings from the annual market report by industry group the Cobalt Institute mean it has overtaken established producers Australia and the Philippines, although it is still far behind the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which holds a 73% global share, the newspaper adds. While this trend has helped to drive a “sharp fall in the price” of the metal, which is used to make electric-car batteries, it also adds to “western anxieties about Beijing’s dominance across the electric car supply chain”, the piece continues. This is due to Indonesia’s emergence as a key supplier “being driven by joint ventures of Chinese companies and local groups”. The Times of India reports on new discoveries of “large” lithium deposits in the area around Degana in Rajasthan. Again, the article emphasises the urgency of reducing reliance on imports from China and says the discovery could help India to become an “energy independent nation”. In more critical minerals news, the Times has a piece titled: “From the Andes to EVs – how and where will we mine enough lithium?”

The New York Times’ Climate Forward newsletter has an interview with former World Bank vice president and climate change envoy Rachel Kyte, in which she discusses the appointment of business executive Ajay Banga to lead the World Bank. “Kyte said many of the bank’s owners, wealthy nations, have long felt that the institution is not doing enough to help developing countries turn the corner on the green transition. They hope Banga will change that”, the newsletter states in the introduction. Kyte says “there is a growing chorus of developing countries saying this has got to be done differently, we need more. And the owners of the bank, they need the capital in the multilateral system to do more as well”. As a result, Banga “probably has more wind in his sails for reform than any president has had in modern times”, she adds. Kyte notes that many of the nations struggling with climate financing are also struggling with debt, not only owed to western countries but also to China, or held by private equity and private banks. “So one of the things that’s going to happen is that the World Bank is going to have to find a new way to sit down on a different sort of table to work to resolve this. So it’s very important that he knows all of these private financiers”, she says.

A new research paper explores the power of “adaptive hope” to help humans navigate complex social and environmental change. The authors explain: “Hope is known to contribute to resilience, be important for creating social change, and to instil a belief that better futures are possible. However, there are multiple expressions of hope that could be consolidated for navigating complex social ecological change. We propose adaptive hope as an integrative conceptualisation for navigating change and connection in complex social ecological change, through both the short and long term, which can be expressed in multiple ways.”