UK chancellor Rachel Reeves has said she is planning to cut the link between electricity and gas prices in the UK, in a bid to reduce energy bills, reports the Financial Times. Speaking during meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington DC, Reeves said that the government will soon set out details of how the wholesale price of electricity could be set more often by renewables, rather than volatile fossil fuels. The Sun reports that “households are in line to save hundreds of pounds a year” due to this “major shake-up of the energy market”. It notes that this comes “as the Iran war piles pressure on families”. Bloomberg notes that, as it stands, the UK is facing a bigger inflation spike than many other countries “because of its heavy reliance on gas”. 

The Daily Telegraph highlights comments made by Reeves about allowing oil and gas drilling at new fields adjacent to existing ones, which it says “could represent the softening of Labour’s key manifesto pledge not to issue new licences to explore new fields”. However, as the Press Association quotes Reeves saying, these so-called “tiebacks” were announced in the budget last year. The Independent has a piece about “why drilling in the North Sea won’t bring down UK energy prices”. Reeves also tells BBC News the UK is “not facing an immediate shortage of petrol, diesel or jet fuel”.

Separately, Reuters reports that the UK government has announced its carbon price support tax on electricity generation will be scrapped from April 2028 “as it seeks to curb electricity prices for households and businesses”. The move was broadly supported by the industry and came after the hard-right, climate-sceptic Reform UK party pledged to cut the tax if it took power, according to the Financial Times.

MORE ON UK

• The UK’s first proposed “nationally significant” data centre would be powered using a “new gas-fired power station”, setting the government’s AI plans “on a collision course with its net-zero goals”, reports the Times.
• The Guardian reports on analysis by the thinktank Ember that finds the company behind Drax power plant “received record subsidies of almost £1bn for burning trees to generate electricity in 2025”.
• The UK’s Environment Agency has far surpassed its original target of ensuring 52,000 properties are better protected from flooding through improved defences over the past two years, according to BusinessGreen.

International Energy Agency (IEA) executive director Fatih Birol tells the Associated Press in an interview that Europe has “maybe six weeks or so” of remaining jet-fuel supplies, amid the Iran war. He notes that there could be flight cancellations “soon” if oil supplies remain blocked from passing through the strait of Hormuz. BBC News picks up on Birol’s comments, noting that an IEA report this week warned that jet-fuel stocks would reach a tipping point by June if Europe is unable to replace at least half of its Middle East imports. In a separate interview with Bloomberg, Birol says that it may take up to two years to recover a significant share of oil and gas production that has been disrupted by the war.

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph reports that “two of Europe’s biggest airlines have cancelled hundreds of flights in response to soaring fuel costs”, with a story trailed on the newspaper’s frontpage. The Times and Daily Mail report that summer holiday flights face being “cancelled”. Deutsche Welle reports that Germany’s national airline Lufthansa says it will retire older aircraft earlier than planned, partly due to fuel prices. Bloomberg reports that airlines in Nigeria have warned they may halt flights next week. Another Bloomberg story notes that Norwegian budget airline Norse Atlantic has cut all of its Los Angeles flights. The Daily Mail reports that climate charity Possible has called on the UK government to ban private jets.

MORE ON ENERGY CRISIS

• The Financial Times says fuel suppliers in Asia are “rushing to secure biofuels after they became cheaper than their fossil-fuel counterparts for the first time”.
• US defence secretary Pete Hegseth has stated that Iran’s energy infrastructure is “not destroyed yet” and that the US is ready to finish the job, reports the Guardian.
• Reuters reports how, in the face of a fuel crisis, “interest in electric trucks has picked up in Australia, one of the most road-freight dependent countries in the world”.
• In Sudan, where war has accelerated the decline of an already-unstable power grid, now “shockwaves” from the Iran war have “compounded these pressures further”, according to Al Jazeera.
• Bloomberg reports that Pakistan is facing power outages as the war in the Middle East “chokes its supplies of liquefied natural gas [LNG]”.
• A Reuters piece says the war “exposes [the] cost of Asia’s fossil fuel reliance” and Bloomberg says it is pushing “Asia to think twice before doubling down on LNG”.

China will “significantly increase” the supply of non-fossil energy by 2030 and double it by 2035 compared with 2025 levels, according to a briefing by Wang Changlin, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, covered by Bloomberg. The news outlet explains that these comments “clarify the meaning of a 10-year action plan to double non-fossil energy that was first flagged last month in the 15th five-year plan”. Previously, Bloomberg says it was unclear whether the plan referenced generation or capacity – and when the start and end dates were. The article notes that analysts see this as a “boost to Beijing’s green targets”.

Meanwhile, Chinese solar panel manufacturers say that rising global demand for renewables stemming from the oil supply disruption caused by the Iran war is “unlikely to significantly ease the industry’s overcapacity”, reports Reuters. The newswire quotes an unnamed solar industry executive saying that increases in prices and global demand “won’t seriously impact the overall supply-demand dynamics”. At the same time, the government will impose “lifetime accountability” on officials’ investment decisions in order to “tighten control over state spending and address industrial overcapacity”, according to finance outlet Caixin. Elsewhere, a commentary by the state news agency Xinhua says that China’s “compelling clean energy options stand out as a cornerstone of the country’s enduring stability” as the world grapples with concerns over energy security. 

MORE ON CHINA

• Bloomberg reports Chinese refiners “cut run rates” last month to “conserve supplies snarled by war” in the Middle East. Reuters publishes a comment by columnist Clyde Russell, saying that China continued to build its massive oil stockpile in March.
• Global Times reports China’s energy resources remain “sufficient, stable and orderly” amid global energy disruption, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
• Chinese vice premier Ding Xuexiang called on China and Turkmenistan to expand cooperation in areas including gas, renewables and NEVs, reports Xinhua.
• The South China Morning Post reports: “China fast-tracks hydrogen strategy to ‘scale-up’ phase in high-stakes energy transition.” Zheng Shanjie, head of the NDRC, said China should accelerate the construction of a new energy system in a visit to a hydrogen facility, according to International Energy Net.
• China’s NEA has launched a nationwide campaign to improve “power supply quality”, reports BJX News.
• China has a rising amount of idle waste-to-energy capacity and is “running out of waste to burn”, says a “sharp commentary” in the People’s Daily.

Senior executives at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have made further comments warning that European governments should not excessively shield businesses and consumers from more expensive energy, according to Reuters. The newswire quotes Alfred Kammer, head of the IMF’s European department, who said such measures would “weaken” the price signal to cut consumption ​and could be fiscally very expensive. The fund recommends targeted payments for vulnerable consumers, with a clear end date, rather than blanket support, according to the newswire.

Separately, the EU’s competition and climate chief Teresa Ribera tells the Financial Times that short-term measures to tackle energy prices amid the Iran war should not undermine Europe’s climate goals.

MORE ON EUROPE

• The UK and France plan to host a summit of around 40 nations to discuss setting up a naval force that would ensure freedom of navigation in the strait of Hormuz, according to Bloomberg.
• Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats are blocking the government of Friedrich Merz from proceeding with plans to build a fleet of new gas power plants, unless the legislation includes “carve-outs for renewables”, reports Bloomberg.
• Kyriakos Pierrakakis, ​chairman of the eurozone finance ministers’ group has told an IMF event that a cross-border European energy union is needed to help the EU stay competitive against the US and China, reports Reuters.
• Slovakia has stated that it is prepared to obstruct the EU’s latest round of Russia sanctions, unless it receives reassurances from Ukraine that oil flows through a damaged pipeline on Ukrainian territory will resume, according to Bloomberg.
• Bloomberg reports that Germany can proceed to cut energy costs for heavy industry by €3.8bn ($4.5bn) after the EU approved temporary power-price aid for companies.
• Reuters reports that the European ​court of justice that Hungary’s tax on carbon dioxide emission allowances, introduced in 2023 under the outgoing Viktor Orban government, ​is against EU law.

US lawmakers have used two hearings to criticise energy secretary Chris Wright for ordering ageing coal plants to stay open, a move they say will raise already-high ​power bills for households and steel manufacturers, according to Reuters. Wright said his intention was to keep a stable electricity supply in regions with lots of data-centre expansion, but added that he would “reassess his orders to ‌keep ⁠the plants open across Indiana and Washington state”, reports the newswire. This comes as Bloomberg reports that the Trump administration has rejected a request from CenterPoint Energy to allow its 60-year-old coal plant in Indiana to close. In the same hearings, Wright said that the first five to 10 ​new planned US nuclear reactors will “almost certainly” receive ‌loans from the US energy department, according to Reuters.

MORE ON US

• With the World Bank’s spring meeting underway in Washington DC, Climate Home News reports that the Trump administration is pressuring the bank not to set out a new climate action plan when the current one expires this year.
• Lawmakers in Maine have approved a statewide moratorium on new data centres, the first legislation of its kind in the US at a time when AI expansion is facing “intense scrutiny”, reports the New York Times.
• Several US states, particularly in the north-east, are reassessing clean energy targets or considering cutting charges from utility bills that fund efficiency programmes, due to the global energy crisis, according to PBS News.
• The largest US renewable-energy project in the US – 3.5-gigawatt SunZia Wind project in New Mexico – has begun generating electricity, according to E&E News.
• The Daily Telegraph describes how countries are “flock[ing] to the US for oil” as supplies from the Middle East continue to be blocked.

In his Daily Telegraph column, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reflects on the impact that US president Donald Trump has had on the global fossil-fuel system. He writes: “Nobody has done more to accelerate the world’s electrotech revolution and pull forward the irreversible collapse of the oil and gas industry – not even Greta Thunberg, Al Gore or the strategic planners of the Chinese Communist Party.” Evans-Pritchard says there is widespread concern in the oil-and-gas industry that the Iran war is leading to the decline of fossil fuels, noting: “Trump’s war will hit home once the physical barrels stop arriving and cannot be bought for love or money, a moment scheduled for late April once the usable global buffer of 800m barrels is exhausted.” Elsewhere, Gary Sernovitz, a former managing director at an energy-focused private equity firm, writes in Bloomberg that “the US oil industry doesn’t want the Iran war either”.

MORE COMMENT

• Daily Mail city editor Alex Brummer writes that more drilling in the North Sea “will make no difference in the strait of Hormuz stand-off – unless it goes on for years”.
• The Daily Express’s Richard Ashmore – a senior news reporter, rather than an opinion columnist – has an article criticising the UK energy secretary with the headline: “Everyone in Britain knows Ed Miliband is insane – and now even Donald Trump’s noticed.”
• Sherelle Jacobs, a climate-sceptic columnist for the Daily Telegraph, also has an article criticising Miliband, in which she blamed him for the decline of Aberdeen’s oil and gas industry.
• Yet another comment piece in the Daily Telegraph, by assistant comment editor Sam Ashworth-Hayes, takes aim at Miliband, stating that there is “only a limited window to undo the energy secretary’s net-zero drive”.
• Guardian columnist Larry Elliot writes that higher energy prices could lead to companies turning to AI in a bid to cut costs, pushing more people out of jobs.

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Josh Gabbatiss, with contributions from Henry Zhang and Anika Patel. It was edited by Robert McSweeney.

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