The UN General Assembly has adopted a non-binding resolution “backing a world court opinion that countries have a legal obligation to address climate change”, reports the Guardian. It says the US was among the “small group” to oppose the resolution, which passed by 141 voters to eight. The Associated Press says the assembly voted “overwhelmingly” to endorse the 2025 opinion from the International Court of Justice “despite recent diplomatic efforts by the US to have the measure withdrawn”. It adds that the adopted resolution removed earlier wording “that called for establishing an ‘International Register of Damage’ to record evidence and claims”. Agence France-Presse says the resolution reinforces states’ obligations to combat climate change. Reuters reports: “UN secretary general António Guterres said the vote, in which 28 countries abstained, underscored that governments are ​responsible for protecting citizens from the ‘escalating climate crisis’.” Inside Climate News and others also cover the vote.

Climate Home News covers comments by COP31 president-elect Murat Kurum, who said that governments should be “decarbonising the way we generate electricity, but also expanding electrification into every sphere of life”. It adds that Kurum was speaking at the Copenhagen climate ministerial, where he said the percentage of final energy consumption met by electricity – the key metric of electrification – should be “as much as we possibly can”. BusinessGreen says that Kurum highlighted the benefits of shifting to electricity-powered technologies for heating, cooling, transport and industrial processes, arguing that it has huge potential to cut fossil fuels in final energy consumption. It quotes Kurum saying: “To achieve this mission, decarbonising power generation is essential. However, it is not enough. We also need to electrify processes throughout our lives.”

Reuters covers new figures from thinktank Ember, which found that wind and solar combined generated more electricity than gas globally in April for the first month ever. It says that the move was part of a wider trend, rather than being driven by soaring fossil-fuel prices due to the Iran war, but adds that the technologies are helping to reduce reliance on gas imports for many countries hit by the crisis. The article adds that wind and solar generated 22% of global electricity in April, compared to 20% from gas. Relatedly, Bloomberg covers a report from Global Energy Monitor that found the amount of coal-fired power plants grew in 2025, despite a “drop in use of the dirty fossil fuel as nations turn increasingly to renewables to meet new demand for electricity”. Carbon Brief also covered this report.

In a story trailed on its frontpage, the Financial Times reports that two supertankers carrying Iraqi oil have passed through the strait of Hormuz and are heading for China, “raising hopes of a partial opening of the vital chokepoint for Middle Eastern energy and sending crude prices tumbling”. It adds that shipping data shows that a third supertanker transporting Kuwaiti oil to South Korea was also travelling through the strait, however, it had its transponder switched off. The article notes that collectively, these three ships are carrying 6m barrels of oil, potentially the most to exit the Gulf in a single day since February. The FT adds that Brent crude prices fell 5.2% to $105.02 in response.

MORE ON OIL

• Bloomberg reports that Nigerian oil companies are “ploughing windfall gains from the Iran-war crude rally into near-term extraction projects”, with the nation’s production set to double within four years.
• Axios reports that in the US, all 50 states now have average petrol prices above $4 a gallon, due to the Iran war’s impact on global oil and gas prices.

There is widespread frontpage coverage of UK government measures to tackle the cost of living, with the Times saying that chancellor Rachel Reeves will freeze fuel duty for a further four months. BBC News adds that the 5p cut will be extended to the end of the year, instead of being phased out from September. The Financial Times reports that prime minister Keir Starmer also confirmed a 12-month tax holiday for hauliers and that “red diesel” users would see their fuel duty cut by more than a third. The Guardian notes that the temporary 5p cut to fuel duty was first announced by former prime minister Rishi Sunak in 2022. Another Financial Times article reports that Reeves will formally announce the measures today, including “cut-price baked beans, free summer bus travel for children and £400m of help for motorists and hauliers”. The Guardian reports that Reeves will wait until autumn before deciding on any support for higher energy bills. 

In other UK news, the Guardian reports that Reeves is “poised to fast-track clean-energy projects in England and Wales with planning reforms to curb the use of judicial reviews against new infrastructure”. BusinessGreen adds that the Treasury will set out “sweeping reforms” that would give MPs authority to approve critical energy schemes and curb legal challenges to major grid infrastructure. The Daily Telegraph adds that the reforms would help prevent “spurious” legal challenges stopping new projects such as pylons and wind and solar projects, according to the Treasury. 

MORE ON UK

• In the Independent, there is continued coverage of the UK government’s decision to ease sanctions on certain Russian oil products, a move senior Labour figures have condemned and opposition Tory leader Kemi Badenoch branded “insane”. 
• The Guardian covers a warning from the House of Lords that, without intervention, England will face water shortages of 5bn litres a day by 2055 due to climate change, pollution and data centres.
• Reuters reports that ​the Competition and Markets Authority is to get “further teeth” to tackle suspected price ​gouging amidst rising energy costs triggered by the Iran war. 
• BBC News reports that a wildfire that burned for four days across the Highlands and Moray in Scotland was the UK’s first “megafire”. 

According to the Kremlin, Russia and China have reached a “general understanding” on the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, reports Reuters, adding that “key details and a timetable” remain to be confirmed. Reuters also reports that Russia has “downgraded” estimates for the price of gas sales to China from next year. Chinese president Xi Jinping said China and Russia should “upgrade practical cooperation” in energy and resources, reports state news agency Xinhua. Xi also said ending the Iran war as soon as possible would help “reduce disruptions to energy supply stability”, according to Xinhua. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reports the value of China’s oil imports from Russia rose 16.2% month-on-month in April, despite a 10.8% drop in volume. The ongoing energy crisis could “inject new urgency” into the long-planned pipeline project, says Bloomberg. Chinese major state refiners have “slashed” oil throughput by more than 1m barrels per day since the Iran war started, reports Reuters.

Meanwhile, Reuters says that after the meeting between Xi and Trump in Beijing, four liquified natural gas (LNG) vessels were on their way to China from the US and expected to arrive in June. It marks the first US gas cargoes to leave the US and “go directly to China” during Trump’s second term in office, adds the newswire. China’s commerce ministry said on Wednesday that its export restrictions on rare earths are “legitimate and lawful” and that it will work with the US on “reasonable” concerns, according to Reuters. State-supporting newspaper Global Times also covers the story.

MORE ON CHINA

• China has issued a notice on supplying “green” electricity dedicated transmission lines rather than the public grid, reports CEPN. Economic Daily reports on efforts to overcome grid issues, including standardised connection rules for distributed solar.
• Bloomberg reports that China is looking to raise up to 6bn yuan ($882m) in a “green sovereign bond” sale in Hong Kong next week.
• Xinhua publishes an article analysing why the current rainfall in China has been so intense, though it does not list climate change as a cause. Xinhua reports China has allocated 50m yuan to support recovery after severe floods in Hunan province.
• Reuters reports “China will accelerate the construction of strategic mineral reserve sites”.
• China’s first geothermal supercritical CO2 heat extraction project has officially begun operation, reports BJX News.
• Hu Jun, director of the Research Centre for Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilisation, writes in China Daily that China offers “practical solutions” for global sustainability.

Reuters reports that the European Commission thinks the bloc can reduce its gas consumption by 15bn cubic metres this year. It adds that speaking at a conference in Amsterdam, Ruud Kempener, deputy head of unit ​for energy security and safety of the commission’s energy directorate said that European countries are better prepared to face the disruption caused by the Iran war, given the regulations put in place following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

MORE ON EUROPE

• Reuters reports that the European Commission has approved €1.3bn in German state aid for the production of renewable hydrogen. 
• The EU has shortlisted tungsten, rare earths and gallium for its first joint stockpile of critical minerals, in an effort to reduce reliance on China, sources tell Reuters.
• Bloomberg reports that Polish lawmakers are calling for deep carbon-market reform. 
• Reuters reports that Poland is planning to propose a windfall tax on oil and gas companies’ profits next week, to help cover the cost of national fuel-tax cuts.
• A piece in Reuters looks at how Italy is “paying the price of [prime minister Georgia] Meloni’s stalled green-energy transition”. 

In the Financial Times, Amos Hochstein, former senior adviser to Joe Biden, writes that an oil shock is going to hit the US, as the “tools that worked to lower prices in the last crisis have already been spent”. He continues to note that when petrol prices went above $5 a gallon for the first time in US history in 2022, driven by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he was serving in the White House and therefore well acquainted with the “acute political anxiety” that number creates. Hochstein concludes that $5 prices are only days away, but that “what follows, and for how long, depends almost entirely on whether this administration is prepared to pursue a political resolution with Iran on nuclear, missile and security arrangements before the economic arithmetic falls off a cliff”.

MORE COMMENT 

• In the climate-sceptic comment pages of the Washington Post, Roger Pielke Jr, fellow of a pro-fossil fuel US lobby group with a history of doubting climate science, argues that “climate apocalypse isn’t around the corner after all”. [For more details see the Carbon Brief factcheck on the RCP8.5 scenario.]
• The Sun, the Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Independent, the Daily Express, the Daily Mail and others carry editorials criticising the government’s move to temporarily exempt some Russian oil and gas products from sanctions.
• In the Daily Express, shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel argues the Labour policy has left the UK “dependent on enemies”.
• An editorial in the Daily Mirror argues that “more is needed” from chancellor Rachel Reeves to support families “battered by Don­ald Trump’s reck­less war with Iran, years of rising bills and end­less eco­nomic shocks”.
• In the climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph, shadow secretary of state for business and trade Andrew Griffith says the Conservatives would “stop the net-zero madness” to bring down energy prices. [Expensive gas is the biggest driver of high prices.]
• In the Financial Times, science commentator Anjana Ahuja asks: “Can geoengineering avert a climate catastrophe?”

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Molly Lempriere, with contributions from Henry Zhang and Anika Patel. It was edited by Simon Evans.

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