Chris Wright, the climate-sceptic US energy secretary, has dismissed the impacts of climate change as “not incredibly important” and described the Paris Agreement as “silly”, reports the New York Times. Speaking at a thinktank on Friday, Wright – a former fracking executive – defended the Trump administration’s decision to block a nearly complete $6.2bn windfarm off the coast of Rhode Island “by saying offshore wind increases electricity prices and by downplaying the jobs at stake”, the newspaper says. It quotes an academic who points out that “there’s no evidence for that”. Regarding the impact of warming on quality of life, Wright claimed that, “in fact, if it wasn’t in the news, in the media, you wouldn’t know”, the article reports. It continues: “Wright said the focus in the US to transition away from fossil fuels had hurt the country. It’s a message he said he intended to take on a multileg trip next week to Europe, where he will encourage countries to buy more American gas. The US is currently the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas as well as the largest producer of oil.”

Speaking to reporters after the event, Wright said there was a “very active dialogue in the administration” over the fate of the blocked windfarm, Bloomberg reports. It notes: “Earlier this year, the Trump administration lifted a similar stop-work order for a windfarm being built near New York after reaching an agreement with the state’s governor over new energy projects.” Ørsted – the Danish firm developing the blocked project – has won shareholder approval for a $9.4bn emergency rights issue for new shares to “help fund US projects thrown into uncertainty”, Reuters reports. Meanwhile, E&E News says that a federal court was “sceptical” about whether it could order a pause on Trump’s presidential action – issued in January – ordering agencies to stop issuing or renewing permits for onshore and offshore wind projects.

MORE ON US

• The Trump administration wants to “switch off” two satellites that “provide precise global measurements of carbon dioxide”, reports the New York Times.
• The US Environmental Protection Agency has moved to suspend more than 100 members of staff who signed a letter of dissent against the Trump administration’s policies in July, CNN reports. 
• A Trump-appointed former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency has said that abolishing the agency would put the American people at “extreme risk”, reports Bloomberg.
• Axios reports that the House of Representatives narrowly voted to advance the energy and water appropriations bill, which would “slash funding for the energy department’s clean-energy programmes while boosting spending for nuclear energy”.
• The White House published its “spring unified agenda” last week, which solidifies plans for “rules that could boost the oil and gas industry and laying out a timeline for offshore carbon storage regulations”, says E&E News.

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney has announced a delay to minimum sales targets for electric vehicles – due to come into force next year – as the industry “deals with US president Donald Trump’s tariffs”, the Associated Press reports. Canadian car manufacturers will no longer have to meet the target, established by then-prime minister Justin Trudeau in 2023, requiring that 20% of cars sold in 2026 should be zero-emission, the newswire explains. Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Carney said: “We have an auto sector that, because of the massive change in US trade policy, is under extreme pressure…The EV mandate adds to the liquidity issues they have…They’ve got enough on their plate right now so we are taking that off,” the article notes. The Canadian government will launch an “immediate 60-day review” to reduce costs linked to the EV sales requirement, says Al Jazeera. It notes that Carney also announced a new C$370m (£198m) biofuel production incentive. Politico, Bloomberg, BBC News, Financial Times, Reuters and CBC News all have the story.

The World Nuclear Association (WNA) has warned that a revival in nuclear energy could trigger a shortfall in uranium supplies unless new sources are found, says the Financial Times. In a report published on Friday, the industry lobby group projects that global uranium demand for reactors is set to rise by one-third to 86,000 tonnes by 2030 and to 150,000 tonnes by 2040, the newspaper explains: “But output from today’s mines is expected to halve between 2030 and 2040 as existing deposits are exhausted, leaving a ‘significant gap’ that threatens the nuclear power revival. The report called on the industry to secure investment to locate more uranium and extract it from current as well as new and idle mines to avoid a supply crunch.” According to the WNA, uranium demand is set to increase as more governments rely on nuclear power to meet zero-carbon targets, says Reuters, adding: “Concerns over energy security and independence due to geopolitical factors have also boosted interest in nuclear power, it said.”

MORE ON NUCLEAR

• Ahead of US president Trump’s state visit to the UK, the White House is “lobbying in support of plans for American companies to build nuclear power plants and data centres that could power artificial intelligence”, says the Daily Telegraph.
• According to the director of the US Energy Dominance Council, the Trump administration is more willing to support loan guarantees and tax breaks for nuclear power than for wind and solar because it is “more American”, Reuters reports.
• Euractiv: “Nuclear is coming in from the cold – but will it be made in Europe?”
• The UK’s Nuclear Industry Association has said that finding a functioning nuclear waste site is “key to the credibility and sustainability” of the UK’s nuclear programme, reports BBC News.

A UK government decision over the building of a hydrogen plant has been pushed back “amid a row over land which has subsequently been earmarked for an AI data centre”, reports BBC News. It continues: “BP is seeking a development consent order (DCO), which is required for nationally significant infrastructure projects, for a blue hydrogen plant on the Teesworks site in Redcar. The government had been set to make its decision by 28 August, but this has now been pushed back to 30 October to ‘allow time to request further information’, according to MP Miatta Fahnbulleh.” Since BP first announced its plans, landowners South Tees Group (STG) has sought permission for the data centre, the article explains. It adds that, in their objections to BP’s plant, STG claimed the proposed data centre was of “critical national importance”.

In other news, Greg Jackson – the chief executive of Octopus Energy – has said that the UK should stop investing in carbon capture and storage (CCS) for use in energy systems, reports the Financial Times. Speaking at the FT Weekend Festival on Saturday, Jackson said: “It’s a boondoggle for oil and gas and we would be better off in the UK just burning unabated gas, because the cheaper we make electricity, the cheaper our heat pumps and electrics cars are going to be, and they are the key to emissions reductions.” The Sunday Telegraph has also interviewed Jackson and leads its coverage with his criticism of curtailment fees, which the newspaper describes as the “sums handed to windfarms to switch off when the grid is too congested to handle their power”. Jackson is also not opposed to renewed drilling in the North Sea, telling the newspaper: “When we’re shipping LNG, liquefied natural gas, around the world, it is a lot dirtier than using locally produced gas…If we’re going to produce gas then I’ve got no problem in using local stuff.” [A Carbon Brief factcheck shows that CO2 emissions from UK production are only around 15% lower than those from LNG imports.]

MORE ON UK

• The Times reports that the prime minister Kier Starmer “wants reforms on building and welfare, but net-zero regulations are in the firing line”. It adds: “Government insiders said net-zero regulation had emerged as a particular issue for many firms.”
• Tens of thousands of used electric car and energy storage batteries are “piling up in the UK”, reports the Financial Times, “highlighting gaps in the country’s battery supply chain”.
• The Sunday Times profiles Zack Polanski, the new leader of the UK Green party.
• The Times: “Ørsted blames lack of wind for pessimistic profit forecast.”
• The Daily Telegraph reports on the “net-zero projects” being cut as part of the government’s reduction in aid spending. 
• Elsewhere in the UK’s net-zero-sceptic newspapers, the Daily Mail reports on how Labour’s “net-zero obsession” is “killing” Aberdeen, while the Sunday Telegraph says that £700m has been spent on heat pumps through government grants in Labour’s first year. 

Drafts for sections of China’s new “ecological environment code”, including one on “green and low-carbon development”, are set to be submitted for a second review by China’s state legislature, reports the state-run outlet China News. It quotes Huang Haihua, national people’s congress standing committee spokesperson, telling a press conference that the code will lay the foundation for the “construction of a legal system and practical development” in relation to low-carbon development. Business news outlet Jiemian also covers the story, saying that the new draft proposes major revisions, including “refining general provisions on green and low-carbon development” and “clarifying that the state shall establish a carbon emissions trading market and strengthen data quality management, among other measures”. Meanwhile, Huang has also confirmed that China’s draft atomic energy law has also been submitted for a third reading, according to the state-supporting newspaper Global Times.

MORE ON CHINA

• China allocated 940m yuan ($131m) to “agricultural disaster relief”, Reuters reports, “following record-breaking rains”. China also allocated 733m yuan ($103m) to support “flood control” efforts in eight provinces, China News says.
• Caijing says the Sino-Russian agreement on the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline is “only a framework agreement or letter of intent”, adding that “multiple CNPC sources told Caijing that no concrete operational steps…have been seen”. Reuters quotes Russian president Vladimir Putin saying the price of the pipeline’s gas would be “calculated using essentially the same formula as for deliveries to Europe”, adding it is “absolutely market-based”.
• A Xinhua column by international affairs observer Zheng Yin says UK-China ties can “accelerate the global low-carbon transition”.
• Dialogue Earth says that China’s interest in financing Argentina’s renewable energy sector is in “doubt”.
• The NEA says “long-distance hydrogen pipelines” are “important” to China, but are still in the early stages of development, China Energy Net reports.
• The Guardian reports that “Brazilian diplomats expect their BRICS partner to be a quiet, but strong supporter” at COP30.  

German environment minister Carsten Schneider is “strongly urging” his cabinet colleagues, the center-right Christian Democrat Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU), not to delay discussions on a new EU climate target: “Anyone who blocks the new European climate target for 2040 and delays the necessary decisions is acting against German interests and risks an expensive, isolated German approach,” Schneider tells Der Spiegel – a comment the outlet describes as “unusually sharp” for the Social Democrat politician. The European Commission proposes that the EU reduce its emissions by 90% by 2040 to reach net-zero by 2050, according to the newspaper. Deutsche Welle reports that, while the German economy minister suggests that the country’s 2045 climate target will be “hard to achieve”, Schneider, “refuses to be discouraged” and acknowledges Germany’s role in climate change and its duty towards lowering emissions. 

MORE ON GERMANY

• Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports that the German government has announced the establishment of a new “department for international climate policy” within the environment ministry.
• Germany’s energy and industry manufacturers have warned that “green” hydrogen continues to be more expensive compared with other energy types, “jeopardising” German industrial energy transition, reports Financial Times. 
• Handelsblatt discusses “the biggest hurdles to grid expansion in Germany”. 

There is widespread reaction to – and analysis of – policy proposals by the UK’s hard-right, populist Reform party after its two-day conference ended on Saturday. BBC News’s Ben Chu – a policy and analysis correspondent in the BBC Verify team – assesses Reform’s economic plans, including its claims that it could save £30bn every year for the next 25 years by scrapping net-zero targets. Chu notes that two-thirds of the £30bn “fiscal cost” of the net-zero transition, as estimated by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), would be down to lost fuel-duty receipts, if people continued to switch to electric vehicles “and the government did not replace fuel duty with a new levy on road users”. Chu notes that “it’s also important to bear in mind that the OBR stresses the economic and fiscal costs to the UK” if net-zero is not achieved globally. The OBR estimates that around 3C of climate change “could add 2% of GDP to UK primary borrowing (before interest costs) by the early 2070s”, Chu adds.

Meanwhile, the Guardian’s environment reporter Helena Horton speaks to Reform members, noting that their positions on climate change and energy are more “nuanced” than the party’s leadership. The Associated Press reports that “some of the positions” that Reform leader Nigel Farage “shares with Trump, such as opposition to net-zero climate goals, are unpopular in Britain”. However, Times columnist Fraser Nelson says that fringe debates at the Reform conference are on how to abolish net-zero and promote “climate realism”. He says these events “seem a lot more popular” than the pro-net-zero talks at other party conferences. The Press Association reports that three climate protesters were removed from the conference “after shouting at Nigel Farage while he was on stage”. Finally, the Financial Times speaks to Jonathan Brown, lead of the pro-Reform UK thinktank, the Centre for a Better Britain (CBB), who says his second priority – after the UK’s fiscal situation – will be to focus on UK energy policy and “how to rebalance objectives in terms of net-zero not being the top priority”. 

MORE UK COMMENT

• In reaction to the resignation of deputy prime minister Angela Raynor and the subsequent government reshuffle, there is despair in several comment articles of the net-zero-sceptic Daily Telegraph that the energy secretary Ed Miliband remains in his post.
• Saturday’s Daily Telegraph reported in its frontpage coverage of the reshuffle that Miliband’s hold on the energy secretary role shows that Keir Starmer is “committed to the green agenda and was reluctant to sacrifice another candidate popular with the left of his party”.
• A Sun editorial on the contrast between Reform UK and Labour criticises the latter for “net-zero madness hiking up family bills”. [A Carbon Brief factcheck explains how high gas prices are the chief driver of higher household electricity bills.]
• In further commentary in the Daily Telegraph, there are calls for a “screeching U-turn” on the North Sea and complaints that “jet-zero” is a “sham we should stop wasting money on”.

Writing the Financial Times, James Meadway – senior director for economics at the Opportunity Green thinktank – says that the Trump administration’s “America First” policies are “opening new spaces for action on climate change”. While ”this has not been immediately obvious”, Meadway says, new analysis from his thinktank shows that “some effects of its tariffs are actually likely to be positive for climate change”. He cites a reduction in shipping as trade falls, noting: “The benefit here is that even relatively small differences in weights and transport distances, as goods are rerouted or resourced, can add up to meaningful reductions in emissions across a massive global trading system”. Another benefit is that imported goods might be replaced with local production, or the “recycling, repair and reuse of existing products”, he says.

Elsewhere, in a Guardian “featured essay”, veteran climate activist Bill McKibben writes that solar power is the “climate solution both the right and the left can get behind”. A Washington Post editorial defends the renaming of the US Department of Defense as the Department of War. It says: “Concepts such as ‘defense’ and ‘security’ have a tendency for bureaucratic mission creep. The Biden administration’s 2022 National Defense Strategy mentioned ‘climate’ 19 times. Climate change is a problem, but fighting it is not the military’s job. Nor is nation-building.” And the climate-sceptic theoretical physicist Steve Koonin, one of five authors of the recent US Department of Energy climate report, claims in the Wall Street Journal that “reports like ours may draw a lot of anger but our work accurately portrays important aspects of climate science”. [A recent Carbon Brief factcheck has highlighted more than 100 false or misleading statements in the report.]

MORE US COMMENT

• An editorial in the climate-sceptic New York Post claims a new study “debunks” the “hysteria” around an acceleration in sea level rise. The Times also covers the study, which one scientist has criticised at length on social media, noting it has “statistical mistakes and biases, and doesn’t even use the term ‘global-mean sea level’ or attempt to address the topic”.

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

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