The US Department of Agriculture on Tuesday restored some of its webpages on climate change that had been deleted after US president Donald Trump entered office, following a lawsuit by farmers and environmental groups, Reuters reports. The Associated Press adds that the lawsuit was “brought on behalf of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Working Group” and “argued that the deletions violated rules around citizens’ access to government information”. Elsewhere, Reuters reports that California’s Democrat senator Adam Schiff yesterday called for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to restore a database tracking billion-dollar US disasters.

In other US news, there was continued coverage of the news that Republicans in the House of Representatives have proposed a budget that includes phasing out clean energy credits to pay for tax cuts. The Associated Press reports that the House worked into the night yesterday trying to advance the bill, with “sharp debate”, “tension” and “emotions” on show. The New York Times explains more on the draft bill: “A draft bill issued on Monday by Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee would effectively end most of the Inflation Reduction Act’s tax incentives…While shrinking those tax credits could help Republicans save hundreds of billions of dollars, it could also cause companies to abandon plans for new nuclear reactors or battery factories. More than three-quarters of pending investments were planned in Republican-held congressional districts.” In addition, Politico reports that Senate Republicans could vote as soon as next week on a “controversial proposal to nix federal waivers allowing California to set its own emissions standards”.

Elsewhere, Climate Home News reports that Trump is increasingly redirecting foreign finance for helping countries transition to clean energy instead to fossil-fuel expansion. Reuters reports that the Trump administration plans to “shrink the time it takes to review potential land parcels on federal lands for oil and gas development by about half, to six months”. The Associated Press reports that plans for a “carbon-capture pipeline” in Iowa have passed regulations, but still require signoff from the governor. The Guardian reports that Ireland is hoping to “entice” US academics by offering a home for “free thinkers”.

More than 100 people have been killed in flash floods in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, BBC News reports. It continues: “Torrential rain triggered the flooding overnight in South Kivu, destroying homes and displacing families. The region is approaching the end of its wet season, but further heavy downpours are forecast in the coming days, raising fears of more flooding.” Agence France-Presse reports that the floods have “washed away several villages” in the South Kivu province, with “children and elderly people” disproportionately killed. It quotes Bernard Akili, a regional official, saying that torrential rains caused the Kasaba River to burst its banks overnight, with the rushing waters “carrying everything in their path, large stones, large trees and mud, before razing the houses on the edge of the lake”. The newswire continues: “Such natural disasters are frequent in the DRC, particularly on the shores of the Great Lakes in the east of the country, as the surrounding hills are weakened by deforestation. In 2023, floods killed 400 people in several communities located on the shores of Lake Kivu, in South Kivu province, while last month, 33 people were killed in flooding in the capital, Kinshasa.” [No assessment of the role of climate change in the DRC’s current flooding has yet been carried out. A previous assessment of floods in April in the country by scientists at the World Weather Attribution found that high vulnerability, fuelled by extreme conflict in eastern DRC, was a major factor in why the disaster was so deadly. A lack of available data made it difficult for scientists to determine the role of human-caused climate change in the torrential rains driving the floods.]

China’s lithium battery exporters have welcomed the recent tariff de-escalation between China and the US, business news outlet Caixin reports, adding that the rates are now “lower than expected” and a “major positive” for Chinese battery companies. Following trade talks in Geneva, the US tariffs on lithium batteries for vehicles will be reduced from 173% to 58%, while those for lithium batteries not meant for vehicles falls from 156% to around 41%, it adds. Business news outlet Jiemian also covers the story, quoting Chen Shan, an analyst at consultancy Rystad Energy, saying that China’s lithium battery exports will “likely resume, and that there could even be a “short-term stockpiling surge” for some imports. Meanwhile, Bloomberg says that, following the agreement, Chinese rare-earth exporters are asking the government to “clarify whether they’re allowed to sell to the US”. Reuters reports that a “complete removal” of the export restrictions is “unlikely”, according to unnamed sources, but that permits for US importers are “likely to have an easier time getting approval from Beijing”. Reuters also publishes a comment article by columnist Clyde Russell arguing that the de-escalation will “do very little to restore the trade in [US] energy commodities” such as crude oil and liquid natural gas.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that Chinese companies have announced plans to invest about $5bn in Brazil, covering projects including “automotive manufacturing and renewable energy”. Reuters reports that Lula has met with Chinese energy companies during his visit, announcing “two Chinese partnerships on Monday, including a $1bn investment by China’s Envision Energy to produce sustainable aviation fuel”. China Energy Net covers the same story, saying that the company will also build “Latin America’s first zero-carbon industrial park in Brazil”.

In other news, the Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily reports that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and China’s State Council have released “regulations on ecological and environmental protection inspections”, standardising inspection work and further “strengthening” the system. Energy news outlet International Energy Net carries the full text of the regulation, which explains that one of the “main contents” of the inspections remit is the “green transformation of the development modal…and promotion of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality”. State news agency Xinhua says that the new regulations will replace the previous version from 2019. A separate Xinhua article quotes a party official from the Office of the Central Leading Group for Ecological and Environmental Protection Inspections says that the regulation is of “great significance” for upholding the party’s governance over climate and environment issues.

The UK is on track for its driest spring on record, with some parts of Greater London, Hampshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Yorkshire recording no rain in the past 20 days, according to Met Office data covered by BBC News. It continues: “The Met Office told BBC Weather that with a UK average rainfall accumulation of just 80mm so far this spring, compared to an average of 229mm, we’re currently running at the driest spring on record. As well as being unusually dry, there has also been a lot of sunshine. April was the sunniest on record in the UK, following the third-sunniest March ever.” It adds that, according to the Environment Agency, there is a “medium risk” of summer drought. Separately, BBC News reports that Scotland had its hottest day of the year so far yesterday.

In other UK news, a frontpage story in the Daily Telegraph reports that Chris O’Shea, the chief executive of British Gas parent company Centrica, wrote on LinkedIn that the shift to renewable power “will NOT materially reduce UK electricity prices from current levels”. According to the newspaper, he added: “They may give price stability and avoid future price spikes based on the international gas market, but they will definitely not reduce the price.” The article quotes the shadow energy minister and Reform’s energy spokesperson making misleading statements about net-zero. A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesman tells the Daily Telegraph that the figures showed that “the prices for renewables that will form the backbone of clean power” were lower than last year’s average power prices. The spokesperson adds: “As shown by the National Energy System Operator’s independent report, clean power by 2030 is achievable and will deliver a more secure energy system, which could see a lower cost of electricity and lower bills.”

Elsewhere, BBC News reports that the UK’s climate change advisers, the Climate Change Committee, have “criticised the handling of a switch to greener steelmaking at the country’s largest plant in Port Talbot”, saying that “government ministers should have been better at planning ahead and making sure other green jobs were available locally”. The Times reports on new guidance from the Law Society suggesting “homebuyers should be advised to commission bespoke climate change surveys as the risks posed by extreme weather increase”. The Daily Telegraph reports that the UK’s tallest building outside London will be constructed as part of plans for a $1bn factory in South Shields to build giant cables needed to connect offshore wind farms. The Daily Telegraph also reports that the government is considering a scheme to allow workers to pay for heat pump installations through a salary sacrifice scheme. The Daily Mail reports in an “exclusive” that the wife of energy secretary Ed Miliband has joined a “neighbourhood campaign” against a block of flats near the couple’s home, with one of the complaints being around the noise from heat pumps. (The Daily Telegraph also has a column on the “nimby row” from feature writer Eleanor Steafel.) The Daily Telegraph further reports on how newly fitted solar panels were the “probable cause” of a house fire in Wiltshire, according to a local fire service spokesperson. Finally, the Press Association reports on a project to restore hundreds of acres of “rare temperate rainforest” in the Isle of Mann.

Following a landslide victory for the incumbent Labor party in Australia’s election, the opposing Coalition, a group of rightwing parties, has elected a new leader in Liberal politician Sussan Ley, the Guardian reports. It says that she “has left open the possibility the Coalition could abandon net-zero emissions targets, but insists she is not interested in restarting Australia’s bitter climate wars”. According to the newspaper, she told a press conference: “No policies have been adopted or walked away from at this time…There won’t be a climate war. There will be sound and sensible consultation and I undertake 100% to do that.” [The “climate wars” in Australia generally refers to a multi-year period when the Coalition was in power and failed to make advances on climate policy due to internal disagreements.] The Guardian also reports that Australia’s current climate and energy minister Chris Bowen has “ridiculed the Liberal party for putting net-zero by 2050 up for review after its election defeat”, comparing it to putting the “sky being blue” up for debate.

Peter Gleick, a climate scientist and author, writes that the Trump administration has been “purging” reports on the national security threat posed by climate change and other environmental problems from the public record. This purge includes “removing environmental security studies from government websites or disabling those pages, cutting funding for environmental security studies and requiring military and intelligence communities to suppress and censor references to climate change”, he explains in an article for the not-for-profit Bulletin of the Atomic Sciences. Gleick adds: “These actions will not reduce the actual risk that environmental problems pose for national security or the military, the physical reality of those threats will be unchanged. Instead, they will blind the country to environmental instability and real-world conflict risks that jeopardise our military and national security.” 

Accelerating ice melt, atmospheric deposition and the remobilisation of sediment are altering the behaviour of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in northern polar environments, according to new research. The study is a review of the evidence of the “combined consequences” of climate change drivers on the fate and biological effects of POPs – toxic, carbon-based chemicals – in the marine environment. The research points to reduced survival and “perturbed thermal regulation and bioenergetics” among certain fish and invertebrates, as well as changes to “POP bioaccumulation” among some marine mammals and seabirds. However, the authors warn that data gaps remain. 

The total amount of energy forests are able to capture through photosynthesis due to the carbon dioxide (CO2) fertilisation effect is “constrained” by climate conditions, new research finds. To investigate how the climate and atmospheric CO2 regulate the gross primary production (GPP) of forests, the study integrates flux-tower measurements from 50 forest ecosystems and simulations from 15 terrestrial biosphere models. It notes that in colder regions, global warming may “partially relieve” temperature limitations and enhance the carbon uptake potential of forests. In tropical forests, CO2 fertilisation “strongly enhances” GPP, but this benefit will be “counterbalanced” by the adverse impacts of warming, it adds.