The US and Qatar have warned the EU that “its trade, investment and energy supplies will be harmed unless the bloc walks back tough new climate and human rights rules”, according to a letter seen by the Financial Times. The newspaper explains: “Washington and Doha said the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive poses an ‘existential threat’ to the growth, competitiveness, and resilience of the European economy and will imperil its energy security. The two countries said the rules – set for debate by EU legislators as early as Friday – would hurt their exports of liquefied natural gas, which became a lifeline for the bloc after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.” The FT quotes a letter to the EU signed by the US and Qatari energy ministers as saying: “This comes at a critical moment when our countries and companies are striving not only to sustain but to significantly increase the reliable supply of LNG to the EU.” Bloomberg also has the story.

MORE ON EU

• The EU has adopted its negotiating position for the upcoming COP30 climate talks, Carbon Pulse reports. The outlet says the position calls for urgent action to cut emissions, but does not include the EU’s own target for cutting emissions.
• Politico says the EU position paper was adopted following a “significant delay after Greece initially vetoed the text” due to a reference, later removed, to the delayed International Maritime Organization deal on a global shipping emissions levy.

Global coal use hit a record high last year, according to a new report covered by the Guardian. It reports: “The share of coal in electricity generation dropped as renewable energy surged ahead. But the general increase in power demand meant that more coal was used overall, according to the annual State of Climate Action report, published on Wednesday.” Clea Schumer, a research associate at the World Resources Institute thinktank, which led the report, tells the newspaper: “There’s no doubt that we are largely doing the right things. We are just not moving fast enough. One of the most concerning findings from our assessment is that for the fifth report in our series in a row, efforts to phase out coal are well off track.”

China and the EU are expected to play “pivotal roles in shaping the outcomes” of COP30 scheduled next month in Brazil, United Nations Environment Programme executive director Inger Andersen tells state-run newspaper China Daily. Andersen says China-EU climate cooperation could be a “true win-win”, with China-EU joint investment strengthening markets and creating jobs in China, Europe and recipient countries, it adds. Meanwhile, EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra tells Brazilian outlet Valor that China’s emissions reduction target of 7-10% by 2035 is “not nearly doing enough” to address climate change. Christoph Nedopil, director and professor at the Griffith Asia Institute, argues in a comment piece for China Daily that to “avoid the perception of merely exporting products, China must pivot toward co-investment and joint research in emerging technologies”.

An editorial by the state-supporting newspaper Global Times says that China’s clean-energy industries, including new energy vehicles (NEVs), solar power, wind power and energy storage, have “remained robust” in 2025, adding that China will make “clean energy and low-carbon lifestyles new drivers of growth” during the 15th five-year plan period (2026-2030). An article in the Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily under the byline Jin Sheping – used to signal the thoughts of party leadership on economic matters – says Chinese president Xi Jinping’s “new development philosophy”, which includes “green development”, has “guided China’s economic development to “achieve historic accomplishments”. A commentary on economic policy in People’s Daily  under the byline Ren Ping – a homophone for “People’s Daily commentary” – urges local authorities to “prevent a blind rush” in investment into sectors such as NEVs.

MORE ON CHINA

• Power news outlet Dianlian Xinmei says China’s renewable energy development is now shifting from focusing on “expanding scale” to “consuming effectively”.
• Wind turbine manufacturer Envision’s Lou Yimin tells economic news outlet Jiemian that wind power generators must diversify the ways in which they participate in China’s power system.
• Manufacturer Ming Yang plans to build the world’s “largest floating wind turbine”, with a capacity of 50 megawatts, says Bloomberg.
• Energy Foundation China’s Zou Ji tells Jiemian that “trade protectionism” has slowed global deployment of “low-cost” clean-energy technologies.
• The world’s first methanol-electricity cargo ship has “officially commenc[ed] commercial operations”, Yicai reports.
• Bloomberg: “Why rare earths are China’s trump card in the trade war.”
  

Coal – as a “primary fuel of development”– could “cloud the prospects of India’s new” climate pledge for 2035, Business Standard reports. Current plans “foresee boosting coal additions to well over 80GW [gigawatts]”, it adds. The outlet says that the delay in releasing India’s new climate pledge under the Paris Agreement “likely reflects complex policy decisions”, including approval from the prime minister’s office and external affairs ministry. It quotes Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), saying: “The key point from our research is that the 500GW target [of renewable capacity by 2030] puts India on track to peak power sector emissions before 2030…It would be important to extend that target to maintain the same rate of clean-power additions out to 2035.” [See the latest research on India’s emissions from CREA at Carbon Brief.]

MORE ON INDIA

• India and the US are “nearing a long-stalled trade deal”, with agreement “hing[ing]” on energy and agriculture, the Hindustan Times reports. It says that according to Trump, Modi “assured him that India would limit its oil purchases from Russia”, while “Indian state-run oil firms may be informally guided to diversify crude sourcing toward the US”. 
• A high-level government committee finds that India’s “tenfold expansion” of its nuclear power capacity by 2047 would need $19tn in investment, says the Business Standard.
• While Mongabay explains “non-economic loss and damage” [see Carbon Brief’s Q&A], IndiaSpend looks at how climate impacts are causing school closures, “threaten[ing] a potentially irreversible generational learning gap”. 
• Another Mongabay story explains the factors behind the Ganga’s “most severe drought ever recorded”, with the river’s streamflow seeing the “steepest decline” in over 1,300 years.
• Deutsche Welle covers attempts to build sustainable homes in India’s “cyclone capital” in the eastern Sundarbans delta.

In a speech in London last night, UK energy and net-zero secretary Ed Miliband said that the positive impact of renewable-energy growth on the economy was a “brilliant antidote to the story of despair” told by climate sceptics, Business Green reports. According to the publication, Miliband urged green businesses and advocates for climate action to ignore the “siren voices” arguing against ambitious climate action, warning that opponents of the net-zero transition risked squandering “the economic opportunity of the 21st century”. Miliband was speaking at the launch of new Sector Transition Plan Guidance, which was developed by the government and business leaders on the Net Zero Council and “aims to help UK industry bodies draw up sector-specific decarbonisation roadmaps”, Business Green says.

MORE ON UK

• The chancellor Rachel Reeves “will tell Cabinet colleagues she is considering measures to reduce household energy bills as part of her budget”, Sky News reports.
• Developing large-scale tidal power “would push up UK electricity costs”, according to modelling by the state-owned National Energy System Operator, the Financial Times reports.
• All profits from a new windfarm on the Scottish island of Orkney will be spent on public services, the Guardian reports.
• BBC News reviews the reasons behind high orange juice prices, including worsening “climate shocks”.
• The Daily Telegraph’s Money section has a guide to how installing rooftop solar panels can help homeowners save on bills and cut emissions.
• The Daily Telegraph also reports on a Which? Survey finding that one in three homeowners was open to buying a heat pump, but that two-thirds of this group are “put off by the cost”.

Tropical Storm Melissa formed in the Caribbean Sea on Tuesday and is expected to bring heavy rain, flooding and high winds to Haiti and Jamaica later this week, AP reports. It says that the US National Hurricane Center has issued a hurricane watch for parts of Haiti, while the Jamaican government has issued a tropical storm watch. CNN reports that “Melissa was churning about 300 miles south of Haiti with maximum sustained winds of 50mph as of Tuesday evening, according to the National Hurricane Center” and that the “storm is expected to hit hurricane status by Saturday”.

MORE ON EXTREME WEATHER

• One man has been killed in a storm in Wellington, New Zealand, the Associated Press reports.
• Sydney, Australia is facing potentially record-breaking October temperatures, the Guardian says.
• The Guardian examines how Typhoon Halong “destroyed an Alaskan village”.

Paul Watkinson, a former chief climate negotiator for France and consultant, writes for Climate Home News that the COP30 summit in Brazil must produce a “credible response to counter attacks on multilateralism and to boost action on reducing emissions, adaptation, loss and damage, and finance”. He continues: “While there is certainly a need to maximise the impact of Belém, I am not convinced a cover decision is [the] most effective vehicle. It is time for the COP to move beyond fighting over decision wording and truly pivot towards supporting and facilitating implementation…What should we do instead? Pivot to an implementation forum, as I suggested a few months’ ago. The Action Agenda – which mobilises voluntary climate action across economies and societies – can provide just the vehicle we need to do this, with the great advantage that it does not require consensus outcomes. However, it does require major improvements to be effective.”

MORE COMMENT

• Environmental politics researcher Prof Shannon Gibson writes in the Conversation that Trump is not stopping nations such as China and Brazil from pursuing climate action, but that “progress is slow”.
• Grist examines “why Democrats aren’t talking much about climate change anymore”.
• For the Economist, Dan Wang, a research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, says that Trump is “copying the wrong things from China”, pointing to China’s “sophisticated approach” to attracting foreign investment for low-carbon industries.
• Guardian Australia economics editor Patrick Commins says the nation’s new deal on critical minerals with China is “not good economics”, but “bargaining chips matter”.
• An editorial in the Times says that the policies of the Green party “hold grave danger and must be taken seriously”. Conversely, Guardian columnist Owen Jones says Green policies “offer a way out” of the “politics of despair that have engulfed” the UK.
• The climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph has an op-ed by prominent climate sceptic Bjorn Lomborg with the headline: “Climate disaster science gets huge coverage. When it’s found to be wrong…crickets.”

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Daisy Dunne, with contributions from Aruna Chandrasekhar, Anika Patel and Henry Zhang. It was edited by Simon Evans.

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