Nearly two dozen US states are suing the US federal government over its cancellation of the ‘solar for all’ grant programme, which is “aimed at expanding solar energy in low-income communities”, Reuters reports. The newswire says that two lawsuits were announced by a group of states that received grants under the grant programme, which was axed by the US Environmental Protection Agency last August. The Guardian’s coverage notes that the first complaint “seeks monetary damage” and the second suit asks for a “reinstatement of the programme”. It says the lawsuit is among “dozens” filed against the Trump administration by 23 Democratic attorneys general. The Los Angeles Times quotes California attorney general Rob Bonta as saying the Trump Administration is “needlessly hampering an industry that can produce safe, reliable and inexpensive energy”. The Washington Post, E&E News and the Associated Press also have the story.

Meanwhile, Agence France-Press reports on the US Federal Reserve’s decision to scrap guidance for how big banks should manage their climate risk. It notes that the US central bank issued a joint statement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) where the organisations said they “do not believe principles for managing climate-related financial risk are necessary”. Bloomberg says that the withdrawal of these standards is the latest in a series of moves from the US Federal Reserve that allow it “to step away from focusing on climate risk”. This includes a decision earlier this year to disband a number of internal groups set up to help the central bank “identify and respond to financial stability threats posed by climate change”, it says.

MORE ON US 

• The Associated Press, Washington Post Politico, Axios, ABC News and Bloomberg cover the US Department of Energy’s decision to provide a $1.6bn loan guarantee to upgrade electricity transmission lines in the US midwest.
• The Financial Times reports that US and Canada are considering reviving the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline as part of ongoing trade talks.
• A Louisiana judge has ordered a review of a Gulf coast liquefied natural gas facility’s “climate change and environmental justice-related impacts”, according to the Associated Press.
• Bloomberg: Electric vehicles compromised 11% of all new car sales in the US in the third quarter of 2025.
• The “world’s largest brick-based” industrial heat battery has been powered up at a California oil field, the Los Angeles Times reports.

There is continuing coverage of international shipping talks being held this week at the International Maritime Organisation, with the Times reporting that proposals for a levy on ships’ carbon emissions are expected to be passed today with the required two-thirds majority. The newspaper notes the US is pushing for a change to the approval process for the carbon tax which could “complicate and potentially derail” its adoption. Climate Home News says the US and Saudi Arabia-led push to alter the procedural progress would make it “harder” for the IMO’s net-zero “hard-fought” framework to come into effect. Bloomberg emphasises that “top” shipping nation Greece is “walking back” its support for the levy and plans to abstain in today’s vote. Meanwhile, the Sun reports that shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho said the tax could “sink the shipping industry under a tide of global regulation”.

In related comment, a Times editorial argues the UN has “no business” imposing a carbon tax. It says that plans to use the funds collected through the levy for just-transition initiatives in ­developing countries and to reduce climate change impacts in “vulnerable states” means that it will “become a honey pot attracting every ­corrupt regime on the planet”. A Sun editorial claims the tax will result in “costly and pointless bureaucratic regulation”. (For more details, see Carbon Brief’s coverage of the framework negotiations from earlier this year.)

Plans for a rare earths refinery in Hull have been scrapped, after the firm behind the scheme, Pensana, announced it would “seek investment” in the US, BBC News reports. The project – which would have processed materials produced in Angola to create magnets that go in electric vehicles and wind turbines – would have given the UK “a strategic foothold” in an industry dominated by China, according to the outlet. In its coverage, Sky News says that the UK’s aims of becoming a “critical minerals superpower” had been “dealt a severe blow”. The Daily Mail notes that Pensana’s decision came after the US government “signalled its willingness to pay a guaranteed price for rare earths from an American mine”. Company chairman Paul Atherly reportedly said that the US deal could be worth more than $1bn (£750m), compared to the £5m Pensana had been offered by the UK government, according to the newspaper. The Times also has the story. 

MORE ON CRITICAL MINERALS

• In an opinion piece in the Financial Times, Mischa Glenny – rector of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna – argues that Europe is the “biggest loser” in the US-China “rare-earth wars”. Europe’s “dual dependence” on America’s digital services and China’s critical mineral processing industry leaves it “highly vulnerable to external pressures”, he says.

“Natural disasters” have cost China 217bn yuan ($30.5bn) in the first three quarters of 2025, reports Reuters, citing China’s Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM). The ministry said at a press conference yesterday that the “natural disasters”, including floods and droughts, have affected more than 55 million people – leaving 742 people “dead or missing”, and three million relocated – as of September 2025, according to China News, a state-run newswire. State broadcaster CCTV also covers the story. Another China News report says that the “national average temperature in July [2025] was the highest since 1961”. 

The Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily publishes seven “facts” to defend China’s export control over rare earth minerals. Bloomberg reports that the US treasury secretary Scott Bessent “dangled the possibility of extending a pause of import duties on Chinese goods for longer than three months if China halts its [export control] plan”. Reuters also covers the story. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) publishes an article under the headline: “China unleashes battery export controls as it makes strides in solid-state science.” 

MORE ON CHINA

• Sun Qixin, head of China Agricultural University, tells Science and Technology Daily that “the intensifying global climate change poses real challenges to agricultural and food systems, and future uncertainties are increasing”.
• The increasingly “unpredictable” weather is driving up coal prices in China, Bloomberg reports, saying that “unusually high temperatures” in central and eastern China and “chilly rains” in the north both demand more use of coal in the country.
• China has released a “central budgetary investment” plan, supporting carbon reduction in key industries, such as electricity and steel, and the “low-carbon transformation of coal-fired power units and coal chemical projects”, International Energy Net reports.
• The Financial Times carries an article discussing the impact of China’s “five-year plan”.
• Energy Intelligence: “China’s hydrogen developers seek support to get market moving.”

Speaking to BBC News, Chancellor Rachel Reeves says she is planning “targeted action to deal with cost of living challenges” in next month’s Budget. The outlet says it understands the government “could intervene to bring down energy bills”, including by potentially cutting the current 5% rate of VAT charged on energy, or by reducing some of the “regulatory levies” currently added to bills. BusinessGreen reports on calls from a “coalition of trade bodies” – led by the Association of Decentralised Energy – for the government to tackle high energy prices and grid connection delays. The calls come as the Times reports that the government’s “flagship £13bn plan for insulating homes and shifting households off gas boilers has been delayed amid disagreements within government”. It notes that energy secretary Ed Miliband “fought for and won funding for the ‘warm homes plan’ during the spending review, and had intended to launch it this month”. The article quotes Martin McCluskey, the minister for energy consumers, who said the scheme will now be rolled out “before the end of the year”. 

MORE ON UK ENERGY

• The Times: Labour MPs have accused the Crown Estate of “greed and prioritising foreign workers in its leasing of swathes of the sea bed for offshore wind farm development”.
• Ministers met fossil fuel industry representatives more than 500 times during their first year in power, according to the Guardian.
• Press Association: Ministers have said the cost of flights will change by “less than the cost of a cup of coffee” after new rules designed to increase uptake of so-called “sustainable aviation fuels” come into effect.
• Oil and gas trade association Offshore Energies UK has called on the government to “implement a permanent tax regime” from 2026, according to the Press Association.
• The Scottish National party has dropped its opposition to the controversial Rosebank oil field, according to the Times.

There is continued coverage of a study from World Weather Attribution and Climate Central which finds that meeting Paris Agreement goals by 2100 would halve the average number of hot days globally each year, in comparison with a scenario of unchecked rising emissions. Before the 2015 climate treaty, the world was headed for heating of 4C by 2100, which would have caused about 114 global hot days annually compared with the 57 recorded today, according to Climate Home News’ write-up of the research. Deutsche Welle and the Times of India also explore the research. 

Elsewhere in new research, Ireland’s RTE News and Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service cover research which finds that Australian rainforests are no longer a carbon sink. And Inside Climate News has a long read about a “Greenland-like meltdown” in Antarctica, with increased surface melting of the ice fields, faster-moving glaciers and dwindling sea ice.

A New Scientist editorial sets out how scientists have warned the world has reached the “first of the Earth’s [irreversible] tipping points” – mass coral dieback due to a warming ocean. The outlet argues that the question of who to blame for the hold-up to the energy transition has “no easy answers”, but says it is “fair to point the finger at oil and gas firms that trumpet their green ambitions while failing to deliver”. These firms have made “almost no contribution to…the future of energy production”, it argues, and have now been “emboldened by the Trump administration” and “pledged to up their production”. The outlet states that it is “reasonable to wonder whether any of our political or business leaders are taking the threat of climate change seriously”.

MORE UK COMMENT

• In the Independent, former BBC environment journalist Roger Harribin says that Trump’s “unforgivable record on the climate crisis” precludes the US president from ever winning a Nobel peace prize.
• In an editorial on US security concerns in the Arctic, the Economist says the US “gains from knowledge about the changing Arctic. Mr Trump’s cuts to research on climate change are self-defeating.”
• Entrepreneur and former CEO of Phones4U John Caudwell writes in the Observer that “scrapping the Climate Change Act isn’t bold or pragmatic”, but is “failure dressed up as freedom”.
• In the net-zero-sceptic Daily Telegraph, associate editor Ben Marlowe argues that a meeting of energy secretary Ed Miliband and energy bosses on Wednesday “highlighted the absurdity of Labour’s vow to magically make bills more affordable by building yet more wind turbines”.

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Cecilia Keating, with contributions from Henry Zhang and Wanyuan Song. It was edited by Robert McSweeney.

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