Analysis by World Weather Attribution has found that climate change “supercharged” the storms in Asia in November that killed more than 1,750 people, reports the Guardian. Millions of people were impacted when Cyclone Ditwah hit Sri Lanka and Cyclone Senyar hit Sumatra and peninsular Malaysia, it adds. The study found that rain was 28-160% more intense in the region affected by Cyclone Senyar and rain in Sri Lanka is now between 9% and 50% more intense, the article notes. Reuters reports that during the five most intense days, sea surface temperatures in the North Indian Ocean were 0.2C higher than in the 1991-2020 average, “packing the storms with additional heat and energy”. The Associated Press notes that without global warming, sea surface temperatures would have been about 1C colder than they were. 

MORE ON EXTREME WEATHER

• The Associated Press reports that tens of thousands of people in Washington could be evacuated, as heavy rains have meant “catastrophic flooding is likely”. 

The UK’s energy costs are expected to halve by 2050, “as the shift to renewables cuts the multibillion-pound bill for imported oil and gas”, reports the Financial Times, converting a new report by the National Energy System Operator (NESO). It explains that NESO had published cost estimates for a number of scenarios for the energy sector out to the middle of the century, with three meeting net-zero targets and one falling short. [See the Carbon Brief coverage of the report.] Edie reports that across all of these scenarios, energy costs as a proportion of GDP are set to decline from 10% today to 5-6% by 2050. Energy Voice notes that the “holistic transition” pathway, which sees the country meet its net-zero emissions target by 2050, is the lowest-cost option over 2025 to 2050 and would see savings into the second half of the century. It adds that if the costs of climate damages are excluded, the “falling behind” scenario appears cheaper, but “would face higher costs after 2050 and miss the wider benefits associated with decarbonisation”. 

The Times is among several newspapers choosing to focus their coverage on figures that NESO says “ignore” the damages associated with carbon emissions. In a piece published on its frontpage, it says the NESO net-zero scenario would “cost” £350bn more than a slower approach to reducing carbon emissions. [Its online headline falsely describes this as a “slower path to net-zero”, even though this scenario does not reach net-zero in the modelling.] The newspaper undermines its own headlines by adding: “NESO insisted that the costs did ‘not represent the cost of achieving net-zero emissions’ as the scenarios it modelled ‘do not represent the cheapest way of achieving net-zero’ and also reflect other variables such as more data centres in the net-zero scenario.” The Daily Telegraph says that the slower scenario that sees an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050 could “save” £14bn a year on average, but this spreads costs over a longer period and could also “leave Britain exposed to ‘volatile’ gas prices for longer and delay other benefits of green energy”. The Sun and the Daily Mail similarly focus on this illustrative slower approach without reference to the additional carbon costs. All of these publications quote Conservative shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho similarly misrepresenting the NESO conclusions.

MORE ON UK

• The i newspaper reports that the UK government is “bankrolling polluting fossil-fuel projects in Africa and Asia”, while publicly supporting net-zero. 
• BusinessGreen reports that the UK government will back proposed reforms to clean-energy subsidy schemes, despite the plans being blamed for a 5% drop in renewable energy trusts’ market valuations.
• BusinessGreen covers Great British Energy opening a new £300m fund designed to strengthen offshore wind supply chains.
• BBC News reports that Shell is facing its first UK legal challenge from victims of a deadly typhoon in the Philippines over the climate impacts of fossil fuels.
• A DeSmog investigation finds that the Institute of Economic Affairs received more than £640,000 from fossil-fuel companies and Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate between 1957 and 2005.

Nine major Chinese polysilicon makers and the China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA) have set up a joint venture designed to tackle overcapacity in China’s solar industry, financial news outlet Caixin reports. The company, named Beijing Guanghe Qiancheng Technology, has a registered capital of 3bn yuan ($424m), it adds. Bloomberg also covers the story, saying that the polysilicon producers in China “have been planning a $7bn fund to buy and shut down more than 1m tonnes of capacity”. The outlet also cites an unnamed source who says the newly formed venture will “serve as a vehicle for capacity buyouts from smaller players”. Guanghe Qiancheng will be seeking “potential strategic cooperation opportunities in the industry, such as technology upgrades, market expansion, and capacity and cost optimisation”, according to a source from a polysilicon company, business outlet Jiemian reports.

MORE ON CHINA

• The NEA publishes an article in the outlet Study of Xi Jinping Economic Thought calling for accelerating the building of a “new energy system” and maintaining China’s lead in cleantech innovation.
• Premier Li Qiang said at a “1+10” dialogue with several multilateral banks that China will pursue “green” development and “strengthen industrial cooperation” with other nations, Xinhua reports. A GT Voice comment by Global Times says China’s cleantech overseas investment serves the “common interests of all countries”.
• International Energy Net discusses how China’s renewable energy pricing reform has reshaped the energy sector’s “profit model”.
• A commentary in People’s Daily under the byline Ren Ping, a homophone for “People’s Daily commentary”, urges local authorities to avoid a “blind rush” in sectors such as electric vehicles.
• Reference News carries a translation of a new Chatham House survey, which finds that 70% of people worldwide support their governments purchasing Chinese-made solar panels and wind turbines to some degree.

A new study found that more than 12,500 climate disasters hit the Amazon region between 2013 and 2023, Mongabay Latam reports. It says the region recorded floods, landslides, forest fires and droughts that have affected more than 3 million people over a year and affected public infrastructure. However, it says that the report warns of inconsistencies in the reporting of these events, with extreme events such as droughts and heatwaves remaining underreported by Amazon countries. It quotes an expert from the UN Disasters Reduction Risk saying that one of the drivers of the lack of data is a “fragmented information system from municipalities, sectoral agencies and other levels of government”.

MORE ON LATIN AMERICA

• Extreme climate events will affect restoration efforts in Brazil’s new biodiversity strategy, ((o)) eco reports.
• In a Mongabay series around the 2025 outcomes for different Latin American countries, the outlet covers Chile’s creation of its forest national service, which seeks to strengthen the government through oversight, fire prevention and sustainability promotion powers. 
• Mexico city’s government announced the issuance of a green bond worth $3bn for sustainable mobility, Excélsior reports. The outlet notes that this is the largest green bond in the city’s history.
• 10 years on from the Paris Agreement, some regions of the planet have reached 1.5C of global warming and, although the agreement has not failed, it has been undermined by the short-sightedness of world leaders, journalist Lorena Rivera writes in her column for Excélsior.
• There needs to be a consensus around Argentina’s energy policy, since the country’s energy sector has undergone a chronic lack of private investors due to differences between state and government policies, Emilio Apud writes in a commentary for La Nación.

The European Commission is considering a rollback of environment rules that could see datacentres, AI gigafactories and affordable housing become exempt from mandatory environmental impact assessments, reports the Guardian. This would be the “latest in a series of packages to cut red tape calls for permitting processes for critical projects to be sped up and reducing the scope of environmental reporting rules for businesses”, it adds. The overhaul would expand this list of strategic sectors in the EU, although member states would be able to decide whether such projects should be subject to environmental impact assessments, the article notes.

MORE ON EU

• The Financial Times reports that carmakers have warned that the EU’s “made in Europe” plans could slow the transition to EVs.
• Reuters covers a call from Europe’s electric car industry, which has urged the European Commission to stick to its 2035 zero-emission target for new cars, “warning that any retreat would undermine investment and widen the bloc’s gap with China”.
• Reuters reports that Germany’s cabinet has approved a draft biofuels law, allowing the continued use of food and animal feed as biofuel ingredients.
• Climate Home News covers comments from environmental NGOs and clean-energy advocates about the EU’s decision to dilute its corporate sustainability rules, “jeopardis[ing]” climate action.
• Agence France-Presse reports that the EU is pressuring France to improve its energy links with Spain and Portugal following the blackout earlier this year.

In the first offshore lease sales held since US president Donald Trump entered office, 30 companies submitted bids totalling $371.8m for oil and gas drilling rights in the US Gulf of Mexico, reports the Financial Times. The two highest bids of $18.6m and $15.2m were from Chevron and Woodside Energy, both of whom already operate in the gulf, it notes. Bloomberg reports that companies bid on 181 tracts across around 80m acres of federal waters in the first auction since 2023. Reuters adds that the Trump administration’s plans for regular offshore leasing mark “a significant departure” from his predecessor Joe Biden, “whose administration had planned for a historically small number of oil and gas auctions as part of an effort to move away from fossil fuels and address climate change”.

MORE ON US

• The Guardian reports that youth activists who won a landmark climate case in 2023 against the state of Montana are pushing for court enforcement. Reuters also has the story.  
• Inside Climate Now covers a report that details both environmental personnel and program cuts across each state in the US.
• The New York Times writes that governor Kathy Hochul has “slowed progress on New York’s efforts to fight climate change”.
• Reuters reports that Trump’s freeze on approvals for solar and wind energy projects is “leaving thousands of megawatts of clean power capacity in limbo”.

A Lex opinion piece in the Financial Times discusses how low solar prices can leave companies with little incentive to invest in wider environmental practices. China’s solar sector, which dominates production worldwide, is facing the “deepest and longest downturn” in its history, the article notes. This is driven by a number of factors, including a production glut and a more complex export environment, which ultimately hit share prices, it adds. Lex continues that while the ultra-low solar prices have led to increased adoption of solar power around the world, this can have a negative impact too, leading to more manufacturing waste and limited recycling of discarded panels. The piece concludes: “The sector’s greatest achievement has been making solar affordable. That now undermines the economics required to keep it going.”

MORE COMMENT

• A Financial Times “big read”, trailed on its front page, looks “inside the failed green revolutions at BP and Shell”.
•  A Times editorial argues the UK’s offshore oil and gas industry is “being sacrificed on the altar of ideology” and calls for the government to “temper green ideals”, following the NESO report.
• Financial Times Asia Lex editor June Yoon writes that “Trump has just accelerated Europe’s electric vehicle reckoning”.

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

Subscribe for free.