Daily Briefing: CB+ launch | Iran ‘accelerates’ transition | OpenAI-UAE deal

03.11.26

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News

TotalEnergies says Iran war could accelerate energy transition

Dominique Patton, Reuters

In an annual energy outlook, French fossil-fuel company TotalEnergies said the ongoing energy crisis could act as an “accelerator” of the energy transition, pointing to a sharp increase in electric vehicle (EV) sales in ‌Asia, ⁠Latin America and Europe and an increase in biofuel blending requirements, says Reuters. It continues that sustainability director Aurelien Hamelle said there had been a “stunning acceleration” of low-carbon technology between the second quarter of 2025 and the second quarter of 2026. The company now expects oil demand to peak at some point between 2035 and 2040, according to Oil Price. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that banks have generated roughly $3bn of revenue so far this year from “climate-related financing”, exceeding the $2.9bn from debt deals for oil, gas and coal producers. This, it says, marks the fifth year running that lenders are making more money arranging bonds and loans for “environmentally-friendly” projects than for fossil-fuel companies.

MORE ON ENERGY

There is continuing coverage of the launch of a new Africa Energy Bank. Business Insider Africa says the institution is designed to “finance oil and gas projects across the continent as traditional lenders scale back funding for fossil fuels”.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the US is pushing to restore Russian gas sales to Europe via pipelines running through Ukraine.
The Wall Street Journal reports that liquified natural gas (LNG) supply is set for its “steepest annual decline on record”, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Rapporteur: “EU stockpile shortfall could inflate global gas prices, IEA warns.”

UAE state oil company announces OpenAI partnership

Agence France-Presse

UAE state oil company ADNOC has announced a partnership with US artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI, saying it would be the “world’s first energy firm” to deploy an AI platform called OpenAI Frontier, reports Agence-France-Presse. The newswire covers an ADNOC statement which states that OpenAI’s models will “integrate decades of data across thousands of wells, multiple stacked reservoirs and hundreds of surface facilities together with capital, cost and commercial considerations, to prepare and optimise full-field development master plans”.

MORE ON AI

BBC News reports that four planned “hyperscale” AI data centres in the UK could create more CO2 than the cities of Manchester, Liverpool and Southampton combined.
The Washington Post looks at how tech firms are “driving emissions sharply higher with their quest to expand AI and cloud computing”.
Inside Climate News reports that China is looking to its renewable-energy sector for an advantage in the race to build AI data centres.
The Financial Times has a long read on the “power problems” holding back US ambitions for AI.
BusinessGreen covers a study that finds that just 4.5% of “green” apprenticeships in England are linked to occupations “seen as being most open” to AI substitution.

UK: John Healey ‘risking billions’ in Scottish renewables investment with rules change

Hamish Morrison, The National

In a frontpage story, the National reports on warnings from Scottish business leaders about the UK’s clean-power procurement regime. The paper quotes Aberdeen and Grampian Chambers of Commerce (AGCC) CEO Russell Borthick as saying chancellor John Healey is “putting billions of pounds of investment and thousands of Scottish jobs in jeopardy with an approach that could stop some of the country’s most important offshore wind projects from ever reaching construction”. The calls come after Healey said the UK government will now only procure clean power projects if they can connect to the grid and lower bills, which has “sparked fears for the future of more expensive projects such as offshore wind”, the National explains. The AGCC is calling for future UK clean-energy auctions to prioritise floating offshore wind and for a forthcoming “strategic spatial energy plan” to account for the “full” 23 gigawatt Scottish offshore wind pipeline, according to the paper.

UK: Burnham pledges £40m in aid for Caribbean amid calls for reparations

Harriette Boucher and Nina Lloyd, The Press Association

The Press Association is among a raft of outlets to cover a new UK pledge of £40m in aid funding for the Caribbean that has come ahead of the Commonwealth summit, with many linking the money to “calls for reparations” over the slave trade. The newswire says the funding is set to be given out over three years to speed up “critical infrastructure investment, including green energy schemes”. It says prime minister Andy Burnham, who is attending the summit in Antigua and Barbuda today, will set out plans for a “debt reset” aimed at helping the “poorest Commonwealth countries” grapple with repayments. In a frontpage story, the Daily Telegraph says the £40m is “designed to drive sustainable economic growth while strengthening energy security”. The Daily Mail says ministers at the summit will “discuss potential help with debt restructuring and funding for tackling climate change”.

MORE ON UK

The UK has spent more than £561m to balance the power grid in October, reports Bloomberg.
The Press Association covers calls from the SNP for the government to use £5.1bn in “forecast oil and gas tax receipts” to fund the Acorn carbon-capture project.
The Times covers calls from Sir David King’s Climate Change Advisory Group for a “huge” increase in funding to research ways to “geoengineer” the planet.
Control of 39m household smart meters in England, Scotland and Wales has passed to a “non-profit startup”, reports the Guardian.

Major automakers urge US Congress to pass permanent ban on Chinese vehicles

David Shepardson, Reuters

A group representing “nearly all major automakers” has urged US lawmakers to pass a permanent ban on Chinese vehicles after the midterm congressional elections, reports Reuters. It quotes John Bozzella, head of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation lobby group, saying: “We need to protect the US market from a flood of Chinese imports that carry surveillance risk and disadvantage current manufacturers that have made generational investments in ⁠American communities.” The newswire says the appeal comes after president Donald Trump told Fox News in September that he would accept Chinese car companies building cars in the US, “sparking alarm among automakers”. It notes that the US currently maintains “more ⁠than 100% tariffs” on Chinese EVs. Agence France-Presse looks at how Chinese EVs are currently “flooding the market”.

MORE ON NORTH AMERICA

The New York Times and Bloomberg run obituaries for Nobel-prize winning climate scientist William Nordhaus.
The New York Times also looks at how the fossil-fuel lobby and anti-tax movement “ultimately curtailed” Nordhaus’ vision for putting a price on pollution.
The New York Times: “Disneyland’s Autopia ride will switch to electric vehicles.”
Axios looks at how El Niño could bring major shifts in electricity supply and demand across the US this winter, posing “new challenges” for utilities.
The Los Angeles Times looks at what a “worst-case” El Niño would mean for California.
The Canadian Press: “Canada presenting itself as climate leader at COP31, despite policy rollbacks.”

China’s electric two-wheeler exports jump 38% on Latin America, Africa demand

Fang Zuwang, Caixin

China’s exports of electric two-wheelers rose by nearly 38% in the first nine months of 2026, reports financial news outlet Caixin. It says exports were led by “strong growth” in Latin America and Africa. State-run news outlet Reference News covers analysis for Carbon Brief showing that China’s cleantech exports are “helping cut global emissions”. Euronews also covers the report. China and Oman signed a joint statement agreeing to “deepen” cooperation on oil and gas, reports Xinhua. It adds that the two nations also agreed to “actively expand cooperation” in solar, wind and energy storage. During a state visit to China, Swiss businesses told Chinese policymakers they aimed to deepen cooperation on the “green transition”, reports Singapore-based newspaper Lianhe Zaobao. An editorial in the state-run newspaper China Daily says Switzerland’s “decision to deepen economic ties with China is instructive to the EU”. It adds: “Protectionism will not resolve Europe’s structural economic challenges or strengthen its industries.”

MORE ON CHINA

The NEA says that China’s coal-power generation “continued to fall” in the third quarter of this year, reports China Energy News.
A five-year implementation plan for the “green development” of civil aviation aims to cut carbon emissions by 4% per tonne-kilometre by 2030, says Jiemian.
A draft revision to the renewable electricity law proposes fining companies for not meeting “mandatory renewable…consumption targets”, says China Daily.
A Global Times editorial says if the Quad – US, Australia, India and Japan – “uses supply chain security as a pretext” to exclude or restrict China, that would prove its “true nature” is a “tool” to contain China.
The Financial Times says China’s chemical exports are “growing rapidly”, which could create “further tensions with the EU and US”, according to the Rhodium Group.
IEA chief Fatih Birol tells People’s Daily that China has provided “strong support” for the global energy transition.

Comment

Small-island states don’t need sympathy at COP31. We need investment

Gaston Browne, Reuters

Gaston Browne, Antigua and Barbuda prime minister and host of the Commonwealth leaders’ summit, notes the Caribbean’s abundant potential for solar, wind and geothermal power. He says the region has been constrained from developing these resources by a “lack of financing, coordination and the partnerships required”. Browne notes that the Caribbean’s “negligible contribution to global emissions, set against the disproportionate force of its impacts remains one of the great unresolved injustices of the climate era”. However, the message he will be taking to COP31, he says, is not this, but instead that the Caribbean has the “physical resources” – the sun, wind and ocean – to deliver its own “energy independence”. Small-island states do not need “sympathy”, he says, but instead want to see a “serious reckoning with capital”, including a de-risking of small-scale renewable projects, the honouring of climate-finance commitments and mechanisms that let a dozen small markets “negotiate as one”.

MORE COMMENT

Former Canadian environment and climate change minister Steven Guilbeault reflects in Reuters on the outcomes of the COP17 biodiversity summit and what needs to happen at COP31.
On the Backchannel substack, Prof Jeyong Yoon argues that South Korea has a chance at COP31 to show “why the green transition is an industrial strategy”.
For Rapporteur, the European Economic and Social Committee’s Maria Nikolopoulou and Corina Murafa Benga write that advancing climate justice and governance, as well as low-carbon investment, are critical to delivering on promises made at COP.
On her By The Numbers substack, Hannah Ritchie reiterates her argument that the International Energy Agency should make its data freely available.
In the lead comment slot for the climate-sceptic Daily Mail, “military expert” Bob Seeley says the UK’s “net-zero obsession” is increasing “vulnerability” to China.

Research

“Energetically extreme” fires, the most dangerous kind for people, doubled from 2002-25 | Communications Earth & Environment
In China, 1.6 million pregnant women suffered distress symptoms from particulate matter pollution and heatwave exposure in a 13-year period | Nature Cities
Researchers examine how climate attribution science could be applied in legal systems in India | Climatic Change