Cement climate case | Carmaker ‘dismisses’ EU rollback plans | UK could have ‘greenest’ Christmas
News
Swiss court admits Indonesia islanders climate case against Holcim
A court in Switzerland has admitted a legal complaint linked to global warming against Swiss cement maker Holcim, which alleges the company is doing too little to cut carbon emissions, reports Reuters. The newswire explains: “Four residents of the low-lying Indonesian island of Pari, which has been repeatedly flooded as warmer temperatures push up sea levels, submitted a legal complaint in January 2023 to the cantonal court in Zug, Switzerland…The plaintiffs are seeking compensation from Holcim for climate damage they have suffered, financial participation in flood protection measures and a rapid cut in CO2 emissions.” According to Swiss Church Aid, the not-for-profit organisation supporting the claim, the case marks the first time a court has admitted climate litigation brought against a large corporation in Switzerland, the article adds. Holcim has said it plans to appeal, says Al Jazeera.
EU plan to relax petrol car ban dismissed by Fiat maker
The EU has failed to deliver a “clear roadmap for growth” in its revised climate policy that would have allowed carmaker Stellantis to boost its investment into Europe, its chief executive tells the Financial Times. Last week, the European Commission announced a plan to drop the EU’s effective ban on new combustion-engine cars from 2035, the newspaper explains, with emissions from remaining petrol and diesel cars to be offset by using low-carbon steel and sustainable fuels. In an interview with the FT, Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa said there were not enough immediate relief measures to support the electric transition of vans and other commercial vehicles, adding: “This package does not do the job…Without growth, it becomes very difficult to think about investing more. Without additional investments, it is difficult to build the resilient supply chain that is vital for European jobs, European prosperity and European security.” The interview has been picked up by both Bloomberg and Reuters.
MORE ON VEHICLES
- The Daily Telegraph reports that the UK is likely to miss its 2025 target for zero-emission vehicles as it heads towards a petrol car ban in 2030. Nonetheless, one expert tells the newspaper that “just as last year, the industry is on track”.
- The Sunday Times reports on the Chinese company bringing electric lorries to the UK.
- A scheme to deploy a fleet of hydrogen-fuelled delivery trucks across south-east England has “collapsed just five months after it was launched”, reports the Daily Telegraph.
US: New York offers $300m to support offshore wind projects
The state of New York is offering $300m for port improvements in a “signal of support for an offshore wind industry that’s been battered by the Trump administration”, reports Bloomberg. According to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the state is seeking bids for the funds that will go toward upgrades for offshore wind manufacturing, staging and logistics, the newswire explains. It adds: “New York is throwing support behind an industry that had struggled with inflation and supply kinks even before president Donald Trump returned to the White House intent on stifling its rise.”
Elsewhere, there is continued coverage of the $6bn merger between Trump Media – the company behind Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform – and the nuclear fusion firm TAE Technologies. The New York Times reports that the deal raises “another Trump financial conflict”. It explains: “The deal, should it be completed, would put Trump in competition with other energy companies over which his administration holds financial and regulatory sway. Already, the president has sought to speed up safety reviews of new nuclear power plants and lower thresholds for acceptable radiation exposure.” The Los Angeles Times asks why Trump Media is entering into the deal, the Verge looks at the viability of fusion and Bloomberg explains why investors are betting on the “elusive” technology.
MORE ON US
- Inside Climate News reports on the focus of the Environment Protection Agency under the Trump administration being “delay, rescind, dismantle”.
- A survey of dozens of energy developers, experts and politicians by the Associated Press reveals that many are “optimistic” for 2026, despite the “stiff headwinds for clean energy” in the US this year.
- Climate Central says that the “unusual” warmth expected over Christmas is “at least two-to-three times more likely to occur due to human-caused carbon pollution”.
- Politico says that the US has a “power crunch”, but “Congress is still far from solving it”.
- Regulators at the state of Georgia have approved a “huge increase” in electricity generation for data centres, reports the Associated Press.
Stormy weather gives Britain its greenest autumn
Windy weather over recent months has seen Great Britain’s power grid experience its “greenest” autumn on record, the Times reports. It continues: “Stormy weather meant the carbon emissions released per unit of electricity generated, known as carbon intensity, fell by 11% from the same period last year. Compared with the average for the previous five years, it was down 17%, according to Ember, the energy thinktank. The growing number of wind farms has greatly contributed to the findings. Two big offshore projects became fully operational this year, as well as six smaller onshore ones.” As a result, there have been “record lows for fossil fuels”, the newspaper notes: “Electricity supplied by gas plants this autumn fell to its lowest level in more than a decade as a result of the continued growth of renewable energy.” The continuing mild and windy weather means that Christmas Day “could be the greenest yet”, reports the Guardian.
MORE ON UK
- The Daily Mail reports that talks have begun between the UK government and the EU on an “electricity trading deal which ministers believe could help cut energy bills for homes”.
- The Mail on Sunday reports that a proposed gas-fired power station with carbon capture on Teesside “could involve tonnes of Chinese steel”. The Daily Mail also reports on proposals that would see the closure of the UK’s two remaining blast furnaces and the restarting of a “mothballed” electric arc furnace in south Yorkshire. The Times and Sun also have the story.
- The Sunday Times reports on how the Green party is succeeding “outside net-zero”.
- The Sunday Telegraph says that allies of energy secretary Ed Miliband are “plotting” to install him as the next chancellor.
- The Guardian, Times and Daily Telegraph all report that 2025 has been declared the “year of the octopus” because warm seas have brought an estimated 230,000 Mediterranean octopuses to the UK’s south coast.
Comment
US: Threatening NCAR, Trump administration seeks to extinguish a beacon of climate science
Prof Benjamin Santer, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
In the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, veteran climate scientist Prof Ben Santer writes in defence of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), which is set to be dismantled by the Trump administration. “Even if you’re not a scientist, this should be on your radar. You need to understand what it means,” he warns. Turning off such “beacons of knowledge” does not “Make America Great Again” or “make us safer”, says Santer as climate knowledge “helps us to better understand the risks of rising seas, warming oceans, stronger hurricanes and more intense heatwaves and floods”. He continues: “Attempting to erase a country’s scientific heritage, as the Trump administration is now trying to do, should be of concern to every US citizen. Because if climate science is viewed with disfavour today, other fields of scientific inquiry might be next in line for the chopping block. Vaccine development and deployment systems. Cancer research. Basic science judged to have no immediately obvious economic benefit.”
MORE IN COMMENT
- In a guest essay, New York Times opinion writer Matthew Yglesias argues that “liberals should support America’s oil and gas industry”. [The article has been criticised on social media, including by US representative Sean Caston (“horrifically bad”) and climate scientist Prof Katharine Hayhoe (support for the industry in Canada has “yielded no benefits for climate whatsoever and I’m not aware of any economic benefits either”).]
- Commenting on the “climate backtrack” of New York governor Kathy Hochul, an editorial in the Washington Post says: “Symbolic climate gestures please activists, but they become a political liability when the bills come due.”
- Writing for Semafor, Amena Bakr – head of Middle East energy & OPEC+ research at the analytics platform Kpler – says that the “next oil shock will come from supply”.
Research
The Tibetan Plateau has experienced a “surge in summer extreme precipitation” since the year 2000, linked to North Atlantic sea surface warming and Arctic sea ice loss
npj Climate and Atmospheric Science
“Compound climate risks”, including co-occurring windstorms, floods and intense rainfall, are driving hundreds of millions in damages to European ports every year
Environmental Research: Climate
Climate change is driving a decrease in rainfall across “tropical America”, including in the “Amazon and American monsoon regions”
This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Robert McSweeney and edited by Daisy Dunne.
Other stories
- Recent COP hosts Brazil and Azerbaijan linked to ‘super-emitting’ methane plumes (Climate Home News)
- Offshore wind farms are helping marine life, research suggests (Semafor)
- Japan prepares to restart world’s biggest nuclear plant, 15 years after Fukushima (Reuters)
- Brazil commits to rapid energy roadmap deadline for key ministries (Financial Times)
- My 2026 and 2027 global temperature forecasts (The Climate Brink)
- Russia LNG exports to China rise to record, surpassing Australia (Bloomberg)
- ’The water came from nowhere’: Settlements, hotels and farms flooded in Kenya’s Rift Valley (The Associated Press)
- China’s CNOOC commences new offshore oil project in the South China Sea (Reuters)
- China’s power reforms, global data centre buildout usher in battery boom (Reuters)
- CO2 soon to be buried under North Sea oil platform (Agence France-Presse)
- Comment: The EU fights carbon and loses (The Wall Street Journal)
- Sri Lanka tea workers struggle in poverty. Flooding cost many their lives (The Associated Press)
- North Sea operator Harbour Energy buys Gulf of Mexico oil company LLOG for $3.2bn (Financial Times)
- RWE and Thames Water ink five-year onshore wind farm deal (BusinessGreen)
- Adani plans nuclear energy foray as India allows private firms (Bloomberg)
- Food becoming more calorific but less nutritious due to rising CO2 (The Guardian)
- Eight climate books to add to your year-end reading list (Bloomberg)
- ‘Borrowed time’: crop pests and food losses supercharged by climate crisis (The Guardian)