Daily Briefing: China data-centre emissions | UK citizens’ ‘disaster’ warning | Texas wildfires

26.08.26

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News

China’s data centres to use more power than South Korea by 2030

Kai Wilson, Bloomberg

China’s data centres will “quadruple their electricity consumption by the end of the decade”, according to the global research firm Wood Mackenzie, reports Bloomberg. China’s data centres will use 774 terawatt-hours of electricity by 2030, accounting for around 6% of China’s total projected consumption, before rising to 17% by 2060, adds the outlet. Industry news outlet BJX News reports that China’s new solar capacity additions from January to July fell 61.4% year-on-year to 86.2 gigawatts (GW), according to the National Energy Administration. In July alone, 14.1GW was added, up 27.5% from a year ago, adds the outlet. China has flown an airborne wind energy system to 4,000 metres to generate electricity from the sky, reports the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, citing state broadcaster CCTV.

MORE ON CHINA

China will hold local officials accountable for “inadequate efforts” in areas including the “green transformation” and advancing “dual carbon” goals, according to Xinhua.
Reuters reports that floods triggered by heavy rain from Typhoon Narra intensified on Tuesday, forcing 15,000 people in southwestern China to evacuate.
The MEE has approved the allowance allocation plan for China’s carbon market, reports BJX News. China has established a new committee to guide the standardisation of “green and low-carbon” development of industry, says Xinhua.
Bloomberg reports that “dozens” of Chinese firms are implicated by new US sanctions on Iran, although the US “avoided…targeting major Chinese financial institutions”. The US is looking to “impose a 7.5% tariff on Chinese goods” over allegations of overcapacity, says Bloomberg.
People’s Daily publishes a fourth article under the byline Zhong Caiwen, which calls for China to expand “green trade” and actively advance the “dual carbon” goals.
The success of China’s “new three” cleantech sectors shows that it should continue its industrial policy of utilising its “huge market” and “highly complete industrial system”, says Economic Daily.

UK to warn citizens to stock up on food amid threat from climate crisis and hostile states

Jessica Elgot and Kiran Stacey, The Guardian

A UK government campaign will inform people to “stock up on tinned food and take steps to ensure they are prepared for national emergencies”, reports the Guardian. Sources tell the newspaper: “The new campaign from the Cabinet Office will set out ways people can prepare for extreme weather events and potential attacks from hostile states, including stocking up on bottled water.” The outlet adds that planning for several “disasters”, including extreme heat and flooding, has “increased over the past few months after a number of incidents both in the UK and across the world”. The Financial Times first reported the story.

Elsewhere, the climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph says a consulting firm has “warned” that UK electricity bills will increase “because of mounting net-zero costs”. On its frontpage, the Times covers similar claims from a different report from rightwing thinktank Civitas under the headline: “Pursuit of net-zero has failed to cut British energy bills.” [See Carbon Brief’s 2025 factcheck on why expensive gas – not net-zero – is keeping UK electricity prices so high.] In addition, the Guardian reports that the UK faces its “highest price cap in three years as energy bills rise 4% from October”.

MORE ON UK

The Financial Times: “UK backs Devon tungsten mine in effort to secure critical mineral supplies.”
The Financial Times: “Sizewell C nuclear project suffers setback after road building delayed.”
The Independent: “UK green technology firm plans major £55m Africa expansion to help create ‘energy grid of the future’.”
The Daily Express covers pushback from local residents to a “huge” solar farm in Norfolk.

US: Texas wildfire mushrooms within hours, ripping through ranchlands

John Seewer, The Associated Press

A wildfire has “charred more than 78 square miles (200 square kilometers) in less than a day” in Texas, reports the Associated Press. The fire was “fuelled by whipping winds along with extremely hot and dry conditions”, says the outlet. Officials also tell the news agency that “high temperatures and gusty winds allowed the blaze to shoot up faster than anyone could have imagined”. The Dallas Morning News says the blaze “forced school closures and the evacuation of around 630 homes”.

MORE ON US

The Guardian: “US fossil fuel lobbyists also represent hundreds of cities fighting for climate damages.”
Inside Climate News covers a study which finds that “some of the largest fossil fuel companies on Earth are disproportionately responsible for the water crisis in the American west”.
Another Inside Climate News article looks at “unbearable” heat in prisons in Alabama.
The Guardian says “dangerous”, surging temperatures are expected in the south-western US at the end of this month.

Two planned data centres will have higher UK carbon emissions than ExxonMobil, analysis finds

Pippa Neill, The Guardian

The Guardian covers analysis from a non-profit group finding that the “carbon emissions from just two planned data centres in England will exceed all of the fossil fuel company ExxonMobil’s UK emissions”. The newspaper says the analysis, from Foxglove, shows that the two data centres would use 1.3GW of power and produce more than 4.5m tonnes of carbon emissions, when fully operational. It adds: “ExxonMobil emitted 3.9m tonnes in 2023, according to the global energy thinktank Ember.” The newspaper notes: “Experts have said this demonstrates the ‘serious threat’ data centres pose to the UK’s legally binding climate goals.”

MORE ON DATA CENTRES

A “big read” in the Financial Times looks at the “multiplying risks of financing datacentres”.
The Associated Press: “In a divided America, the left and right unite to oppose artificial intelligence datacentres.”
Reuters reports that Spain is drafting “stricter water, energy and cybersecurity rules for datacentres after a deluge of projects in the country”.
The Guardian reports that the US is building “twice as much” gas-fired power generation as China amid a “frenzy” in data-centre construction, according to a report from the Global Energy Monitor.

Comment

The Iran war shows China’s energy strategy is working

Michal Meidan, The New York Times

Dr Michal Meidan, head of China energy research at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, writes in the New York Times that the US-Israel war on Iran was a “welcome revelation for China”. She writes: “[China] absorbed one of the most severe oil-supply disruptions of the modern era, demonstrating that years of preparation had mitigated a huge vulnerability and potential source of US leverage over Beijing in a geopolitical confrontation.” She notes that strategies including diversifying energy supply sources and shifting from fossil-powered to electric vehicles were “put through a real-world stress test…and, so far, it has passed”. She concludes that, while China still depends on “substantial” amounts of imported oil, the “geopolitics of energy are shifting from control of oil flows to control of electrified industrial systems”, noting that “China has a clear head start in that transition”.

MORE COMMENT

Former UK prime minister Gordon Brown says in the Guardian that “like-minded countries must stand together to deliver” what the “vast majority” of people want, including action on climate change.
The Guardian financial editor Nils Pratley writes that British energy regulator Ofgem and UK ministers “should be transparent about why energy bills for households are expected to stay stubbornly high”.
Alice Thomson, columnist at the Times, writes about the cooling benefits of trees in cities.
Science commentator Anjana Ahuja asks in the Financial Times: “Could nuclear fusion become economically viable?”
Climate-sceptic “energy consultant” Kathryn Porter claims in the Daily Telegraph that the “shift to renewables” has left the UK’s electricity system “with less built-in resilience, making it vulnerable to hostile actors”.
CEO of the non-profit Climate Group, Helen Clarkson, writes in Reuters: “Greenhushing is killing us: why companies must break their silence on climate change.”

Research

“Disturbed” forests – such as those affected by wildfires, timber harvests or pest outbreaks – are 1.7C warmer in the summertime than adjacent, undisturbed forests | Nature Geoscience
A new, high-resolution global climate model projects a “nearly ice-free Arctic” by the year 2040 under a moderate emissions scenario, despite lower overall Arctic warming | Earth System Dynamics
Shallow, near-shore areas account for nearly 85% of the methane emissions from US lakes | Geophysical Research Letters