Daily Briefing: Heathrow’s ‘incompatible’ expansion | Texas carbon capture | Equity firms’ emissions

16.09.26

Expert analysis direct to your inbox

Every weekday morning, in time for your morning coffee, Carbon Brief sends out a free email known as the “Daily Briefing” to thousands of subscribers around the world. The email is a digest of the past 24 hours of media coverage related to climate change and energy, as well as our pick of the key studies published in peer-reviewed journals.

Article Contents

Expand menu

News

Heathrow expansion incompatible with climate goals, UK government advisers warn

Peter Campbell, The Financial Times

The Financial Times covers new advice from the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which says expanding Heathrow airport is “incompatible with the UK meeting its legally binding climate targets”. The CCC says a third Heathrow runway would “release 4.5 megatonnes of CO2 or equivalents a year by 2054…even with the expected take-up of cleaner fuels and newer aircraft”, according to the newspaper. [See Carbon Brief’s article for more on the emissions impact.] BBC News says the advice notes that expansion can proceed if the industry “funds cleaner fuels and pays for machines that suck carbon dioxide out of the air”. The Guardian quotes Nigel Topping, the CCC chair, as saying: “The government should legislate policies that require the aviation industry to fully address all of their emissions by 2050, either directly or by purchasing engineered removals.” The story is also covered by Reuters, the Daily Mail and others.

MORE ON UK

Cost increases for petrol, diesel and plane tickets “pushed UK inflation up to its highest level in six months in the year to August”, reports BBC News.
The Guardian: “Record heatwaves bring Britain’s second-best butterfly season in 16 years.”
BusinessGreen reports on a new study finding that at least £511bn is needed by 2040 to achieve the UK’s clean energy and net-zero goals.
Trade body Offshore Energies UK has “called on Labour to scrap the windfall tax on fossil fuel firms three years early”, reports the Guardian.
The Times, Daily Mail and Sun report that more than 100 British and other tourists fled wildfires on an island in Croatia.

US: ExxonMobil wins Texas approval for $5bn carbon capture project

Jamie Smyth, The Financial Times

Oil and gas major ExxonMobil has received permission to store carbon dioxide emissions underground in Texas, reports the Financial Times. The newspaper says the approval follows a “high-stakes battle with opponents over safety and economic objections”. The decision advances the company’s $5bn (£3.7bn) plan to “build the world’s largest carbon capture pipeline network on the US Gulf Coast”, adds the Financial Times. Bloomberg reports: “The permit allows ExxonMobil to inject as much as 53m tons of carbon dioxide over a 13-year period from industrial emitters along the Gulf coast into rock strata about one mile (1.6 kilometers) underground for permanent storage.”

MORE ON US

The Daily Telegraph reports that US politicians could be considering an export ban on diesel which could “squeeze supplies to Europe just as prices skyrocket”.
Reuters: “Trump administration appeals ruling blocking EPA from sending California auto emissions rules to Congress.”
Inside Climate News: “How the end of USAID eroded global environmental goals.”
US energy chief Chris Wright says crude oil should return to Saudi Arabia’s east-west pipeline within days, reports Reuters.
Inside Climate News: “Congressional Republicans aim to shield fossil fuel companies from climate lawsuits.”
Reuters: “Texas moves to penalise data centers for water violations.”

World’s top 20 private equity firms produce more greenhouse gases a year than most countries, report finds

Sara Sneath, The Guardian

A new report finds that the energy portfolios of “20 private equity firms produce 1.5bn tonnes of greenhouse gases a year, more than the annual emissions of any country except China, the US, India and Russia”, reports the Guardian. The report, from the Private Equity Climate Risks consortium, notes that the energy investments from these companies include “significant fossil fuel assets”, the newspaper says. Put together, these total “15,000 miles of pipelines, 124GW of power generation capacity across 370 fossil fuel-powered plants and hundreds of oil and gas fields”, it adds.

EU lawmakers move to scrap carbon border levy’s emergency brake

Kate Abnett, Reuters

The European parliament voted yesterday in favour of removing a clause to “let the EU suspend its carbon border levy if it makes imported goods more expensive”, reports Reuters. The newswire says the changes to the levy, known as the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), “set[s] up a clash with member countries who are in favour of the emergency brake”. It notes: “EU countries and the European parliament will now negotiate the final rules, which will also extend the border fee to new products like washing machines and car parts.”

MORE ON EUROPE

Reuters reports that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is due to call for EU “solidarity in tackling climate change” and other issues in her annual speech to the European parliament later today.
European parliament president Roberta Metsola says there is a “sense of urgency” to prepare for increased extreme weather in Europe after this year’s “disastrous summer”, reports Politico.
Reuters: “Poland to revive windfall tax on oil firms, use proceeds for fuel price relief.”
Euractiv says a draft EU negotiating mandate for the COP31 climate summit suggests a “tighter focus as global resolve weakens”.
The Financial Times: “Orsted boss says Europe must act on ‘unfair’ Chinese wind turbine makers.”
The European Space Agency has launched two climate observation satellites into orbit, reports Deutsche Welle.

China’s national carbon market enters new phase of rapid growth

Tian Zhongquan and Gao Jing, Xinhua

A new report released at China’s annual carbon market conference said the market saw 235m tonnes of emissions traded in 2025, up almost 25% year-on-year, says state news agency Xinhua. Ecology and environment minister Huang Runqiu said at the conference that China will strengthen the carbon market’s role in emissions reduction and deepen cooperation with other countries, says state news agency China News Service. Selwin Hart, the UN secretary general’s special adviser on climate action and a just transition, said that China can help developing countries design carbon-pricing systems, says business news outlet Yicai. Brazil’s carbon market secretary Cristina Reis says China and Brazil can “pursue bilateral cooperation” on carbon markets, reports state broadcaster CCTV. Kurt Vandenberg, director general for climate action for the European Commission, said carbon markets are the “most cost-effective” way to reduce emissions, says local newspaper Hubei Daily. China.com reports that climate representatives from South Korea, the UK and Norway were also present.

MORE ON CHINA

China’s oil throughput “rose for a second straight month in August, supported by strong fuel exports”, reports Reuters. China’s coal-fired power generation fell 4.3% in August, while wind rose 7.9% and solar increased 10.3%, reports BJX News.
China’s foreign minister Wang Yi told his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot that protectionism will “hamper the process of green transition”, reports the South China Morning Post. Chinese president Xi Jinping called for China to work with other countries to “tackle major scientific challenges related to climate change, energy and the environment”, according to Qiushi.
A new “five-year plan” for electronic equipment calls for expanding applications such as space-based and offshore solar power, according to BJX News.
Caixin reports China’s NEV output grew 21.9% in August, but solar cell output contracted 12.9% amid efforts to address overcapacity.
The NDRC has allocated 30m yuan to support Hainan province following heavy rainfall and flooding, reports Xinhua. Jiemian cites an expert saying that “weather-related factors” have become “key” variables determining the supply and demand, safety and market trading stability of the power system.
China’s largest international offshore oil and gas engineering project started construction in eastern China’s Shandong province yesterday, reports Global Times.

100% tariff threat to India: US house advances Russia sanctions bill

Prabhakar Jha, Mint

The US house of representatives has “moved a bill imposing 100% tariffs on India and four other countries to a final vote”, reports Mint, a move aimed at “punish[ing] Russia and major buyers of its petroleum products”. Per the paper, the bill also aims to “extend the expiration date” of sanctions on companies “that invest in [the] Iranian energy sector” until 2031. Yesterday, India’s ministry of external affairs said the country’s energy cooperation with Russia was an “important pillar” of their bilateral partnership, the story adds. While US senate aides “identified China, India, Slovakia, Hungary and Azerbaijan as the five largest purchasers of Russian crude when the revised bill was unveiled in July”, India is “not named in the operative” senate text, clarifies Moneycontrol. It adds that a final vote on the sanctions is expected today and, if approved, the bill will go to US president Trump, “who has said he supports it”.

Meanwhile, the New Delhi Declaration adopted at the BRICS summit “unequivocally acknowledged that fossil fuels will still play an important role” in developing economies, while opposing “unilateral, punitive, discriminatory and protectionist measures”, reports the Indian Express. The declaration’s stance on fossil fuels “rejects an aggressive phaseout in favour of a realistic, managed transition”, says an opinion piece in the Hindu. “We must oppose withdrawing from organisations, breaking treaties and starting anew by setting up separate mechanisms,” said Chinese president Xi Jinping, per the Diplomat, in “what is seen as thinly veiled criticism” of Trump “walk[ing] out of pacts” on climate change.

MORE ON SOUTH ASIA

In an interview with Carbon Copy, World Resources Institute’s Ulka Kelkar says that while the Nepal floods are a “testbed” for the loss-and-damage fund, developing countries “are not sitting ducks waiting for north-to-south climate finance”.
A new research report covered by the Economic Times finds that India added “nearly 84 times” as much battery storage in the first half of 2026 as it did a year ago.
Scroll.in reports that India’s chief intelligence agency has filed a case against Bhanu Tatak, lawyer to Indigenous farmers resisting large dam projects in eastern Arunachal Pradesh, bordering China.
A Mongabay documentary takes a closer look at how Indigenous villages that received community forest rights “patrol the forest on bicycles”, putting out forest fires before they start.

Comment

A hotter planet meets dearer money

Moritz Kraemer, The Financial Times

Writing in the Financial Times, Moritz Kraemer – the chief economist at German bank LBBW – says that “adapting to a hotter world is becoming more urgent”, while the “bill for delay is rising”. He says: “Nowhere is the financing challenge greater than in emerging markets and developing economies…Yet they are among the places likely to suffer most from a warming planet.” He writes that the upcoming COP31 climate summit “needs to make tangible progress on climate finance”, adding that “this summer’s punishing heat should remind leaders what is at stake”. He concludes: “Stabilising the climate will not come for free and failing to act now would be more expensive still. The choice is not between paying or not paying. It is between paying earlier for mitigation and adaptation, or paying more later for disaster relief, reconstruction, food insecurity and displaced populations.”

MORE COMMENT

The Daily Telegraph world economy editor Ambrose Evans-Pritchard warns that a “perfect storm of wars in Iran and Ukraine, extreme weather and the AI bubble threatens disaster” for the global economy.
In the New York Times, essayist Tanner Greer writes about why “ordinary Americans possess an absolute hatred” for data centres.
Lindsay Hooper, CEO for the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, writes in Reuters: “While hostile politics make it tempting to give in to fatalism about the prospects for climate action, that would be a serious mistake.”
The Financial Times chief foreign affairs columnist Gideon Rachman writes about the recent “expanded” conflict in the Gulf, warning that “energy supplies from Saudi Arabia have been hit just as Europe and the US head into winter”.

Research

Variability in US corn yields has declined since 1950 and remained constant since 1970, largely due to irrigation – meaning that aquifer depletion could result in higher yield volatility | Environmental Research Letters
A five-year field study finds that warming reduces the diversity of bacteria found in soils | Global Change Biology
The average “density altitude” – a measure of air pressure that is used to determine safe aircraft payloads – has risen by 30 metres per decade at Xiamen airport in China | Climatic Change