Daily Briefing: India ‘wastes solar’ | Heat-pump cuts ‘backlash’ | China to cut EV export rebate

13.10.26

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News

India wastes 4% of solar power amid power shortages in July, August, report shows

Sethuraman N R, Reuters

Nearly “1.8bn units of renewable electricity” went to waste in India in July and August this year, according to a new report covered by Reuters. The newswire adds that around 4% of total solar generation “could not be absorbed by the grid” in these months, “highlighting inadequate transmission infrastructure”. Reuters says the findings from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) “highlight a growing challenge for India as it expands renewable energy capacity ⁠to meet its clean energy targets of 500 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 from the present 304 GW”.

MORE ON ASIA ENERGY

Reuters: “Emerging Asia’s power-driven LNG demand at risk as renewables gain ground.”
Bloomberg reports on blackouts and rising energy costs in “factories, smelters and households” in India amid “plunging coal stockpiles”.

UK: Labour plan to cut funds from heat-pump scheme sparks industry backlash

Jim Pickard and Kenza Bryan, The Financial Times

The Financial Times covers an “industry backlash” to reports that the UK government may cut funding from a scheme that provides household heat-pump grants in England and Wales. It says the cuts being considered, possibly worth hundreds of millions of pounds, form “part of a Downing Street drive to find extra money for defence spending”. The newspaper quotes Camilla Born, chief of campaign group Electrify Britain, saying: “This is just a big slap in the face to [industry] and to consumers having to deal with high bills.” It also quotes Mel Evans from Greenpeace UK asking why funding would be cut amid “billions in windfall profits piling up in the accounts of the oil majors”. The newspaper quotes Octopus Energy chief, Greg Jackson, saying that cutting the heat-pump grants would be “remarkably short-sighted”.

MORE ON UK

At least 183 homes on England’s east coast have been demolished due to coastal erosion and landslide risks in the past 16 years, reports the Guardian.
Reuters: “Ørsted buys back British offshore windfarm stake for £15m.”
The Scotsman: “GB Energy poised to continue investment in Scotland’s stuttering floating wind projects.”
DeSmog analysis says that Reform UK has taken “substantial amounts of money” from “fossil-fuel interests”, among many others.
The Daily Telegraph claims police officers could enter homes of electric-vehicle drivers suspected of “tampering with meters” to avoid the future pay-per-mile tax.
The Times reports on claims from an “energy economist and former BP executive” that approving the Rosebank oil field could boost UK diesel supplies.

China to lower VAT export rebate on new energy vehicles

Reuters

China will cut VAT export rebates for new-energy vehicles (NEVs) to ⁠9% from 13% from next April, says Reuters. In September, NEV sales fell 12% year-on-year to 1.1m units, reports Bloomberg, citing China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) data. It adds that NEVs nevertheless accounted for 67.1% of all passenger-vehicle retail sales. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) also released data for NEV market share, placing it at 61.6% for September, according to state news agency Xinhua. Financial news outlet Caixin says that China has issued “stricter testing rules” for NEVs, such as environmental adaptability tests. The Communist party-affiliated People’s Daily says the proposed rules target “rushed-to-market cars”, following public outrage over a recent safety issue involving a Huawei-linked NEV.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that China’s commerce ministry said on Monday its deal with the EU on hybrid-car imports will ensure “export space and steady growth”. Caixin says whether the agreement will be implemented through “tariffs or quantitative restrictions” remains unclear. Hong Kong-based newspaper the South China Morning Post (SCMP) says China hailed the talks as “constructive”, with its commerce ministry saying separately that the two sides have “huge cooperation potential” in new energy and “green low-carbon fields”. People’s Daily publishes an article under the byline Zhong Sheng, signalling the party leadership’s view on international relations, saying China is an “indispensable pillar” for Europe in “advancing green transition”.

MORE ON CHINA

A China Environment News commentary by Zhong Huanping – thought to be linked to the MEE – urges regions to consider local conditions when driving their “energy revolution”.
In People’s Daily, NDRC-linked researcher Liu Zhenzhong writes that upgrading traditional industries with “green technology” would help develop “new quality productive forces”.
He Yang, deputy head of the NEA, emphasises “accelerating the construction of a new-type power system” in a commentary for Liaowang Magazine.
China’s coastal cities could see sea-level rise “up to 20%” higher than the global average, according to SCMP. Chinese scientists tell the Paper that “glacier science communication” should warn of “collapse” instead of just “retreat”.
Policymakers with an energy background make up a significant portion of China’s central committee, according to analysis in SCMP.
Revisions to rules for China’s carbon market have “strengthen[ed]” penalties for carbon-emission “noncompliance” through higher fines and possible production suspensions, says China Daily.

US: Trump defends Russia diesel deal after bipartisan pushback: ‘I made the right choice’

Kevin Breuninger, CNBC

US president Donald Trump has pushed back on “bipartisan criticism” of his decision to temporarily ease restrictions on diesel imports from Russia, reports CNBC. The outlet says Trump wrote on Truth Social that it was the “right choice for the American people” It adds that both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have “raised concerns” about the decision. Politico reports on criticism of the plan from governments in Europe. Bloomberg says European officials “warn[ed] that increasing Russia’s diesel sales will boost Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine”. The Associated Press covers analysis finding that the deal may not significantly reduce diesel prices in the US.

MORE ON US

Citing Carbon Brief analysis and other datapoints, CNN says the impacts of the Iran war could make Trump an “accidental climate president” due to clean-energy shifts amid soaring fossil-fuel prices, despite him being “climate-denier-in-chief”.

Comment

IPCC is under pressure to delay publication of key global climate report

Fiona Harvey, The Guardian

Several outlets discuss the significance of this week’s meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN science body, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Environment editor at the Guardian Fiona Harvey writes that scientists are facing “pressure from some petro-states and major developing countries” to delay publishing the IPCC’s seventh assessment report (AR7). Harvey writes that the report is due to be published in 2028 in time for a global stocktake of progress at the COP33 climate summit. She notes: “A group of countries, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia and including India and China, is pressing for publication of the report to be pushed back to 2029.”

Writing in Climate Home News, Prof Piers Forster, director of the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures at the University of Leeds, says this week’s IPCC meeting is “crucial” for deciding the publication timeframe. He writes that those pushing for delays have a “hidden motive”: “If the report on mitigation is delayed beyond the second global stocktake, the same governments that delayed it will then argue that the stocktake cannot meaningfully discuss vital mitigation action without the latest report, effectively delaying more ambitious agreements on cutting emissions by another five years. It is the duty of every government that professes to care about climate change to oppose such a retrograde step.”

MORE COMMENT

A Financial Times editorial says Trump’s diesel “gambit” with Russia is “yet another exercise in short-sighted, chaotic decision-making that risks doing lasting damage for little gain”.
Associate senior research scholar at Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy, Christof Rühl, writes in the Financial Times: “The diesel crisis is testing the limits of globalisation.”
In the Climate Brink substack, Carbon Brief science contributor Dr Zeke Hausfather writes: “Tree rings and corals both put the biggest modern El Niños at or near the top of the past millennium, and this year’s event is on track to land well above them.”
Associate editor at the Daily Telegraph, Ben Marlow, discusses the EU’s decision to limit imports of hybrid vehicles from China, criticising the UK for “sitting on the fence”.
Harvey Jones, personal finance editor at the Daily Express, says UK prime minister Andy Burnham faces a “massive decision” on whether to approve the Rosebank and Jackdaw projects.
A Daily Telegraph editorial claims that “net-zero is accused of making everyone worse off” in the UK.

Research

Urban heat risk is increasing five times faster in the global south than the global north | Communications Earth & Environment
The Arctic is at risk of crossing climate tipping points, even under scenarios of net-zero CO2 emissions | Communications Earth & Environment
The east Asian summer monsoon has shifted northwards, increasing rainfall over South Korea and heat stress in east Asia | npj Climate and Atmospheric Science