Daily Briefing: US midterms energy fallout | UN adaptation report | ‘Ask Zeke anything’

05.11.26

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News

US: Blue wave rocks global energy markets

Benjamin Storrow, Zack Colman and Sara Schonhardt, Politico

“Shock waves from the Democratic blue tsunami cascaded through global energy markets on Wednesday,” reports Politico in its coverage of the US midterm election results. It continues: “The AI race, which is powering the US economy and sending electricity demand soaring, suddenly faces major roadblocks…Manufacturers in Asia wondered if the electoral outcome would lead to a slowdown in orders for semiconductors, batteries and transformers…A new generation of Democrats is bound for Washington. They are less focused on climate change and more focused on affordability and rooting out corruption.” The Guardian says that shares of renewable energy developers around the world have climbed. It says offshore wind developer Ørsted should see “reprieve from the White House’s assaults” on offshore wind off the north-east US coast. Reuters says: “Data-center stocks slid on Wednesday, while clean-energy shares rallied.” Heatmap outlines the “winners and losers” of the midterms.

Bloomberg says the Democrats may seek to renegotiate the permitting bill, which “could be one of the most consequential pieces of energy legislation in years as the country seeks to speed up federal approval of major projects ranging from pipelines to power lines”. It says this could delay the bill, which is “sought by both fossil fuel and renewable lobbies.” Inside Climate News outlines the implications of Democratic wins in Texas, Georgia and New York’s 17th Congressional District. Euronews says: “While climate was rarely on the ballot by name, Trump’s anti-climate policies shaped the outcome.” The New York Times says: “The war in Iran, efforts to promote fossil fuels and attacks on renewable energy contributed to higher prices for gas and electricity that drove voter discontent.” Grist says “flipping control of Congress will allow the Democrats to hinder Trump’s numerous attempts to roll back federal climate policy”. Time, Bloomberg, Reuters and Scientific American also cover the election.

MORE ON US

The Financial Times says oil prices fell to their lowest level in two months after the Democrats victory “raised the pressure on Donald Trump to end his war in Iran”.
Reuters: “US to loan about a third of heating oil reserve in bid to tame prices.”
Reuters says Republicans “asked ‌a US appeals court to overturn a ruling that found the Environmental Protection Agency improperly sent landmark California vehicle emissions rules to lawmakers for potential repeal”.
The Financial Times: “Trump diesel deal with Russia falters as US fuel supplies hit 20-year low.”
Scientific American: “The Super El Niño is already soaking the US. Expect more flooding to come.”

Rich countries fall far short on climate adaptation funding, UN says

Virginia Furness, Reuters

“Rich countries are falling well short of the $305bn needed each year ‌to help developing nations adapt to climate change,” reports Reuters. This is according to the UN’s 2026 adaptation gap report, says the newswire. It continues: “Funding from developed countries rose by $1bn to $28.2bn in 2024, but remained a fraction of what is required to help poorer nations cope with worsening heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and ⁠floods.” The newswire notes that financing from multilateral development banks is likely to have increased ⁠in 2025 and financial flows between developing countries have also continued to increase. The Guardian adds: “A recently established loss and damage fund is already overwhelmed. In its first round, 119 developing countries submitted requests totalling $2.8bn, far outstripping the initial funding of $342m.” Outlets including Climate Home News and CBC also cover the report.

India pushes to triple coal stockpiles to avert summer blackouts

Rajesh Kumar Singh, Bloomberg

India’s coal, power and railways ministries have together set a goal to boost inventories at the plants from current levels near 18m tons to at least 55m by March, reports Bloomberg. The outlet says the “ambitious target” aims to avert “shortages that could also raise tensions with other users of the fossil fuel”. It continues: “The coal crunch has rippled through the economy over recent months, causing blackouts and raising energy costs. Weak hydropower output and heat-driven electricity demand have further increased pressure on the grid, while Coal India’s prioritisation of power plants has left factories short of fuel…Nearly half of power stations have critical stock levels, meaning they hold less than a quarter of the required amount.”

Chinese VP to attend COP31 summit in Turkey, visit Georgia

Xinhua

China’s vice-president Han Zheng will attend the Antalya Leaders’ Summit at COP31 as President Xi Jinping’s special representative, reports state news agency Xinhua. China News Service quotes a government spokesperson saying China is willing to work with all parties to “strengthen practical climate actions” and “contribute” to the success of COP31. The upcoming COP31 “calls for concrete action”, says the Communist party-affiliated People’s Daily. It adds that China “honours its commitments and boldly takes on responsibility” on climate. A decade after the Paris Agreement took effect, the “gap” between commitments and action remains “substantial”, says state broadcaster CGTN. Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s former climate envoy, writes in a commentary for Dialogue Earth that China could become a climate “torchbearer” by “anchoring multilateralism in sound IPCC science, contributing to international climate funds, fostering local value creation across developing nations and building coalitions with partners like the EU”.

MORE ON CHINA

“China secured $45bn in investment in clean industries in 2026” and now holds half of all “clean industrial plants” currently operating or under construction, reports Reuters.
Thailand plans to raise tax on imported electric vehicles to 35% to “promote” local production, due to an “influx” of Chinese cars, according to Nikkei.
China has published new guidelines that encourage shopping venues to conduct “energy-saving upgrades” and cut emissions, says Xinhua.
Construction has started on China’s first “large-scale” project for recycling “new-energy” technologies, reports China News Service.
The Lancet Countdown Asia Centre says that climate change has become a “direct burden on daily life” in China, notes China.org.cn.
Typhoons and other weather-related factors led to the first decline in China’s household electricity use in “nearly a decade”, reports China Electric Power News.

Energy independence bill: Government promises sweeping reforms to ‘fix Britain’s broken energy system’

Michael Holder, BusinessGreen

The UK government has tabled its energy independence bill, which “aims to ban new oil and gas production licences, permanently block fracking and coal mining projects and introduce community benefit rules for renewables developers,” reports BusinessGreen. The Daily Telegraph says the legislation “would allow oil companies to keep operating existing licensed oil and gas fields until they are depleted”, but adds that “they would be able to drill new wells only if they could be connected to existing infrastructure by subsea pipelines known as tiebacks”. The Times says the legislation “will make it harder to reverse its ban on new oil and gas licences,” adding that “any subsequent government would require a majority in parliament to overturn it in future”. BBC News adds: “The legislation will not affect the [upcoming] decision on whether to allow drilling at Rosebank off Shetland – the UK’s largest known untapped field – which was approved in 2022 before being subject to legal challenges.”

MORE ON UK:

BusinessGreen: “Energy minister confirms ‘pause’ ahead of next clean power contract auction.”
Reuters: “British sport under-prepared for climate risks as costs rise, report says.”
BusinessGreen: “Energy security and net-zero secretary [Miatta Fahnbulleh] signals electrification and lower bills are now top policy priorities, casting further doubt on Labour’s manifesto pledge to deliver a clean power system by 2030.”
The Daily Telegraph: “Tories demand ‘critical status’ for North Sea pipelines amid Russian threat.”
The Guardian: “Warming seas around the UK and the wider north-east Atlantic could destabilise marine food webs, weaken ocean health and jeopardise food security by 2050, according to a four-year study.”

ECB’s Lagarde urges climate resilience drive after scorching summer

Francesco Canepa, Reuters

Christine Lagarde, the out-going president of the European Central Bank (ECB), published a blog post yesterday calling on the continent to “boost climate-related insurance, invest more in power infrastructure and help companies generate their own electricity,” reports Reuters. According to the newswire, Lagarde said that extreme weather had “exposed vulnerabilities in Europe’s economy and energy system that would become more acute as the climate warms”. Agence France-Presse says Lagarde urged Europe to “upgrade its power grids so they could make better use of renewable energy” and to “come up with rules to make it easier for companies to generate power, such as through their own solar panels, and share this with the wider grid if it comes under strain”. Bloomberg adds that Lagarde will leave the ECB in February, about nine months early, “to be able to speak out on topics beyond monetary policy”.

MORE ON EUROPE

Reuters says “European Union lawmakers backed proposals on Wednesday to weaken the bloc’s car emissions and corporate fleet targets, easing requirements on automakers to maximise zero-emission vehicle sales from 2035”.
Reuters: “Most EU citizens back an urgent transition to greener fuel, survey shows.”
Rapporteur: “Europe makes case for global ban on emerging climate super-pollutant.“
Euronews: “50m Europeans can’t heat their homes. What is the EU doing to help?”
Energy Monitor: “RWE wins contract for three power station projects in Germany.”
Rapporteur: “Conservationists despair as EU presses ahead with nature law review.”

Comment

COP31 must deliver finance for Africa or there will be no implementation

Nana Antwi-Boasiako Amoah and Charles Wanguhu, Climate Home News

Nana Antwi-Boasiako Amoah, chair of the African group of negotiators on climate change, and Charles Wanguhu, director of the Africa Futures Policy Hub, have a comment piece in Climate Home News ahead of COP31. They say that “without real progress in Antalya on finance for adaptation and energy transition, next year’s Africa-hosted COP [in Ethiopia] will inherit the same unmet promises”. They note that Africa accounts for only 4% of global emissions, yet “carries a wildly disproportionate share of the cost”. They continue: “The proposed just transition mechanism should be country-led and grant-based, so it adds capacity rather than debt. It should fund the things that make diversification real – reliable power (smarter grids and delivery networks), local processing, and the skills to run them – and it should put workers and affected communities at the table, not merely in the communiqué.”

MORE COMMENT

Liban Obsiye, executive director of the Somali national climate fund, in the Independent: “We need to end the conflict and climate ‘fragility penalty’ that is stopping nations getting help.”
Daily Telegraph business editor Ambrose Evans-Pritchard says if Trump continues bombing Iran, the country “will escalate from attacks on individual vessels to wholesale attacks on the Gulf’s energy and transport infrastructure”.
Pete Madden, president and chief executive of the US endowment for forestry and communities, writes in the Los Angeles Times: “Shift the wildfire spending to damage prevention, not just reaction.”
Emily Atkin writes in her Heated newsletter that the midterms marked a “very expensive night for oil”.
Allister Heath, the climate-sceptic editor of the Sunday Telegraph, writes in the Daily Telegraph: “Trump was meant to defeat wokery, to terminate net-zero…instead he made the Democratic party great again.”
Climate-sceptic columnist Peter Hitchens has a highly misleading full-page comment piece in the Daily Mail: “The sinister ghostly groan as the power in my house died is a sound that will soon be familiar to us all – thanks to net-zero.”

Research

Cloud forests facing “sustained regional warming” maintain “remarkably stable” near-surface relative humidity, which helps to buffer them from atmospheric drying | Communications Earth & Environment
Temperatures in the Italian Alps have risen by more than 2C over the last 50 years | International Journal of Climatology
“Incivility” in Covid-19 discussions “spills over” to public engagement with climate issues on English-language Twitter and Reddit | Environmental Research Letters