Britain sells a record 99,199 electric cars in September, as Ford's US electric sales fall 80%

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29 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

1. 02

   US states sue to bring back the mileage rule

   California, New York and two dozen other states, cities and counties sued the US Transportation Department on Friday. [9] They want back the stricter fuel-economy rule it cut on Monday, from an average of 50.4 to 34.9 miles a gallon for 2031 cars. [9] Five environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, filed a separate suit the same day. [10] NHTSA, the department's road-safety agency, estimates a new car's driver will pay $1,624 more for fuel over the car's life. [11]

   Why it matters — The states say drivers lose nearly $220 billion in fuel savings. [9] Congress had already set the fine for missing the federal target at zero. [12] That leaves California's own emissions rules, which 18 other states and the District of Columbia have adopted, as the main limit on carmakers. [12]

2. 03

   Diesel passes 2 pounds a litre in Britain

   The average price of diesel in Britain rose above 2 pounds a litre for the first time, the RAC, a British motoring group, said. [13] Filling a family car with diesel now costs about 110 pounds, almost 32 pounds more than when the war with Iran began. [13] More than half of Britain's diesel is imported, and about 17% of its supply comes from the US. [13] On Friday, EU governments discussed a French plan to release 50 million barrels of their emergency diesel. [14]

   about 78 poundsFamily car, February

   ↓→

   110 poundsFamily car, now

   Why it matters — President Donald Trump has threatened to stop US diesel exports unless Europe releases more of its reserves, and a ban would push prices up in Britain and the EU, the BBC reports. [13] Dear diesel also raises the cost of moving goods and growing food, so it reaches people who never fill a tank. [13]

3. 04

   Electric lorry sales set a record

   Nearly 160,000 medium and heavy electric lorries were sold worldwide in the first half of 2026, about 75% more than a year earlier, BloombergNEF, an energy research firm, counts. [15] More than nine in ten were sold in China, which BloombergNEF says has strong policies and its own battery supply chain. [15] About one truck in five sold in China is now electric. [15] In the US the market is near a standstill after tax credits ended and grants were frozen. [15]

   9 of 10

   electric lorries sold in China, out of every ten sold worldwide

   Why it matters — Dearer diesel since the Iran war makes an electric lorry pay back its higher price faster. [15] In the first half, China exported more than twice as many electric tractor units, the front part that pulls a trailer, as in all of 2025, Bloomberg News reports. [15]

4. 05

   Denmark ranks who gets onto its grid

   Denmark's parliament has passed an emergency law that ends first-come, first-served connections to its electricity grid. [16] Grid companies, led by the state-owned operator Energinet, will sort applicants into four groups. [16] Vital public services, new homes and ordinary use come first, then electric transport, heating, industry and renewable power. [16] Batteries come third and the largest users, such as data centres, last, and those two groups can be refused when there is no room. [16]

   Why it matters — Denmark's climate minister, Samira Nawa, called the state of the grid deeply serious. [16] The law starts on 12 October, and Finland is considering a similar system. [16]

5. 06

   Japan makes battery projects prove their land

   Since 1 October, any project in Japan granted a grid connection must prove within two months that it has the right to use its site, or lose its place. [17] The rule comes from OCCTO, which coordinates Japan's power grids, and the industry ministry. [17] At the end of 2025, about 172 gigawatts of grid batteries were waiting for a grid study, against 0.64 gigawatts actually connected. [17] At the end of September 2024 the queue was about 88 gigawatts. [17]

   Waiting for a grid study172 GW

   At the contract stage30 GW

   Actually connected0.64 GW

   Why it matters — Japan's industry ministry says projects with little chance of being built were holding places, slowing the ones that could connect. [17] It is the third rule this year aimed at the queue, after a cap on how many studies one company may ask for. [17]

6. 07

   Petrobras finds more oil off the Amazon mouth

   Petrobras, Brazil's state oil company, said on Friday it had found more oil in very deep water off Amapa state. [18] The find is a second, deeper layer in the Morpho well, where it first found oil in August. [18] The well is in the Foz do Amazonas basin, at the mouth of the Amazon, which Petrobras calls its most promising new oil frontier. [18] Its chief executive, Magda Chambriard, said three more wells will test whether production would pay. [18]

   Why it matters — The rocks there resemble those off Guyana, where ExxonMobil is developing huge oil fields. [18] Petrobras still needs licences for seven more wells in a basin Reuters describes as environmentally sensitive. [18]

7. 08

   Thailand's floods kill about 40

   About 40 people have died in the floods, some drowned and some electrocuted, the Thai government says. [19] In parts of Bangkok roughly 300mm of rain fell in about two days, as much as London gets in half a year. [19] All 50 of the city's districts are declared a flood disaster, and thousands of people stayed in more than 230 shelters. [19] At one point this week about half of Thai Airways' staff could not get to work. [19]

   Why it matters — Bangkok sits on the floodplain of the Chao Phraya river and drains through canals, pumps and dikes. [19] Building over much of the canal network has left the city unable to cope with rain this heavy, the Guardian reports. [19]

8. 09

   Nepal's Gandak river hits a record

   Torrential rain from 24 to 27 September pushed the Gandak river, also called the Narayani, to record levels in Nepal and India, NASA reports. [20] A gauge at Devghat in Nepal reached 11.94 metres on 27 September, the highest since measurements began in the 1960s. [20] Water broke through embankments and flooded farms and towns for hundreds of kilometres, including parts of Bagaha in India. [20]

   Why it matters — News reports say hundreds of villages were hit and thousands of people driven from their homes. [20] The river runs from Nepal's mountains into India, so the rain in one country flooded villages in the other. [20]

9. 10

   Northwest buyers must pay for an idle coal plant

   The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees US power markets, on Thursday rejected TransAlta's plan to recover $19.9 million for keeping its Centralia coal plant in Washington state open. [21] The US Energy Department ordered the 730-megawatt plant to stay open in December, and has renewed the 90-day order since. [21] The plant made no electricity this year, through July. [21] FERC said TransAlta may still be paid, but only by power buyers in the Northwest. [21]

   Why it matters — TransAlta had wanted grid operators as far away as California and the central US to share the bill. [21] Washington state's government and public power companies had argued nothing was owed for a plant that was not running, and FERC disagreed. [21]

10. 11

    The US heads for its hottest year

    January to August 2026 was the hottest such stretch in the lower 48 US states since records began in 1895, according to NOAA, the US weather agency. [22] It averaged 57.98F, just above the 2012 record for those months. [22] The climate scientist Zeke Hausfather puts the chance that 2026 beats 2024 as the hottest full year at about 80%. [22] A NOAA spokesperson said its data do not settle that yet. [22]

    Why it matters — To miss the record, the last four months would need to be cooler than a typical recent autumn, Hausfather says. [22] Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at Brown University, says a very strong El Nino could make 2027 worse. [22]

11. 12

    Germany lets batteries trade with the grid

    Germany's grid regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur, has approved long-awaited rules for batteries and for car chargers that can send power back. [23] Until now, a battery storing subsidised solar power had to keep it apart from power bought from the grid. [23] Now a battery can charge from the grid when power is cheap and sell it back when it is dear, without losing its solar support. [23] Two-way car chargers count the same way. [23]

    Why it matters — Germany's solar industry group called the rules a long-awaited key to using solar and grid power in one battery. [23] It says batteries can now make better use of the grid already built, once meter and network operators put the rules in place. [23]

12. 13

    Chinese carmakers pour into Argentina

    Buenos Aires held its first Chinese car show on Friday, with more than 20 Chinese brands. [24] Argentina lets in up to 50,000 electric and hybrid cars this year without tariffs. [24] Chinese brands took 10% of car sales in August, up from about 2% late last year, and BYD, a Chinese electric carmaker, is already the ninth best-selling brand. [24] China is expected to export about 12 million cars this year, up from about 3 million in 2022. [25]

    Why it matters — Ford's chief executive, Jim Farley, said on Tuesday that it is too late for Europe to hold back Chinese carmakers. [25] The US keeps them out with tariffs above 100% and a ban on Chinese car software. [25]

13. 14

    Europe's seas had their hottest summer

    European seas averaged 21.6C from June to August, the highest in 45 years of data, a Reuters analysis found. [26] A marine heatwave is five or more days of water well above its usual temperature. [26] The Bay of Biscay, off France and Spain, had 186 such days by the end of August. [26] In the 1980s it had only a handful a year. [26]

    Why it matters — A marine ecologist at the University of Oviedo estimates that about 95% of the big kelp stands off Asturias in northern Spain have gone since 2010. [26] Kelp needs water below about 20C, and the fish and shellfish that small fishing fleets there live on depend on it. [26]

14. 15

    A map of US clean factories hit by policy cuts

    The BlueGreen Alliance, a US campaign group that tracks clean-energy jobs, has published a map of 3,446 manufacturing projects it says have been hurt by Republican policy changes. [27] The harms include lost tax credits, grants cancelled or delayed, and factories cancelled or stalled. [27] Lost tax credits are the largest group. [27] An earlier report by the group put the losses at more than 111,000 jobs and $82 billion of investment. [27]

    Why it matters — The tax credits were cut by a law Republicans in Congress passed in 2025. [27] The new map lists jobs and money affected on each project but gives no new total, so it shows where the cuts landed rather than their full size. [27]

15. 16

    Aviva warns of homes built to flood

    Amanda Blanc, head of the insurer Aviva, said England is building homes that may one day be impossible to insure because of flooding. [28] On current plans about 115,000 new homes will go up in flood zones in the next decade, she told the BBC. [28] Aviva's research found one in nine homes built from 2022 to 2024 is at medium to high flood risk. [28] About 6.3 million homes and businesses in England are at risk of flooding. [28]

    Why it matters — The Met Office estimates that record wet winters like 2023-24 have gone from once in 80 years to once in 20 at today's warming. [28] Blanc said homes built next to flood zones also need to be built differently. [28]

16. 17

    A California beach town votes on buying sand

    San Clemente, a California beach town of 62,000 people, votes in November on a 1% sales tax to pay for sand and wildfire protection. [29] Rising seas and higher waves have split its North Beach, and crumbling cliffs keep closing a coastal railway, AP reports. [29] The 7-mile stretch is part of a 351-mile line linking San Diego, Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo. [29] The city says it is short of about 3 million cubic yards of sand. [29]

    Why it matters — Trucking that much sand in would take 300,000 trips, the city manager says. [29] The railway also carries freight and military traffic, so the erosion reaches well beyond one beach. [29]

17. 18

    The world's tallest wind turbine reaches full height

    A pilot wind turbine in Schipkau, eastern Germany, has reached its full height of 365 metres, the tallest in the world. [30] Its hub sits 300 metres up, where winds are stronger and steadier. [30] GICON, which built it for Germany's innovation agency SPRIND, says it could make about twice the energy of a normal turbine with the same blades. [30] It is rated at 3.8 megawatts and is due to start up in November. [30]

    Why it matters — GICON says Germany's existing wind farms could hold up to 4,000 such turbines above the ones already there, with no new land. [30] That is an estimate, and the extra output has not yet been shown in operation. [30]

18. 19

    Ford's Michigan solar farm is finished

    DTE Energy, a Detroit power company, has finished a 100-megawatt solar farm near Coldwater, Michigan, paid for by Ford. [31] The $194 million Cold Creek farm can power about 23,000 to 25,000 homes. [31] It is the first of several DTE projects meant to supply Ford's Michigan factories. [31] Ford agreed in 2022 to buy up to 650 megawatts of renewable power. [31]

    Why it matters — Ford now aims to build every vehicle it makes in Michigan on carbon-free electricity by the end of 2027. [31] The goal was 2025 when the deal was signed, and the new announcement does not say why it moved. [31]

19. 20

    Spain tests solar panels on the sea

    Spain's first test-scale floating solar plant at sea has started tests in the Port of Valencia. [32] Its two 500-kilowatt platforms were built by BlueNewables with Naturgy, a Spanish energy company. [32] They are named after Paiporta and Catarroja, two towns hit by the 2024 DANA storm. [32] The trial runs for two years, paid for with Spanish and EU recovery money. [32]

    Why it matters — Floating panels can go where land is scarce or the grid is crowded, such as ports and islands. [32] The test will show what they cost to run and repair in salt water. [32]

20. 21

    Italy runs a hydrogen plant on solar

    SIAD, an Italian chemical and engineering group, has opened a 2-megawatt plant near Caserta that splits water into hydrogen. [33] It runs only on a 2.37-megawatt solar field and a battery. [33] The hydrogen will be compressed and sold to factories. [33] The project cost more than 12 million euros, 8 million of it from Italy's recovery fund. [33]

    Why it matters — SIAD says the hydrogen is for industrial uses where running directly on electricity is hard. [33] Two thirds of the cost came from public money. [33]

21. 22

    A gas company pays for ground heat

    Vermont Gas, a gas utility, will pay for and own the underground pipes that heat and cool new affordable homes at Riggs Meadow in Hinesburg, Vermont. [34] Ground-source heat pumps move heat between the ground and the buildings through those pipes. [34] The ground stays at a steady temperature, so the system works in cold winters and hot summers. [34] The development has 44 homes for people on low and moderate incomes, and 36 of them will use ground heat. [34]

    Why it matters — The upfront cost of the pipes usually keeps affordable housing from using ground heat. [34] For the gas company, owning the pipes is a way to offer heating and cooling that run on electricity. [34]

22. 23

    A food pantry gets storm-proof power

    Beacon of Hope, a food pantry in Marshall, North Carolina, has installed 56 solar panels and three batteries. [35] They can run its lights, internet, heating, cooling and fridges when the grid fails. [35] The $100,000 system cost the pantry nothing: it came from a $5 million state programme for 24 microgrids, small grids that can run on their own. [35] Hurricane Helene's floods nearly wiped out Marshall's downtown two years ago. [35]

    Why it matters — The pantry feeds 1,700 families a month and it kept its power through Helene. [35] Bigger microgrids are stuck because they need foreign parts that federal funding rules do not allow without a waiver. [35]

23. 24

    Hawaii's 550-year-old sea arch falls

    The Holei Sea Arch, a 27-metre lava-rock arch on Hawaii's Big Island, has fallen into the Pacific, the US National Park Service said. [36] It formed about 550 years ago. [36] It was standing on 23 September and gone by 27 September, and probably fell while the park was closed for Tropical Storm Nolo. [36] Earthquakes during the 2018 Kilauea eruption had damaged the cliffs. [36]

    Why it matters — The park service warned in 2021 that the arch would fall. [36] It says new arches will form as the cliff slowly moves inland. [36]

24. 25

    US Coast Guard stops fuel bound for Cuba

    The US Coast Guard said on Friday it had stopped a cargo ship, the Grace, carrying fuel to Cuba on 5 September. [37] It said the ship used tricks to hide where it was going, and that it seized a smaller boat earlier this summer. [37] The Trump administration is enforcing a fuel blockade meant to force political change in Cuba. [37] The Coast Guard said only that intelligence showed the fuel was bound there. [37]

    Why it matters — The New York Times says the blockade has helped cripple Cuba's economy and caused wide suffering among its 8 to 10 million people. [37] The Times says the US is now using the military, not just tariff threats, to cut off Cuba's fuel. [37]

25. 26

    Prospectors stake claims in Bears Ears

    Prospectors filed 16 mining claims on 11 September, the first day that land cut from Bears Ears National Monument in Utah reopened. [38] President Trump shrank the monument by about 90% in July. [38] Thirteen claims came from Kimmerle Mining, a family firm in Moab, and the claimants appear interested in uranium. [38] Bears Ears was created in 2016 to protect 1.35 million acres. [38]

    Why it matters — The July order also disbanded the tribal commission that helped run the monument. [38] A claim is only the first step towards a mine, and environmental groups expect more claims to follow. [38]

26. 27

    Crushed rock on land shows up in a stream

    Scientists spread crushed basalt rock on land draining into a small stream, and the stream's water changed within weeks, a study in a Nature journal reports. [39] Spreading rock dust, called enhanced weathering, is a way to pull carbon dioxide out of the air. [39] Over two years, about a tenth of the rock's possible carbon removal flowed out in the stream as dissolved carbon. [39] The effect was strongest in summer and autumn. [39]

    Why it matters — Carbon carried to the sea in this form can stay locked away for tens of thousands of years, the authors note. [39] So measuring what leaves in streams is part of checking how much carbon the method really removes. [39]

27. 28

    Solar panels shade vines in Puglia

    Researchers at the University of Bari grew grapevines under solar panels in Puglia, a hot, dry part of southern Italy. [40] Under heavy shade, grape bunches averaged 164.9 grams, against 65.4 grams in full sun. [40] The shaded grapes were less sugary: they scored 22.9 on the Brix scale of sugar, against 25.8 in full sun. [40] Earlier work in cooler northern Italy found vines did better outside the panels. [40]

    Under heavy shade164.9 g

    In full sun65.4 g

    Why it matters — Panels can shield crops from extreme heat where summers are hot and dry, the lead researcher says. [40] He warns the result does not carry over to wetter places. [40]

28. 29

    Hybrid coffee beats pure Arabica

    A trial of 32 coffee varieties at 30 sites in 17 countries found that varieties bred with genes from other coffee plants beat pure Arabica, a study in a Nature journal reports. [41] They gave more coffee and suffered less from leaf rust, a fungus disease. [41] Two hybrids, H1 Centroamericano and EC16, did best overall. [41] Coffee is grown on about 12.5 million farms, most of them small family plots. [41]

    Why it matters — How steady each variety's harvest was depended on local temperatures, and leaf rust depended on heat, rain and humidity together. [41] The authors say this gives a basis for choosing which coffee to plant as the climate changes. [41]

29. 30

    Denser city districts, less carbon per person

    A study of 278 Chinese cities from 2013 to 2019 found that where homes and shops are packed more densely, each person emits slightly less carbon dioxide. [42] A 1% rise in the density of people in those districts went with a 0.09% fall in carbon per person. [42] The authors left factory land out of the density count, which earlier studies had mixed in. [42]

    Why it matters — The authors say building compact districts for homes and shops can help China's cities cut carbon. [42] Separating factory land from homes was what made the link clear in their data. [42]