Climate & Energy

Super Typhoon Champi passes within 16 km of Guam at Category 4 strength, after growing from a tropical storm in under two days →

Champi grew faster than Guam's forecasters expected and passed just south of the island, where the worst winds hit. Hurricane Trudy lashed Mexico's coast, and Southeast Asia's haze reached its top alert.

EU leaders split over the carbon market at their Brussels summit, as six countries push to loosen it and the Nordics refuse →

Leaders of Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Italy and Greece blamed the EU's carbon price for high energy bills. Finland, Denmark and Sweden refused to weaken it, and a push to delay a second carbon market on car fuel and heating failed.

England declares its first ever severe drought in six counties, with Wimbleball reservoir 14.9% full and Ardingly 19.4% →

The Environment Agency declared England's first severe drought after the driest April to September in over a century, as two big reservoirs fell below a fifth full. Elsewhere, Britain paid £47.9m in a day to move power, Istanbul had record rain, fires spread in Indonesia and the Amazon, and France and Germany agreed to ease EU car rules.

The European Commission proposes delaying its methane rules for imported oil, gas and coal by a year, after pressure from France and the US →

Foreign suppliers would get until 2028 to show they measure their methane leaks, with the first proof due in May 2029. Indonesia tries dropping dry ice from a plane to clear its haze, and California's home batteries set a new record.

Saudi Arabia and Russia push the UN's climate science panel to delay its next big report to 2029, after the 2028 climate summit it was meant for →

At talks in Addis Ababa this week, a group led by Saudi Arabia and Russia wants the IPCC's seventh report held back a year, while ministers from 34 at-risk countries and the EU want it sooner. Also today: the US moves to reopen a finished wind farm's approval, an oil well blows out in Niger, Tesla now ships half its Chinese-built cars abroad, and land soaked up more carbon in 2025.

US regulator rejects a plan to switch off new data centres first in a power shortage, and tells the states to decide who is cut →

FERC turned down the core of PJM's plan to connect data centres on condition they lose power first in an emergency, saying only the states may choose which customers go dark. Also today: UK heat pump grants face a cut for defence, the IEA asks for more diesel, Batam's taps run dry beside data centres, and Nepal's flood is traced to a landslide dam.

El Nino pushes the Pacific's El Nino patch to a record 29.70C in September, and the world's seas to their warmest September on record →

Copernicus, the EU's climate service, says the El Nino patch of the Pacific hit an all-time high in September and the world's seas set a September record, but it cannot yet call this the strongest El Nino ever.

Hurricane Simon reaches 150 mph as it nears Mexico's Pacific coast, and Tropical Storm Rachel's waves flood homes in Long Beach, California →

Two Pacific storms closed on North America in the same weekend that Hurricane Isaias killed four people in the US: Simon, a Category 4, heads for the coast between Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta with up to 30 inches of rain, while Rachel's waves and wind reach southern California.

Hurricane Isaias hits Florida's Gulf coast after growing from Category 1 to Category 3 in one night, and more than 726,000 homes and businesses lose power →

Isaias fed on a Gulf of Mexico 1.5C warmer than normal and came ashore near Destin as a Category 2 storm, after oil firms had stopped about 63% of US Gulf oil output. Hurricane Simon neared Mexico at Category 4, and governments from Brazil to Nigeria cut what drivers pay for fuel.

Europe's gas network operators warn of a shortfall of up to 15% of demand in a severe winter, with storage 72% full against 83% a year ago →

ENTSOG, the group that runs Europe's gas pipes, says a hard winter could leave the EU 12-15% short of gas, because the ships that replaced Russian pipeline gas are now squeezed by the Iran war.

Tropical Storm Isaias heads for the US Gulf Coast, on course to be the latest first Atlantic hurricane on record →

Isaias formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday and is expected to become a hurricane by Thursday, the latest first hurricane of an Atlantic season since reliable records began. It could reach the coast between Louisiana and Florida late Friday.

Australia's High Court rules the Mount Pleasant coal mine expansion invalid, 3-2, because planners never weighed how to cut emissions from its coal burned overseas →

The first climate case decided by Australia's top court cancels a coal mine's approval and puts the state's biggest coal project at risk, while Google pays to squeeze more power from old US reactors and diesel hits a record in Britain.

The US Supreme Court hears Exxon and Suncor's bid to end Boulder's climate damages case, and two dozen like it →

Two oil companies asked the US Supreme Court on Monday to stop a Colorado city and county from making them share the cost of fires and floods. Also today, Trump waives the road tax on diesel, Britain's Conservatives would scrap clean heating in new homes, and petrol-only cars fall below half of the world's new car sales.

Satellites find huge methane leaks at Turkey's city dumps, a month before it hosts the UN climate summit →

Turkey has asked every country to cut methane before next month's COP31, while UCLA researchers using satellite data find its own dumps leaking some of the largest amounts anywhere; its co-host Australia keeps expanding coal as the pre-summit talks open in Fiji.

A UK plan to prepare the countryside for wildfires from 2023 was never started, and over half of 29 fire services lack wildfire gear →

England's 2023 climate plan promised a wildfire programme that never began, and more than half of the fire services that replied lack wildfire gear after a record summer of fires. Elsewhere, warm Pacific water fed hurricanes and heat, FedEx bought 2,000 electric trucks, and US ocean monitors went back to sea.

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

Britain makes carmakers sell a rising share of electric cars, and September set a record. In the US, where the buyer's tax credit has ended, Ford sold 80% fewer than a year ago.

New South Wales approves the biggest coal mine project in its history, digging until 2045, and 98% of its carbon will come from coal burned abroad →

The Hunter Valley mine's owners expect 809 million tonnes of carbon over its life, and climate rules count almost all of it in the countries that buy the coal. Also today: 21 US states sue over power-plant carbon rules, western Europe's hottest summer on record, and a US Supreme Court climate case on Monday.

Senators strike a deal to speed up permits for power lines and power plants, with the vote put off until after the US midterms →

US senators from both parties agreed a 417-page bill to make energy projects faster to approve and to make data centres pay for their power lines, but no vote comes before the 3 November elections. Also today: the US grid regulator pauses PJM's emergency power auction, LNG Canada doubles its gas plant, a small reactor gets a US building permit, and banks sign for the EU's largest solar farm.

EU countries say they have paid about $113 billion more for energy since the Iran war began and got no more fuel for it. The US wants them to release emergency diesel. →

EU energy ministers met in Dublin as the bloc counted a $113.5 billion extra energy bill, UK diesel hit a record 199.18p a litre, and the Trump administration pressed Europe to release some of its emergency diesel.

The US cuts the mileage new cars must average in 2031 from 50.4 to about 35 miles a gallon, and missing it already costs carmakers nothing →

The Trump administration finalised the rule on Monday, after the US Congress had set the fine for missing the standard to zero. Also today: Hurricane Polo reaches Mexico's Baja coast, a new kind of geothermal plant sells power in Utah, and New York picks its first big batteries.

Two days of rain flood Bangkok, and the city declares all 50 of its districts a disaster zone →

Nearly 300mm of rain fell on Thailand's capital in 48 hours, more than its drains could carry away, and some canals kept rising after the rain eased. Also today: floods kill 19 in India and Nepal, Hurricane Nolo parks off Hawaii, and Russia expects to sell less gas.

US diesel costs 76% more than a year ago, and the Trump administration is split over banning its export →

Donald Trump says he backs stopping US diesel sales abroad before the 3 November elections. His energy secretary says a ban would make refineries cut output and push petrol prices up, and is asking refiners for voluntary limits instead.

Oracle sends a force majeure notice on an $18 billion data centre as its gas pipeline runs late, and two data-centre share sales stall over who the customer is →

Oracle wants the right to delay payments on Project Jupiter in New Mexico, where a gas pipeline and permits are late. SB Energy could not find buyers at $50 billion, Holtec paused its listing, and DayOne, which already has its sites running, is going ahead.

Italy votes to bring back nuclear power, 39 years after giving it up, as dear gas makes coal pay again in Europe →

Italy's Senate passed a law on Wednesday that lets Italy's government write the rules for nuclear power again. The same week, gas got so dear that coal now pays better than gas in Europe's power stations, and Germany's coal plants are expected to run close to flat out this winter.

Arctic sea ice tied its 10th-lowest summer, and all 20 of the lowest have come since 2007 →

The Arctic's yearly ice low has been fairly steady in recent years because cloudier summers slowed the melt, but every one of the 20 lowest summers on record came from 2007 on. El Nino set a record, Bolivia ended cheap diesel, and the developer of a $20 billion data centre says $1 met its guarantee.

El Nino's heat could cause about 450,000 extra deaths by February, most of them in hot, poor places, a University of Chicago lab estimates →

The Climate Impact Lab says this year's record El Nino could cause up to 451,000 extra heat deaths between June and February, with the Sahel hit hardest. Also today: US states sue to stop paid-off wind farms, North Carolina refuses Duke a gas turbine, California makes data centres pay their own way, India wastes clean power for lack of wires, and traffic through Hormuz falls to two ships.

Turkey published its plan for the November climate summit, as a report found the world has built less than half the clean power it promised for 2030 →

Turkey's COP31 president set out ten themes and a 35% electricity target at the UN in New York, while a report his presidency co-wrote put the world's renewable build at 5.15 of the 11.2 terawatts its own 2030 pledge needs.

A Japanese power company bent the earthquake data for two reactors. Its president and chairman are going. →

Chubu Electric admitted it gave Japan's nuclear regulator manipulated earthquake figures for two Hamaoka reactors, dropped an eleven-year restart bid, and lost its two most senior people. Across the day, several big energy decisions sat unmade while the money went into moving them.

The world will burn less oil this year, and no government decided it →

Global carbon dioxide from fossil fuels is set to fall about 0.5% in 2026, even though coal burning is up, because the war around the Gulf made oil too expensive to buy.

Cuba's power grid collapsed again on Friday, leaving about 9 million people without electricity →

It was at least the sixth island-wide blackout since the US cut off Cuba's fuel in January. Also today: a judge restored a $7 billion solar grant programme, EDF plans ten small reactors, South Korea's chipmakers refused to pay their utility up front, and floods killed three people on the Navajo Nation.

Drones have shut Saudi Arabia's oil pipeline around Hormuz and cut output at half of Russia's biggest diesel refineries →

Three pumping stations on the pipeline that carried 4-5% of the world's oil are damaged, and Ukrainian strikes have closed or slowed three of Russia's six top diesel plants. The shortage has moved from crude oil to the fuels made from it.

US House votes 417-3 on whether data centres pay for the power built for them, as a state study warns the biggest US grid could fall short by 2030 →

The US House of Representatives passed its first bill on data centre electricity costs, telling state regulators to consider making very large users pay for the plants and wires built to serve them. A study for Pennsylvania's regulator says the biggest US grid is heading for shortages by 2030 unless something changes. Amazon, meanwhile, has ordered $2.4 billion of its own backup generators.

The EU put its carbon border fee on scrap aluminium, four days after dropping a duty on the same metal →

The European Parliament voted on Tuesday to charge the fee on used aluminium and on loads as small as five tonnes, and to delete the clause that would let the EU switch the whole fee off. Four days earlier the European Commission had abandoned a 15 per cent duty on aluminium scrap leaving Europe, because India objected.

Japan is buying six times more Indonesian wood pellets than two years ago, and biomass permits now cover 750,000 hectares of Indonesian forest →

Japan pays some power plants for up to 20 years to burn wood. Indonesia has granted at least 45 biomass permits over natural forest, and most of what they produce is exported, with Japan the biggest buyer.

The US environment agency is expected to scrap carbon limits on coal and gas power plants →

Reports say the EPA will announce the repeal at a G20 energy meeting in Houston, three days after a court ruled the US government overstepped its powers keeping a Michigan coal plant open.

Qatar sold the Gulf's gas to the world. Now it is trying to buy American gas until 2031. →

QatarEnergy is negotiating multi-year contracts for US liquefied gas to cover a plant Iranian strikes damaged in March, and Europe is heading into winter with its gas stores at a 15-year low.