Beat
Climate & Energy
The energy transition, the science, and the weather — in plain English.
June 2026
Saturday, 13 June 2026
The U.S. wind industry hit a wall — not a ban, but a pause that won't end
The Pentagon quietly stopped reviewing onshore wind farms in April. No law changed, no project was rejected — the reviews just stopped, and 106 projects across 21 states are frozen. On the same day, two courts ordered the Energy Department to restore clean-energy grants it cancelled in states that voted Democratic.
Friday, 12 June 2026
El Niño is officially back — and forecasters think it could be one of the strongest on record
NOAA declared El Niño on Thursday, with a 63% chance it grows into a "super" event that pours extra heat onto an already-warmed planet — likely making next year the hottest ever measured. Plus: solar out-generates coal in the US for the first time, and a new study reads an ancient warning in the Gulf Stream.
Thursday, 11 June 2026
BYD says it will be the world's biggest carmaker — by building inside the walls meant to keep it out
China's BYD set out to overtake Toyota within five years, pledged £1.8bn for five-minute chargers in Europe, and chose to build cars in Hungary and Spain to slip under EU tariffs — even as the Pentagon blacklisted it as a military company.
Wednesday, 10 June 2026
The world's biggest banks lent more to fossil fuels last year, not less
65 banks pledged $906bn to coal, oil and gas in 2025 — an 8% rise — even as a US heat study warns of doubling hospital visits. The money and the damage are pulling in opposite directions.
Tuesday, 9 June 2026
Five years on, airlines say the net-zero promise was never really theirs to keep
The aviation industry now admits its 2050 net-zero pledge will likely fail, and blames fuel makers, governments and planemakers. Meanwhile it fights an EU plan to put a real price on its carbon — and a UN report warns the oceans it flies over are deteriorating fast.
Monday, 8 June 2026
An oil shock is quietly redrawing the energy transition
OPEC+ raised output targets it cannot meet, airlines took a $100bn jet-fuel hit, and electric cars suddenly look cheap — all downstream of one closed strait. Meanwhile China is pouring money into low-carbon industry precisely because fossil fuels keep delivering shocks like this one.
Sunday, 7 June 2026
The power bill becomes the climate fight, as data centers and coal collide
New York moved to ban giant AI data centers, Trump put $800 million into coal to feed rising demand, and Jamaica's grid went dark — while a blocked oil strait failed to break prices. The thread is electricity: who gets it, where it comes from, and what it costs.
Saturday, 6 June 2026
AI's electricity hunger is reviving nuclear power
Surging demand — much of it from data centers — is pulling nuclear back into the energy picture and straining grids, even as the oil market stays tight, an Arctic drilling auction flops, and the instruments that watch the climate face cuts.
Friday, 5 June 2026
Washington pays $700m to keep coal running, as batteries scale to do its job
President Trump invoked Cold War-era emergency powers to send $700 million to the coal industry, protecting 14 plants and 42 mines on a reliability-and-cost argument. At the same time, the cheap batteries that fill the same grid gaps are scaling fast — the world's biggest battery maker expects storage to be half its sales by 2030, and a Colorado utility just ran a full month on 100% renewables.
Thursday, 4 June 2026
The oil shock is hurting the green transition and speeding it up at the same time
Europe warned the Iran war's energy-price surge could cost 1.3 million jobs — including, oddly, tens of thousands in solar and batteries. Meanwhile in India, the same expensive fuel is pushing buyers into electric cars faster than any policy managed. One shock, pulling the energy transition in two directions at once.
Wednesday, 3 June 2026
The grid becomes the climate story: cheap clean power, nowhere to put it
Brazil is throwing away clean power it can't use, the EU is racing to rein in data-centre demand, and a record-warm May reminds everyone why the wires matter.