Climate, in brief

Trade walls around clean-energy goods

The US Commerce Department set anti-dumping rates of 123% on Indian solar producers, 94% on Indonesian ones and 65% on producers in Laos. [8] BYD, the Chinese company that sells more electric cars than anyone, said it will build electric trucks inside Europe to get past tariffs. [13] Europe's parliament voted to widen its carbon border fee to five-tonne aluminium shipments. [1]

US climate rules being removed

The US Environmental Protection Agency finalised the repeal of carbon limits on coal and gas power stations on Monday. [3] It also proposed cancelling every remaining greenhouse-gas rule for the power sector. [4] Twenty US states sued over a separate change that makes degrading an endangered animal's habitat legal. [18]

Minerals still refined in China

China's share of refining critical minerals other than rare earths rose from 70% in 2023 to 72% in 2025, the International Energy Agency found. [9] Elmet Group won a $2 billion US tungsten contract and said it cannot deliver until new mining investment and processing capacity arrive. [10] A US official said in Nairobi that his government will help Kenya build its own minerals processing. [11]

Ground left behind by fire

Bangor University researchers said this summer's Welsh wildfires burned soil that could take thousands of years to form again. [21] Four US park officials said they pressed for a fire-damaged Grand Canyon trail to stay shut before August's deadly flash flood. [22]

2 pressures seen across the day run through Climate too.

• Rules being taken awayBuilding ↑ · seen in 4 beats→
• Countries putting conditions on what they will buyBuilding ↑ · seen in 3 beats→

1. 1The EU put its carbon border fee on scrap aluminium, four days after dropping a duty on the same metal
2. 2US wipes out its power plant carbon limits
3. 3The US electric-car factory boom went into reverse
4. 4US sets solar panel duties above 100%
5. 5China still refines the minerals after $40bn of US deals

The European Parliament, the elected chamber of the European Union, voted on Tuesday to delete the clause that would let the EU suspend its carbon border fee. [1]

Watch whether the off-switch survives the talks between Parliament and the member governments, because it would let the fee be suspended in exactly the months when prices spike.

Its director general, Paul Voss, said members will get absolutely eaten alive if the gaps stay open. [1][2]

The US Environmental Protection Agency, the federal body that sets pollution rules, finalised the repeal of Biden-era carbon limits on coal- and gas-fired power stations on Monday. [3]

It also proposed cancelling every remaining greenhouse-gas rule for power plants, arguing the Clean Air Act gives it no authority to regulate them for climate reasons. [3][4]

The announcement was made at a meeting of G20 energy ministers in Houston, Texas. [3]

The US power sector puts out roughly 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, about a quarter of the country's emissions. [5]

The Biden-era measures, which covered power plants, vehicles and industrial sites, were predicted to stop 4,500 early deaths a year. [5] Legal challenges to the repeal are expected. [6]

Also seen in Cyber, Mind & body and Biotech.

Reuters published a long investigation into what happened to America's electric-vehicle factory building, centred on the Ultium Cells battery plant in Lordstown, Ohio. [7]

The $2.3 billion plant, owned by General Motors and South Korea's LG Energy Solution, let about 480 workers go and told another 850 they would not be needed for months. [7]

That followed the end of a $7,500 tax credit for electric-car buyers, after which US sales fell. [7]

About 87% of the announced electric-vehicle investment had gone to states Trump won in 2024. [7]

The plants were sited under one set of rules and take years to build, and the towns that host them are the ones now without work. [7]

The US says it has signed 160 minerals deals worth $40 billion since January 2025, and China's share of refining those minerals went up.

the same fourth step: Elmet holds the order and says it cannot deliver until new mines and processing plants exist

the tariff is charged now, and BYD's answer is a factory that starts producing later; its executive called tariffs short-term pressure until then

the $7,500 buyer credit ended within months, and the $2.3bn Lordstown plant, built over years, sent 480 people home

the decision is being taken now, and credible plans exist for 1% of the carbon-removal machines the advisers want by the late 2030s

US solar added 11.4 gigawatts in three months, because a panel is quick to put down, so the size of the gap depends on what you are asking for.

A minister plans over four years, a smelter runs for forty, and a household gets a bill every month.

Most of us are somewhere in that gap, seeing our own stretch of it clearly and the rest not at all.

The US Commerce Department finalised anti-dumping duties on solar cells and panels from India, Indonesia and Laos on Friday, finding that producers sold below cost and took unfair subsidies. [8]

The rates are 123.04% for Indian producers, 94.36% for Indonesian and 65.43% for producers in Laos, with separate subsidy duties on top that reach 173.7%. [8]

The case was brought by US manufacturers including First Solar and Hanwha Qcells. [8] The US International Trade Commission rules on 14 October on whether the imports really injured them. [8]

The people who pay the new rates are US solar developers, and final duty orders are expected in November if the trade commission agrees. [8]

Also seen in Tech and Food.

China's share of refining critical minerals other than rare earths rose from 70% in 2023 to 72% in 2025, according to the International Energy Agency, the energy watchdog set up by rich countries. [9]

In rare earths, where the US and Malaysia invested, China's share fell from over 90% to 85%. [9]

Even if every planned rare earth project is finished on schedule, the agency expects China's share there to be 70-73% in 2035. [9]

The Trump administration says it has signed or approved 160 critical-minerals deals worth over $40 billion since January 2025. [9]

Magnets in wind turbines, battery packs and solar parts all need these metals, so refining decides who can build clean power at scale. [9]

Elmet Group said the US Defense Logistics Agency awarded one of its units a contract worth about $2 billion to rebuild the national tungsten stockpile. [10]

Tungsten resists extreme heat and wear, which is why aerospace and defence parts are made from it. [10]

The deal includes a guaranteed $150 million and covers ores, concentrates and sodium tungstate. [10]

Elmet said it will not start delivering until new mining investments, supply agreements and processing capacity actually exist. [10]

The money is committed now. The mines and refineries that would fill the order have not been built. [10]

The Climate Change Committee, the UK government's statutory adviser on emissions, said a third runway at Heathrow airport can go ahead only if airlines pay for cleaner fuels and for machines that pull carbon dioxide back out of the air. [17]

By 2050 a return flight to Alicante would cost about 150 pounds more, and a return to New York about 400 pounds more. [17]

It wants those machines to cut over a third of aviation emissions by 2050. [17] Credible plans exist for about 1% of the removals needed by the late 2030s. [17]

Lois Pennington of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research told the BBC that with fuel and removal unlikely to arrive at that scale, the reliable option is to fly no more than now. [17]

Twenty US states and the District of Columbia filed two lawsuits in a federal court in California over changes to the Endangered Species Act, the 1973 law written to stop plants and animals dying out. [18]

For decades US federal agencies treated wrecking an animal's habitat as harming it. [18]

A rule finalised in July says degrading habitat is no longer illegal, which opens protected ground to drilling, farming, logging and building. [18]

The states call it the deepest cut to wildlife protection in the law's half-century. [18]

Almost every species listed under the law is still alive, and a study by the Center for Biological Diversity estimated that 291 would probably have gone extinct without it. [19]

BYD, the Chinese company that sells more electric cars than anyone, said it will produce electric trucks in Europe. [13]

Its executive Stella Li said local production would let the firm become a European company and would avoid import tariffs on trucks. [13]

European truck makers, including Traton's MAN brand, have asked the EU to put tariffs on Chinese electric trucks like the ones already charged on cars. [13]

BYD is also building a car factory in Szeged, Hungary, with mass production due to start next year. [13]

Li said tariffs are short-term pressure until local production is running, so the barrier works for about as long as a factory takes to build. [13]

Global sales of battery-electric and plug-in hybrid cars rose 2% in August to 1.83 million, taking the year to 13.4 million. [14]

Europe did the lifting: sales there climbed 36% to 380,000, helped by subsidies in the biggest markets. [14]

Chinese sales fell 11% to 1.03 million, against a strong month a year earlier. [14]

North American sales dropped 33% to 140,000, a year after US buyers rushed to use the federal tax credit before it expired. [14]

The three big markets are moving in three different directions, and the split follows whether a government is still paying buyers. [14]

The US solar fleet now generates the equivalent of the electricity used by more than 50 million homes, more than a third of US households, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association and the analysts Wood Mackenzie. [15]

It is an industry calculation that converts the fleet's output into average household use, not 50 million homes running on panels. [15]

The industry installed 11.4 gigawatts of new capacity in the second quarter, up 45% on a year earlier and 43% on the first quarter. [15]

Large solar farms did most of it. [15]

SEIA's chief executive Tim Pawlenty said solar and storage have grown to a scale most Americans have not registered, and that US energy needs cannot be met without them. [15]

Electrified Thermal Solutions, a Boston company spun out of MIT, said it will install two heat batteries at a plant run by Holcim, one of the world's biggest cement makers. [16]

The units push electricity through stacked metal-oxide firebricks, hold the heat at up to 1,800C, then release it as hot gas into the plant's equipment. [16]

They will charge in cheap off-peak hours, when wind and solar are usually most plentiful, and come online early next year. [16]

Cement is about 8% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. [16]

About 60% of cement's emissions come out of the limestone itself as it bakes, so electric heat only reaches the other part. [16]

The United Arab Emirates is quietly reworking its plan for a 5-gigawatt artificial-intelligence data centre project, one of the largest outside the United States, six people told Reuters. [23]

The rethink followed Iranian attacks and covers how and where such buildings should be put up, including air defences and underground construction. [23]

The project is likely to shift from one giant campus to a network of smaller sites. [23]

Its first phase, a $30 billion cluster called Stargate UAE, began last year, with the first 200 megawatts due this year. [23]

When finished the project is meant to connect every UAE government body and commercial institution to the most advanced AI models, according to Oracle's chairman Larry Ellison. [23]

Bannock County in Idaho banned large wind and solar developments in March 2024 on a 2-1 vote. [20]

Jeff Hough, the Republican commissioner who voted against it and now chairs the commission, is leading the push to reverse it, and a new ordinance goes to a vote this autumn. [20]

Nearly one in four US counties had some ban, moratorium or obstacle to clean energy in 2025, up from 15% in 2023. [20]

Idaho Power expects electricity demand to grow by a gigawatt by 2030, about 26% above today. [20]

The county sits beside the Populus substation, a junction that moves power into Idaho, Utah and further out. [20]

Scientists at Bangor University surveying sites across Wales called the damage from this summer's wildfires catastrophic, and said most of it cannot be seen from the surface. [21]

Extreme heat and very dry ground through July and August left heathland, moorland and upland grassland burning fast, in one of the UK's worst fire seasons in years. [21]

Professor Davey Jones said the depth of soil those habitats live on could take thousands of years to form again. [21]

The team is taking samples before winter rain washes what is left away. [21]

Jones said burning releases carbon, nitrogen and sulphur, which dries the soil further and makes the next fire easier. [21]

Four current and former US National Park Service officials told the Washington Post they had repeatedly pressed for parts of the North Kaibab Trail in the Grand Canyon to stay closed. [22]

The trail runs below the Dragon Bravo Fire burn scar, and burnt ground sheds water instead of soaking it up, which raises the risk of runoff and rock slides. [22]

The trail reopened anyway. [22] A deadly flash flood tore through it at the end of August. [22]

The trail was left bare by the Dragon Bravo Fire, and burnt ground was still shedding water when the rain came. [22]

ADNOC Trading, part of the United Arab Emirates' state oil company, bought about 20 million barrels of crude from Iraq's state seller SOMO, three sources told Reuters. [24]

The discount was $25 to $27 a barrel, for September and October loading. [24] It had bought 32 million barrels in August and 40 million in September on similar terms. [24]

Iraq is exporting about 2 million barrels a day this month, against 2.354 million in August and 1.374 million in July. [24]

Iraq is selling at a steep discount, and last month Iran allowed a number of tankers carrying Iraqi oil through the Strait of Hormuz after repeated requests. [24]

A senior US official said in Nairobi that the United States will help Kenya build a critical-minerals processing industry. [11]

Kenya is weighing bids to develop Mrima Hill on its coast, a deposit thought to hold tens of billions of dollars of rare earth minerals and niobium, a metal used in aerospace parts. [11]

The offer sits inside a wider contest between the United States and China over access to these metals. [11]

What is being offered is refining rather than digging, and refining is the step where China's share is highest. [9][11]

E3 Lithium, a company based in Calgary, signed a non-binding memorandum with Epsilon CAM, an Indian maker of battery materials. [12]

The framework covers up to 5,000 tonnes a year of battery-grade lithium carbonate from E3's Clearwater project in Alberta, over five years, effective from 1 September. [12]

A memorandum of this kind commits neither side to buy or to sell. [12] The Clearwater project has not been built. [12]

Epsilon makes battery materials, and this would be its Canadian lithium supply if the Alberta project gets built. [12]

Share Energy, an electricity supplier in Northern Ireland, will raise its prices by 12.6% from 1 October. [25]

The Consumer Council for Northern Ireland said credit and prepayment customers will pay about 129 pounds more a year. [25]

The company blamed volatility after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and instability in the Middle East, and its chief executive Damian Wilson asked the UK government to deal with Northern Ireland's reliance on gas. [25]

SSE Airtricity, Firmus Energy and Budget Energy have all raised prices recently. [25]

Northern Ireland makes most of its electricity by burning gas, so a distant war reaches a household there through the meter. [25]

B2U opened a battery storage project near San Antonio built entirely from repurposed electric-vehicle batteries, its second inside the Texas grid run by ERCOT. [26]

It has a rated power of about 10 megawatts, small enough to use the faster connection route ERCOT offers small generators. [26]

B2U says it now runs at least 100 megawatt-hours of second-life battery installations. [26] Its chief executive Freeman Hall said the firm has secured large volumes of batteries suitable for reuse. [26]

US electric-car sales slowed after the purchase credit ended, and the batteries already made are what this business runs on. [26]

Woolston Eyes, near Warrington in north-west England, was a dumping ground for material dredged out of the Manchester Ship Canal. [27]

Since 2021 it has been turned into freshwater pools and reedbeds, and it now holds almost two-thirds of the UK's breeding black-necked grebes, one of Britain's rarest breeding birds. [27]

Four pairs nested on the restored ground in 2023 and raised 15 young; by 2025 the RSPB counted 35 breeding pairs across the reserve, 29 of them on the new area. [27]

More than 60 birds were present this spring. [27]

The UK averages about 55 breeding pairs of this bird in a year, so one site now carries most of the national total. [27]

White-clawed crayfish, once common in British rivers, have fallen by an estimated 70 to 80% in recent decades through pollution, habitat loss and invasive species. [28]

The National Trust built a refuge in 2022 on the River Wansbeck in Northumberland, adapted from an old cattle drinking hole. [28]

It is fed by a spring, and the water crosses significant barriers before it reaches the river, which makes it hard for American signal crayfish or the plague they carry to get in. [28]

The project has been declared a success. [28]

The crayfish recycle dead matter, support water quality and feed herons, otters, eels, brown trout and salmon. [28]

Three male African wild dogs left their pack in Zambia's Kafue National Park in the middle of 2025 and travelled thousands of kilometres over nine months, the longest movement ever recorded for an African mammal. [29][30]

The journey is described in the journal Ecology. [30]

A group of sisters had set out two weeks earlier and came close to matching it, but stopped when one was caught in a snare. [29][30]

Two of the females died, and about 6,000 African wild dogs are left in the wild. [29]

The authors say populations are more connected than anyone thought, and argue for strips of natural land linking reserves that roads, towns and farms have cut apart. [29][30]

Guernsey Water and the Guernsey Nature Commission surveyed the island's freshwater habitats using environmental DNA, which picks up the genetic traces organisms leave behind in water. [31]

The survey detected 2,630 organisms across 36 groups, and 2,249 of them had never been entered in the island's biological records database. [31]

Water quality scientist Tim Harris said the results were nothing short of incredible. [31] A second round of sampling will confirm them. [31]

It gives the island a baseline it did not have, which is what any later claim about decline or recovery has to be measured against. [31]

The New York Times Magazine reported on Extreme Weather Survivors, a group started a few years ago by Chris Kocher, a professional social organiser, and Sierra Lindsey Kos, whose newborn son was hospitalised during Oregon's Labor Day fires in 2020. [32]

Members who have lost homes to storms, floods and fires give each other emotional support and share advice on insurance claims. [32]

Thirty-eight percent of Americans told the pollster Gallup that their community had been hit by severe storms, floods or fires in the past year. [32]

It is partly a support network and partly a campaigning group, and for some members it has become a second family. [32]