Climate, in brief

Saudi Arabia shut its East-West pipeline on Friday 11 September after a drone attack that Saudi officials say came from Iraq. [1]

The pipeline runs 1,200km across Arabia to the Red Sea. For six months it has been the main way Gulf oil reached buyers while the Strait of Hormuz, the sea lane out of the Gulf, stayed largely shut by the war. [1]

It had been moving 4 to 5 million barrels a day, about 4% to 5% of all the oil the world uses. [1]

A Reuters study of satellite pictures found three of its 11 pumping stations damaged, one more than first reported. [1]

Three industry sources say repairs could take five to six weeks. [1] The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, said the outage would be measured in days. [2]

Only four ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, against a ten-day average of 18. [3] Before the war, the strait carried a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied gas. [3]

Iraq's government says the drones were launched from its territory, and it dismissed a military commander in its southern Maysan province. [29][4] US President Donald Trump said Iran was probably responsible. [5]

In Russia, three of the six refineries that make about half the country's diesel have cut output sharply or stopped after Ukrainian drone strikes. [6] The Kirishi refinery is shut, and two others run at about a quarter of normal. [6]

On 17 September a drone attack halted the Yaroslavl refinery, 250km north-east of Moscow, by damaging the unit that handles about 40% of its crude. [7]

The International Energy Agency (IEA), which advises rich countries on energy, says a Russian refinery was hit on average every three days in the first eight months of 2026. [6] Russia has limited its exports of petrol, diesel and jet fuel. [6]

Diesel in the US passed $6 a gallon for the first time on 10 September. [6] Across the EU, diesel costs 38% more than a year ago and jet fuel more than twice as much. [11]

The IEA expects world oil supply to fall 5.7 million barrels a day this year, about 6%. [8] Diesel is at record prices because refineries in Russia and the Middle East are damaged. [8]

The US sells more energy than it buys and still has record diesel prices, because what is short now is refining, not crude, the Financial Times notes. [10]

Why it matters. Watch whether the Saudi pipeline pumps again within days, as the US energy secretary says, or takes the five to six weeks industry sources estimate. [2][1]

ExxonMobil, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, published its yearly energy outlook on 17 September. [12] It now expects energy to release 30 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year in 2050, up from the 27 billion it forecast last year. [12] A United Nations body says about 11 billion tonnes is the level needed to limit warming. [12] Exxon says its figure points to 2.5 to 3 degrees Celsius of warming. [12]

Why it matters. Exxon now expects coal to fade more slowly, from 25% of the world's energy to 15% by 2050, because China and other Asian countries see it as key to a secure energy supply. [12] The outlook guides Exxon's own investment, and it leaves out the Iran war because Exxon says it is too early to judge. [12]

Thirty-three governments have adopted policies to use less oil and gas since the war on Iran began, the IEA counted as of 9 September. [13] They include help for electric cars and heat pumps, and electric stoves in India and Indonesia to replace imported cooking gas. [13] World greenhouse gas emissions still grew 0.2% in the first half of 2026, says Climate TRACE, a group that tracks emissions. [13] Investment in wind and solar fell over the same months, mostly because of a drop in China. [13]

Why it matters. Countries that import fuel have paid about $330 billion more than was expected before the war, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air estimates. [13] Power stations gave off less carbon even so, while emissions from road transport grew. [13]

Europe's gas storage sites are 69% full, against an average of 85% for this time of year over the last five years, the industry body Gas Infrastructure Europe says. [11] Germany and the Netherlands, which hold 35% of the EU's storage space, are furthest behind. [11] Companies held off buying, betting the war would end quickly and prices would fall. [11] Governments did not enforce their own storage targets. [11]

Why it matters. The European gas price is 81 euros per megawatt hour, 150% higher than a year ago. [11] An expert at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies said even a normal winter could leave storage heavily drained. [11]

A committee of the US House of Representatives was due to debate and vote on 16 September on the Stop Climate Shakedowns Act, from Wyoming Republican Harriet Hageman. [15] It would stop damages suits against companies that mine, refine, move or sell energy. [15] It says linking their emissions to disasters lacks scientific credibility, a claim decades of research contradict, Inside Climate News reports. [15] Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and three other Republicans have a matching Senate bill. [15]

Why it matters. Eleven US states, Washington DC and dozens of cities and counties have sued oil companies for deceiving the public about climate change. [15] The US Supreme Court hears one of those suits, Boulder County in Colorado against Suncor and ExxonMobil, on 5 October. [15]

Gas burned to power US data centres will grow by 15 billion cubic feet a day in the ten years to 2035, BloombergNEF says. [21] That is more gas than any country uses today except China, Russia, Iran and the US itself. [21] It is more than double the 6.9 billion cubic feet BloombergNEF forecast in December. [21] The new figure already assumes many planned projects are never built. [21]

Why it matters. Data centres are the warehouses of computers that run AI and online services, and gas is now the fuel being planned for them. [21] The forecast more than doubled in nine months. [21]

Torrential rain and flash floods hit north-eastern Spain this week. [17] A man died west of Barcelona when a stream swept away his car. [17] Spain's weather agency put Barcelona's coast on red alert, and parts of Valencia had more than 70mm of rain in half an hour. [17] Valencia suspended every metro line and closed its airport for several hours. [17]

Why it matters. The storm follows Spain's hottest summer on record, and scientists say a warmer Mediterranean gives off more water and so feeds heavier rain. [17] Floods in Valencia killed more than 230 people less than two years ago. [17]

A bloom of tiny algae that grew to 100km long clogged the filters of five of Israel's six big desalination plants, which turn seawater into drinking water. [18] The six make more than 60% of Israel's drinking water. [18] They are running again, but only at up to half their capacity, and the algae is still there after almost three weeks. [18] Experts think it came from the Nile Delta and spread in warmer-than-normal water. [18]

Why it matters. Some researchers suggest sewage from Gaza's destroyed treatment plants fed the bloom, though one called it early days. [18] Mekorot, Israel's national water company, says 99% of households had no shortage. [18] Doctors Without Borders reports that Israeli bombing has destroyed 90% of Gaza's water and sanitation system. [18]

The US House of Representatives voted 216 to 211 on 15 September to cancel California's permission to enforce its clean-ship rules. [16] The rules make big ships docked at Los Angeles, Long Beach and Richmond switch off their diesel engines and plug into the power grid. [16] Where that is impossible, dock operators must catch nearly all the exhaust. [16] California may set stricter pollution rules only with permission from the US environment agency. [16]

Why it matters. Docked ships run diesel engines around the clock, and the soot and cancer-causing chemicals drift into the neighbourhoods beside the ports. [16] Congress and President Trump already blocked California's ban on new petrol car sales from 2035. [16]

Ocean scientists, among them Michael Meredith of the British Antarctic Survey, have called for emergency action to protect sea life. [19] They warn that the strongest El Nino ever recorded, a natural swing that warms the Pacific, is heating the ocean to levels never seen before. [19] Their ideas include cutting fishing quotas, taking endangered species out of the water, and testing geoengineering, which means deliberately changing nature to cool it. [19]

Why it matters. Their paper is being sent to officials in the UK, the US and other governments. [19] Meredith says the sooner action comes, the better. [19]

Chile's energy ministry has drafted a plan to mix 10% ethanol, a fuel made from crops, into petrol, according to a memo seen by Reuters. [14] Chile imported 181,000 barrels of crude a day in 2025, and the world oil price has gone from about $73 before the war to over $105. [14] The switch could cut the Chilean government's fuel costs by about $107 million a year. [14] ENAP, the state oil company, would need to spend about $10.8 million to adapt. [14]

Why it matters. Chile lacks the land to grow its own ethanol crops and would import it, mostly from Argentina and Bolivia. [14] Chile's own ministry memo says the move replaces one import dependency with another. [14]

The European Union has asked China to voluntarily hold its hybrid car sales to about 15% of the EU market, the Financial Times reported on 17 September. [24] Hybrids run on both a battery and a petrol engine. [24] An EU official said that if China will not limit its exports, the EU will. [24] Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU's goods trade deficit with China was 360.6 billion euros last year. [24]

Why it matters. The EU says Chinese factories make far more cars, batteries and chemicals than buyers need, and that Europe is losing industry because of it. [24] China calls those complaints protectionism. [24]

A study in the journal Science compared three ways of protecting the Brazilian Amazon: stopping clearing, stopping fires and logging, and replanting cleared land. [20] Stopping the clearing did the most for stored carbon and gave the best value for money. [20] Stopping fires and logging did the most for wildlife, and replanting did least on both counts. [20] The team used field surveys and satellite pictures along the edge where forest is being cleared. [20]

Why it matters. Only all three together reversed the losses of wildlife and carbon, so replanting still has a job to do. [20] Cleared and burned tropical forests are turning from places that soak up carbon into places that give it off, the paper says. [20]

53% of Americans are extremely or very concerned about AI's effect on the environment, up from 41% last year, an AP-NORC and University of Chicago poll found. [22] About two-thirds of Democrats say so, against about half of independents and four in ten Republicans. [22] Most new data centres are planned for rural areas, though 87% of today's sit in cities, a Pew analysis found. [22]

Why it matters. Only about three in ten adults are as worried about meat or flying. [22] Most Americans in the poll support limits on new data centres. [22]

The European Commission, the EU's executive, formally warned MMG, a Hong Kong-listed miner controlled by the Chinese state, over its plan to buy Anglo American's nickel business in Brazil. [25] It fears MMG could send the low-carbon ferronickel, an iron-nickel metal used for stainless steel, to Chinese steelmakers instead of European ones. [25] Anglo American said it was disappointed. [25] MMG says it is willing to guarantee long-term supply to European customers. [25]

Why it matters. The EU says it relies on China for metals it needs for defence, technology and renewable energy. [25] This case uses its competition powers to protect that supply. [25]

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney is widening a major tax write-off to cover oil and gas pipelines, mining property and more, Bloomberg reported. [28] The write-off lets companies deduct the cost of an investment from their taxes faster. [28] Carney announced it on 15 September at an investment summit in Toronto, where dozens of firms met to discuss stakes in Canadian projects. [28]

Why it matters. A faster deduction makes a new pipeline cheaper for its builder in the first years, because the tax saving arrives sooner. [28]

Meta, the owner of Facebook, agreed to buy the power from a 144-megawatt solar farm Apex Clean Energy is building in Gonzales County, Texas. [23] Meta gets all the renewable credits, the certificates that let a buyer count the power as clean. [23] Apex says the farm would not have been built without Meta's promise to buy. [23] The two companies now have 1.2 gigawatts of projects in five US states. [23]

Why it matters. Meta is spending over $10 billion on a data centre in El Paso, Texas. [23] Apex says the farm starts in 2027, while the Texas grid operator's list says January 2028. [23]

Volkswagen drove a test car, the Mission Efficiency, 1,278km from Wolfsburg in Germany to Vienna on one charge, arriving with 164km of range left. [26] A German records body verified three world records, including 6.89 kilowatt-hours per 100km in real driving. [26] The car is built from the parts of VW's new small ID. Polo, with a modest 54.9 kilowatt-hour battery. [26]

Why it matters. Most of the range comes from the car's teardrop shape, not a bigger battery. [26] Above 80km/h it uses more than 30% less energy than a normal ID. Polo, VW says. [26]

Iceland's government said earlier this month it will put a bill to parliament in February that could ban whaling for good. [27] Iceland is one of only three countries, with Norway and Japan, that allow commercial whale hunts. [27] Hvalur, its last whaling company, has caught 85 fin whales this season against a quota of 150. [27] Its head, Loftsson, says earlier bills to ban whaling all came to nothing. [27]

Why it matters. Icelanders are split: 41% oppose whaling and a third support it, a June poll found. [27] Fin whales, the second-largest animal on Earth, are listed as vulnerable worldwide but healthy in the North Atlantic. [27]