Climate, in brief

The New South Wales Independent Planning Commission approved the Hunter Valley Operations coal mine on Wednesday, letting mining continue until 2045. [1] It is the biggest coal mine project ever to go before the commission. [1]

Glencore and Yancoal, the mining companies that own it, plan to dig the north pit until 2045 and the south pit from 2030 to 2042. [1]

The owners expect the mine to release 809 million tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent over its life. [1] About 794 million tonnes of that comes from burning the coal overseas. [1]

The Paris Agreement, the 2015 climate deal, counts emissions where fuel is burned, not where it is dug up. [2][3] So the exported coal never appears on Australia's books. [2]

The commission said the mine's gases would add to climate change in the Hunter, in New South Wales and around the world. [1] It ruled that jobs, royalties and taxes outweighed that harm. [1]

A key part of its reasoning was that the mine's emissions would be counted somewhere else, The Conversation reports. [2] It told the owners to try to sell only to countries in the Paris Agreement, or with similar rules, such as Taiwan. [2]

The Net Zero Commission, New South Wales's own climate watchdog, had advised that more coal expansions do not fit the state's climate law or the Paris Agreement. [2]

Matt Kean, who chairs the Climate Change Authority and advises Australia's federal government, said the commission never put a figure on the climate damage to New South Wales. [3] "Climate change isn't someone else's problem," he said. [3]

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns called it the right decision on Thursday. [3] He said the mine supports thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in state royalties. [3]

Without the approval, the mine could have been forced to close in December. [3]

It still needs approval under Australia's national environment law by the end of the year. [1] Under that law, climate harm is not a reason to block a project. [3]

A new tool built by Australian scientists estimates the mine's extra heating would expose about 462,000 more people to dangerously high temperatures. [2][4]

Why it matters. Watch Australia's High Court ruling next week on whether planners must weigh coal burned abroad, and then the federal decision due by December. [2][1]

Twenty-one US states, led by New York, sued the Trump administration on Thursday for repealing limits on carbon from coal and gas power plants. [11] The District of Columbia, New York City, Chicago and Denver joined them. [11] The US Environmental Protection Agency scrapped the Biden-era rule last month. [11] The states have asked a US federal appeals court to strike the repeal down, saying the agency ignored its health and climate costs. [11]

Why it matters. Power plants that burn coal and gas are a major source of US greenhouse gases. [11] The agency has also proposed a separate rule that could stop future US governments limiting that carbon at all, due to be final next year. [11]

Western Europe had its hottest summer on record, the EU's Copernicus climate service said on Friday. [8] From June to August the air there was 2.5C warmer than the average of recent years. [8] More than 60% of western Europe was above 30C on 17 days, against 11 days in 2003 and seven in 2025. [8] Europe's rivers had their lowest summer flows in more than 30 years. [8] In Germany alone, an estimated 16,000 people died from the heat, the most ever recorded there. [20]

Why it matters. Experts at a meeting in Hamburg said Germany's heat forecasts were accurate, but its hospitals had no set way to declare and run a heat emergency. [20] Across Europe the heatwaves also ruined harvests and shut power plants. [8]

The US Supreme Court hears arguments on 5 October in a case brought by Boulder, a city and county in Colorado, against two oil companies, Exxon Mobil and Suncor. [12] Boulder sued in 2018 to make them pay for its costs from wildfires, floods and heat. [21][22] The companies say US federal law shields them from such claims in state courts. [22] On 28 September Justice Samuel Alito, who owns shares in other oil companies, stepped aside from the case. [23]

Why it matters. Nearly 60 state and local governments have brought similar suits, Exxon and Suncor told the court, and a ruling for the companies could get many thrown out. [12] The Trump administration backs Exxon and Suncor, and a decision may not come until next spring. [12][24]

The European Commission plans to postpone the EU's methane rules for imported oil and gas, a spokesperson said on 28 September. [25] On Tuesday the EU's energy commissioner, Dan Jorgensen, proposed a one-year delay at a meeting of energy ministers in Dublin. [14] From January 2027 the rules would make foreign oil and gas producers selling to the EU measure and report their methane leaks. [26] Methane is the second-biggest cause of warming after carbon dioxide. [26]

Why it matters. France's president asked for the delay, and the US, Europe's biggest supplier of shipped gas, warned the rules could disrupt supplies. [26] Italy and the Czech Republic want a three-year delay. [26]

Canada's prime minister, Mark Carney, said on Thursday that his government will fast-track approval of Pacific Link, a 1,250km oil pipeline. [5] It would carry about a million barrels a day from Alberta to a port near Delta, British Columbia, for shipping overseas, mainly to Asia. [5] Last year Canada sent 90% of its crude oil exports to the US. [5] On 28 September Canada's energy regulator also approved new tolls on Trans Mountain, Canada's only east-west oil pipeline, which already reaches Asian buyers. [27]

Why it matters. Carney says Canada's dependence on the US became a weakness once Donald Trump imposed tariffs. [5] It is the first project under a 2025 law meant to give investors a yes or no within a year, at a cost of C$35.2 billion to C$43.7 billion. [5]

The world's oceans absorbed a record 23 zettajoules of heat in 2025, the Copernicus ocean state report found this week. [9] That is almost 40 times all the energy humans used that year. [9] Sea levels rose 4.2mm a year from 2012 to 2025, faster than the 3.8mm a year since 1999. [9] The ocean has also become 17% more acidic in 40 years. [9]

Why it matters. The oceans take up about 90% of the extra heat trapped by greenhouse gases. [9] Hot coastal water keeps nights warm, which makes heatwaves on land worse. [9]

Swiss glaciers lost 5.5% of their ice in the first eight months of 2026, the yearly report from Glacier Monitoring Switzerland found. [10][28] That brings the loss since 2021 to 19.4%. [10] Until recently, Alpine scientists called a 2% loss in one year extreme. [28] The little snow left after a mild winter melted fast in heatwaves in May and June, leaving the ice bare. [28] Bare ice is darker than snow, so it soaks up more sunlight. [28]

Why it matters. The glaciers released about 2.2 trillion litres of meltwater from July to September, which eased this summer's water shortages. [28] Each such summer leaves less ice to top up rivers for farms, hydropower and shipping in future dry spells. [28]

Wind and solar have saved Britain from buying about 5.9 billion pounds of imported gas since the Hormuz crisis began, an analysis by Carbon Brief finds. [17] They made a record 41% of Britain's electricity so far this year, against 25% from gas. [17] Gas prices in September averaged 189p a therm, the highest since the 2022 energy crisis. [17] From 1 October typical household gas bills are 33% higher than in April, and electricity bills only 4% higher, says the think tank Nesta. [17]

Why it matters. High gas prices are landing on household gas bills, while electricity bills have barely risen because more power comes from wind and solar. [17] With its gas stores low, Europe must compete with Asia for gas cargoes this winter. [17]

Britain's government must soon decide whether to approve Rosebank, its largest untapped oil field, which lies off Shetland. [29] This week Simone Rossi, head of EDF Energy, which makes about a fifth of Britain's low-carbon electricity, called new North Sea fields a no-brainer. [7] He said fuel produced in Britain has lower emissions than imports because it travels less. [7] Campaigners also warned Prime Minister Andy Burnham that Rosebank's links to Delek Group, an Israeli company, could clash with Britain's new sanctions on West Bank settlements. [29]

Why it matters. Delek controls Ithaca Energy, which owns 20% of Rosebank, and says it no longer has any role in the settlements. [29] Rossi said Britain can only cut its emissions by using less fossil fuel. [7]

No hurricane formed in the Atlantic through the end of September, a first in reliable records. [30] Those records start in 1966, when the US began watching the weather by satellite. [31] The ocean is warm enough, but a very strong El Nino, a shift of warm water in the Pacific, is driving winds that stop Atlantic storms from growing. [30] The same El Nino has made the eastern Pacific busy, giving Hawaii one of its busiest seasons on record. [30]

Why it matters. Forecasters say the season could end with no Atlantic hurricane at all, which last happened in 1914. [31] Of the three earlier very strong El Ninos, only one produced an Atlantic hurricane after 1 October. [31]

Wildfires in Indonesia have reached habitat holding 52% of all Bornean orangutans, primate experts at the International Union for Conservation of Nature said this week. [32] Fire is often used there to clear land for palm oil and pulp plantations. [32] This year a very strong El Nino has dried out forests in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Papua, so the fires spread fast. [32] Drained peat keeps burning underground and is very hard to put out. [32]

Why it matters. The experts asked for international help and warned that thousands of orangutans could be killed, hurt or driven from their homes. [32] Five endangered kinds of gibbon live in the burning areas too. [32]

The US Department of Agriculture published rules on Thursday that all but end its grants for farm solar that sells power to the grid. [15] The Rural Energy for America Program had let farms build panels that made more power than they used, and sell the rest. [15] The new rules stop grants for that, for panels on cropland, and for parts from countries the US calls foreign adversaries. [15] Grants now pay a quarter of the cost instead of half, and farmers can apply only after a year of running. [15]

Why it matters. Farmers must now pay for a whole system with no promise of being repaid. [15] The changes also hit grants already awarded but not yet paid out. [15]

Democrats in the US Senate blocked the Ratepayer Protection Act on Wednesday, 57 votes to 43, short of the 60 it needed. [33] The bill would have made power companies consider rules so that data centres pay for the grid upgrades they need. [33] The US House of Representatives had passed it almost unanimously earlier this month. [33] Chuck Schumer, the Democrats' leader in the US Senate, called it toothless. [33]

Why it matters. Without such rules, the cost of grid upgrades for data centres can be passed on to homes and businesses. [33] Both US parties are campaigning on living costs before the 3 November midterm elections. [33]

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed a 339-page rewrite of its rules for building and running nuclear power plants. [34] It would cut reporting of non-emergency events, end the expiry date on approved reactor designs and change rules on earthquake risk. [34] It follows a 2025 order from Donald Trump to reform the rules by the end of 2026. [34] The same order set a goal of four times as many US reactors by 2050. [34]

Why it matters. A separate July proposal would replace the long-standing rule to keep radiation exposure as low as reasonably possible, which industry groups have opposed. [34] Lara Nichols, a lawyer and former Duke Energy executive, says one change could avoid delays like the ones that left two Georgia reactors nearly a decade late. [34]

Ameren Missouri, which serves about 1.3 million customers in the US state of Missouri, filed a 20-year plan on Monday. [6] It would add about 10.6 gigawatts of gas power, 3.6 of solar, 1.5 of wind, 2.4 of storage and 1.2 of nuclear. [6] Gas would rise from about 5% of its power to 60% by 2045, and coal would go to zero. [6] Ameren expects data centres to raise its deliveries by 60% between 2027 and 2030. [6]

Why it matters. Environmental groups say the plan increases Ameren's reliance on fossil fuel and could delay coal plant closures. [6] Ameren says Missouri law makes large new users pay for the equipment they need. [6]

Banks based in Britain have given 8.3 billion dollars to the coal industry since the 2021 Glasgow climate summit, more than any other European country's banks, a report finds. [35] German banks gave 4.9 billion dollars and French banks 3.4 billion. [35] Barclays' coal financing rose 34% between 2022 and 2025, and HSBC's more than doubled. [35] The report is by Urgewald, a German environmental and human rights group that tracked 744 banks. [35]

Why it matters. HSBC says it will stop financing coal power and coal mining by 2030 in rich countries and by 2040 elsewhere. [35] Barclays says it does not lend to companies earning more than 30% of their revenue from coal. [35]

GM sold just 1,905 Chevy Equinox EVs from July to September, down 92% from more than 25,000 a year earlier. [36] GM blamed a much smaller electric car market. [36] The US tax credit of $7,500 for electric cars ended last September. [37] Toyota's US sales still rose 0.6%, helped by its bZ electric SUV, which has sold nearly 25,000 this year. [38] Kia had its best September in the US and sold 514 of its new EV3, a car costing under $30,000, in its first full month. [39]

Why it matters. Hyundai cut the price of its IONIQ 5 by up to $9,800 after the credit ended, and has still sold more than 31,000 this year. [37]

California's governor, Gavin Newsom, signed a law on Wednesday that makes small plug-in solar panels legal. [19] Renters and people in flats can plug panels of up to 1,200 watts into an ordinary socket without a power company's approval. [19] He also signed two bills to pay for virtual power plants, which link home batteries, electric cars and smart thermostats to help the grid at busy times. [40] Newsom had vetoed three such bills last year. [40]

Why it matters. Prices charged by California's three big power companies have risen to about twice the US average in ten years. [40] Using batteries people already own could mean paying for fewer gas plants that run only a few hours a year. [40]

South Korea's climate and energy ministry has lifted limits on new renewable connections in Honam, its south-western region. [18] Projects can now connect beyond a line's normal limit, and their output is cut back when the grid is full. [18] South Korea's ministry says that alone makes room for 2.6 gigawatts more solar in Honam without new lines. [18] It has also taken back 9 gigawatts of connection rights from solar projects that were not going to be built. [18]

Why it matters. South Korea's ministry plans to use batteries instead of some new power lines. [18] It will now plan for 67.2% of renewable projects finishing on time, instead of assuming all of them will. [18]

Spain, Portugal and Luxembourg have asked the European Commission to set an EU target for renewable energy in 2040, Spain's energy minister said on Tuesday. [41] The EU's current goal is for renewables to make up 42.5% of all the energy it uses by 2030. [41] The EU is debating a 2040 renewables target or a wider clean-energy goal that would include nuclear power. [41] The minister, Sara Aagesen, also backed a permanent tax on oil and gas companies to pay for climate protection as temperatures rise. [41]

Why it matters. Spain and five other EU countries asked the Commission to look at taxing windfall profits from high energy prices. [41] EU energy ministers met in Dublin the same day, where the EU's energy commissioner proposed delaying the methane rules. [41][14]

Groups that won grants under Solar for All, a $7 billion US programme to bring solar to low-income homes, are suing the US Environmental Protection Agency for damages. [13] Two US federal judges ruled in September that the agency broke the law when it ended the programme in 2025. [13] Inclusive Prosperity Capital, a non-profit awarded $249.3 million, says the year of uncertainty did lasting harm. [13] The agency says it is considering an appeal. [13]

Why it matters. Damages on top of the grants would raise the cost to the US government of ending the programme. [13]

Leaders and officials from countries including Australia, Germany, Mexico and Thailand meet in Fiji and Tuvalu from Monday. [42] The meetings come before COP31, the UN climate summit in Antalya, Turkey, in November. [42] Under a deal made last year, Australia leads the negotiations and Turkey runs the summit. [42] Pacific leaders still criticise Australia for not moving its economy away from producing fossil fuels. [42]

Why it matters. Low-lying Pacific nations face rising seas, and money for climate loss and damage is running low. [42] Australia's Greens asked Australia's federal government to rule out approving the Hunter Valley mine before COP31. [3]

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University in the US compared rainfall and river flow for more than 10,000 rivers from 1951 to 2020. [43] In nearly a third of them, river flow did not follow the changes in rain and snow. [43] More than 10% of the rivers get more rain than 50 years ago but carry less water. [43] The gap was most common where evaporation is high and heavy downpours are becoming more frequent. [43]

Why it matters. Big cities get nearly 80% of their water from rivers and lakes. [43] The researchers say river flow must be tracked alongside rainfall to predict future water supply. [43]

Small solar systems on US homes and businesses added almost 1.6 gigawatts from April to June, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance reports. [44] Solar of all sizes made up 55% of all new US power capacity in that quarter. [44] Its share fell because more fossil-fuel plants came online than in any quarter of the past two years. [44] More than 2.5 gigawatt-hours of batteries were also added at homes and businesses. [44]

Why it matters. Small systems largely avoid the long queues to join the grid that hold up big solar farms. [44]