Climate, in brief

The government of New South Wales, an Australian state, will bring in a special law to let MACH Energy dig more coal at its Mount Pleasant mine. [1] The law would allow 16.5 million tonnes a year until 2032, up from 12.5 million. [1]

That is 4 million more tonnes a year, a rise of 32%, at a mine near Muswellbrook in the Hunter Valley. [1]

On 7 October Australia's High Court ruled that the approval for the mine's expansion was invalid. [1] The judges found the state's Independent Planning Commission had not weighed rules to cut emissions from the coal when it is burned overseas. [1]

Premier Chris Minns, the state's elected leader, says 400 jobs at the mine would go before Christmas without the law. [1] He says that if it passes, MACH has agreed to keep its current permanent workers until 2032. [1]

The mine can already dig 12.5 million tonnes a year until 2032, under a separate approval granted in August. [1]

Minns says the bill will also limit emissions from the coal burned overseas, along the lines of the state's approval for its largest coal project, Hunter Valley Operations. [1]

Sue Higginson, the NSW Greens' climate spokesperson, says the state government is bypassing the law as laid down by the High Court. [1]

Georgina Woods of the Lock the Gate Alliance, a group that campaigns against coal and gas projects, says no jobs are at risk. [1] She points out the mine is already approved to stay open for six more years. [1]

Elaine Johnson, the lawyer for the local group that won the court case, says the bill 'looks like legislative overreach'. [1]

Minns says it sets no precedent, because no other big mine is waiting on a court ruling. [1] The bill is due in the state parliament in its next sitting fortnight. [1]

Why it matters. Watch whether the bill passes the New South Wales parliament in its next sitting fortnight, and what its limits on emissions from coal burned overseas actually require. [1]

Aemet, Spain's weather agency, warned on Sunday of very heavy, lasting storms over the next 48 hours. [2] It held red alerts, its highest level, on the southern coast of Valencia and northern Alicante. [2] The storm is a 'DANA', a pocket of cold air cut off from the main winds, sitting over a damp easterly wind. [2] Up to 200-300 mm of rain could fall in 12 hours near Cape La Nao, and more than 160 mm on Ibiza and Formentera. [2]

Why it matters. Aemet says it cannot tell exactly where the biggest totals will fall, so a long coast from Valencia to Almeria, and the Balearic Islands, is on watch at once. [2] The rain may move north towards Tarragona late on Monday before it weakens on Tuesday. [2]

COP17, the UN's summit on protecting nature, opens on Monday 19 October in Armenia. [3] It will make the first official check on the targets governments set in 2022, including protecting 30% of the world's ocean by 2030. [3] Greenpeace International released a report the same day saying that, at the current pace, reaching 30% would take 265 years. [3] Monitored populations of animals with backbones have fallen by an average of 73% in 52 years, WWF's Living Planet report says. [4]

Why it matters. Money and doing the work on the ground are among the biggest problems, DW reports, as thousands of officials and groups meet in Yerevan for two weeks. [4] Greenpeace wants 17 ocean sites fully protected under the Global Ocean Treaty, partly to shield leatherback turtles from fishing gear. [3]

Four Greenpeace activists climbed onto a floating unit of Woodside's Scarborough gas project on Saturday, 375 km off Western Australia. [6] Woodside, Australia's biggest gas exporter, paused early start-up work there, and it was still paused on Sunday. [7][6] The $12.5 billion project is 98% complete and on track to ship its first liquefied gas this quarter. [6][7] Two protesters slept on the platform and were taken into police custody on Sunday afternoon, Greenpeace said. [7]

Why it matters. Greenpeace says it is protesting Woodside's planned Browse project, which it fears could harm Scott Reef, where endangered pygmy blue whales feed. [6] Woodside says its work will not touch the reef above 75 metres deep, and wants the law enforced in full. [6][7]

Longyearbyen, a town of 2,600 on Norway's Svalbard islands, has been told not to drink its tap water. [5] Its reservoir lake is taking in metals as permafrost, ground that stays frozen all year, thaws and exposes rock to water. [5] The rock holds pyrite, which makes acid with water and air, and the acid washes metals out. [5] Manganese reached 25 times the recommended level last September; it has fallen, but sulphate and nickel are now over the limits. [5]

Why it matters. The mayor, Terje Aunevik, says the town may need a new water supply, from a filtered lake or a desalination plant, and either is extremely expensive. [5] A geologist at the University Centre in Svalbard says the same rock and thaw exist in northern Canada and Alaska. [5]

Forests, grasslands and swamps took up 2.36 billion tonnes of carbon in 2025, 0.71 billion more than the 2015-2022 average, a team led by Philippe Ciais estimates. [14] In 2023 and 2024 the land's uptake almost vanished because of El Nino and Amazon fires, and carbon dioxide in the air rose at record speed. [14] Most of the recovery came from tropical forests growing again. [14] The work is preliminary, posted on arXiv, a site for papers before journal review. [14]

Why it matters. Land and oceans have removed over half the carbon dioxide people emit, so a weaker land sink means more warming from the same emissions. [14] The super El Nino now under way is expected to cause another sharp slump next year, and Mike O'Sullivan of the University of Exeter warns the recovery may not last. [14]

Ice melange is the jam of icebergs and sea ice packed in front of a glacier where it meets the sea. [15] Greenland's ice sheet has caused about 20% of global sea level rise since 2002, and melange affects the pace of almost half of that loss. [15] A study in Nature Communications modelled the jams and checked the model against five Greenland fjords. [15] It found the long-lasting jams at most of the largest glaciers may suddenly collapse when warmer water melts them from below. [15]

Why it matters. Without the jams, the glaciers behind them would shed ice faster, and seas would rise faster. [15] The research team includes scientists at Tufts University and Georgia Tech, and was funded by the US National Science Foundation. [15]

Linton Crystal Technologies, a machine maker in New York state, has sued China's Zhejiang Jingsheng, known as JSG, in a Texas federal court. [10] The case is about crystal pullers, furnaces that melt silicon and grow the crystals that are sliced into wafers for solar cells. [10] Linton says JSG won the contract to supply pullers for a 10 GW solar factory line in Texas. [10] The machines are due to arrive this year. [10] pv magazine says the details match Tesla's planned $10.1 billion solar factory in Fort Bend County, though Tesla is not named. [10]

Why it matters. Even a factory meant to make US solar panels from the first step to the last needs Chinese machines for that first step. [10] China proposed curbs on exporting 12 solar-making technologies last week, and Reuters reported in April that such curbs could threaten Tesla's US plans. [11]

Swift Current Energy, a renewable energy developer based in Massachusetts, is suing First Solar, a maker of thin-film solar panels, in a New York state court. [9] It says 2.4 million panels at three big solar farms, which cost it more than $360 million, made less power than promised. [9] Swift Current says First Solar hid two factory flaws, and that a report First Solar paid for found an average power loss of about 8%. [9] First Solar says power data from a whole site is not valid proof under the warranty. [9]

Why it matters. First Solar asked for the panels to be tested one by one in a lab, which Swift Current says would mean shipping 1.5 million of them back. [9] The two sides are due before a New York judge on 16 November. [9]

South Australia's government picked four wind, solar and battery projects, 12.66 GW in all, for state land it opened near Whyalla. [12] Windlab proposes up to 6 GW, Altra Energy 4.7 GW, Heron Energy 1.6 GW and Neoen, a French developer, 360 MW. [12] They may now apply for licences to study the sites; building needs a second licence. [12] Wind and solar made 77.1% of the state's electricity in 2025. [12]

Why it matters. Whyalla lost its steelworks recently, and the developers say the power could serve new industry in the region. [12] Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis says the state's target of 100% renewable power may slip a little, into 2028. [12]

Australia on 16 October named the West Peron rock formation, deep under the sea off its north coast, as the store for Inpex's Bonaparte project. [13] Inpex, a Japanese energy company, plans to bury up to 8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year there, and up to 443 million tonnes over 35 years. [13] The first carbon will come from Inpex's Ichthys plant, which exports liquefied gas. [13]

Why it matters. Resources Minister Madeleine King said it shows Australia's government backs carbon storage for industries that find it hard to cut emissions. [13] Its first carbon dioxide will come from a gas export plant, and Inpex plans to take carbon from other industrial sites later. [13]

Officials inspected Uganda's 183 MW Isimba hydropower dam on the Nile on Friday, as the October to December rainy season begins. [17] Its spillway, the channel that lets extra water past the dam, was built to carry 4,500 cubic metres a second. [17] Officials said in 2025 it could safely carry less than 40% of that, because its concrete is eroding. [17] Uganda's government says the Chinese builder, CIWE, must fix the faults, and it holds a $39 million guarantee. [17]

Why it matters. Harrison Mutikanga, head of UEGCL, the company that runs the dam, says water could get under the concrete slabs and lift them, and that he cannot sleep when it rains. [17] The outcome of Friday's five-hour meeting has not been made public. [17]

Satellite images from 2000 and 2025, released by Pakistan's space agency Suparco, show mangroves on Karachi's coast near the Mai Kolachi Bypass replaced by reclaimed land and building plots. [16] Mangroves are salt-water trees that trap mud, store carbon and soften storm surges. [16] Suparco says losing them raises the risk of local floods, crumbling shores and sinking land. [16] Karachi's mayor did not answer the newspaper's questions. [16]

Why it matters. Suparco says building over the mangroves moves climate risk directly onto the city's buildings and people. [16] At Shah Bandar in Sujawal district, planted mangroves have more than doubled since 2019. [16]

Kerosene has spread almost 4 km down the River Taff in south Wales from a GE Aerospace site, where it leaked during repair work. [20] Natural Resources Wales, the country's environment body, found the source on Friday evening, and dead fish have been recovered. [20] The river is too wide and fast to block with floating barriers, so absorbent pads were placed where a stream joins it. [20] Public Health Wales told people nearby to keep windows and doors shut. [20]

Why it matters. A former hazardous materials officer with the local fire service says the river needs years, not months, to recover. [20] Natural Resources Wales says it is still working out how the fuel got into underground drains. [20]

Researchers at the Stockholm Environment Institute and the University of York studied 25 ways to cut air pollution and greenhouse gases together. [18] In parts of southern Africa, each dollar spent could return about 26 dollars, they say. [18] The gain comes from fewer hospital stays and fewer days off sick. [18] Doing all 25 across southern Africa would cost about $11 billion by 2035. [18] Nearly 1 million people in sub-Saharan Africa died early from dirty air in 2023, the State of Global Air report says. [18]

Why it matters. Most of that pollution comes from cooking on wood and charcoal, which also warms the planet. [18] Only about 1% of international development money goes to air pollution, and the authors say lenders' rules miss the double benefit. [18]

This summer was the hottest on record in the US, and most workers in fields, greenhouses and hot indoor workplaces still have no legal heat protection, the Guardian reports. [21] The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Florida tomato pickers, won shade, water and paid breaks by getting 14 big buyers, including Walmart and McDonald's, to buy only from farms that follow its rules. [21] WeCount, a Miami workers' group, is copying the model for plant nursery workers. [21]

Why it matters. Florida's legislature blocked a Miami-Dade county heat rule, and a federal heat standard drafted under President Biden has stalled. [21] In September Obed Azahel Hernandez Perez, 24, died from heat while harvesting sweet potatoes in Mississippi. [21]

The US Department of Energy asked companies on 16 October to bid for up to 17 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the US government's emergency oil store. [24] Companies borrow the oil now and return it later. [24] It is part of a March deal among about 30 International Energy Agency countries to release 400 million barrels and calm prices during the Iran war. [24] The US has released about 132.5 million barrels so far. [24]

Why it matters. When the same batch of 40 million barrels was offered in June, companies took only about 500,000. [24] Energy Aspects, a research firm, estimates about 23 million were taken in a second round in September. [24]

A plan to join the gas networks of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan with over 3,000 km of pipes was discussed at a forum in Tashkent, Uzbekistan's capital. [19] Its backer, the Kazakh energy expert Askar Ismailov, puts the cost at $5 billion, carrying about 20 billion cubic metres of gas a year. [19] Uzbekistan's big producers made 16.3% less gas from January to August than a year before. [19]

Why it matters. Turkmenistan has large reserves and could gain customers, while Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan buy gas from neighbours for winter. [19] No financing, deal between the five governments or building timetable has been announced. [19]

Battery electric cars made almost a quarter of new car sales in Australia, and more were sold in September than petrol-only cars. [22] Four Chinese brands, BYD, GWM, Chery and MG, were among the ten biggest sellers in September; three years ago only MG was. [22] At least five electric cars now cost around 30,000 Australian dollars or less, all of them Chinese. [22] Diesel has passed 2.80 dollars a litre at many stations. [22]

Why it matters. Chris Dickman of Australian Ethical, a fund manager, calls it the 'BYD effect': cheaper cars and less fuel bought help hold down prices across the economy. [22] Australia's central bank still raised its main interest rate to 4.6% in September, the highest since 2011. [22]

Nearly 12,000 Californians have bought an electric car with a new $270 million state rebate, the state said on 16 October. [23] First-time buyers get $3,500 off a new electric car under $50,000, or $1,750 off a used one under $25,000. [23] Half the money comes from the state and half from carmakers. [23] A 2025 law signed by President Trump ended the federal $7,500 tax credit. [23]

Why it matters. Electric cars were still only 18% of California's car sales up to 30 September, down from 23% last year and 25% in 2024. [23] The money for Tesla models has already run out. [23]

More than 1,200 volunteers planted over 109,000 trees across Lancashire, in north-west England, in the past year. [25] The new woods cover an area equal to 154 football pitches, plus 61 orchards and 17 small 'micro-forests'. [25] The Lancashire Woodland Partnership, made up of councils, landowners and nature groups, has planted almost 500,000 trees in two seasons. [25]

Why it matters. The partnership chooses places where trees will help wildlife and people most, and is asking more landowners to offer land. [25]

Portland General Electric, an Oregon power company, says electric trucks and buses can help the grid when demand peaks. [26] It is already testing drawing power from the state's electric school buses, which sit parked for long, predictable stretches. [26] Oregon has nearly 150,000 electric vehicles on its roads. [26] Heavy trucks and buses are a small share of vehicles but a large share of transport pollution, Oregon's environment department says. [26]

Why it matters. PGE calls the trucks 'grid ready assets' that can help it through peak demand while keeping costs low. [26]