Climate, in brief

Britain's government approved gas production at the Jackdaw field in the North Sea on Wednesday, after years of court cases and political delay. [1][3]

Jackdaw lies 150 miles east of Aberdeen. It is run by Adura, a company owned half by Shell, one of the world's biggest oil companies, and half by Equinor, Norway's state energy company. [2][1]

Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh said the first gas will reach homes and businesses by the end of this month. The field is expected to produce for about 11 years. [3][2]

At its peak Jackdaw adds about 6% to the gas Britain produces itself. [3] Because Britain also imports gas, Adura says that is about 2% of all the gas the country uses. [2]

Fahnbulleh said the field will not lower energy bills this winter. [2] Gas in Britain is sold at a price set across Europe, so one small field barely moves it, BBC Verify explains. [4][8]

She says the case is supply, not bills: gas piped ashore from British waters instead of more liquid gas shipped in, which is chilled, carried by ship and warmed again. [5][4]

Britain's oil and gas regulator estimates that US liquid gas causes about three times the emissions of North Sea gas before it is burned. [4] Burning the gas still causes far more than producing it. [4]

Britain still heats mostly with gas: about 24 million homes have a gas boiler, and fewer than 2% have a heat pump, a Guardian finance column notes. [9]

In January 2025 Scotland's highest civil court ruled the 2022 approval unlawful, because it ignored the carbon from burning the gas. [2] The owners had to apply again with that carbon counted. [1]

Britain's government also set up an Energy Wealth Fund, starting with 2 billion pounds, to spend oil and gas tax money on clean energy. [3] Fahnbulleh could not yet say which taxes will fill it. [5]

Fahnbulleh is leaning towards refusing Rosebank, a much bigger oil field off Shetland, the Guardian's sources say. [5] Its oil is mostly for export, and burning it would release about seven times Jackdaw's carbon. [5]

The Green Party called the approval climate vandalism, and Greenpeace said it would not lower bills. [2][6] Unions and Aberdeen business leaders welcomed it. [2] Oil and gas still support about 38,000 offshore jobs in north-east Scotland, against 4,200 in renewables. [7]

Why it matters. The next test is Rosebank: the energy secretary is leaning against it, but the prime minister could overrule her before the decision due by the end of the year. [5]

Expensive gas caused nearly 90% of the rise in British household electricity bills since 2020, new figures from the think tank Nesta show. [11] Of a 180-pound rise in a typical yearly bill, after inflation, 161 pounds came from wholesale costs set by gas. [11] Contracts that pay wind and solar farms a fixed price now cut bills by about 17 pounds a year. [11] Wholesale gas stood at 220 pence a therm on 19 October, above its 2022 average. [11]

Why it matters. It answers the claim that climate policies drove bills up: by these figures, the gas price did. [11] Bills may rise by as much as a quarter in January if gas stays this dear. [11]

Shipping crude oil from the Gulf to Asia on a large tanker cost more than 37 dollars a barrel by mid-October, the International Energy Agency says. [12] That is more than five times the cost before the war in the Middle East began in February. [12] Ships wait near the Strait of Hormuz, take longer routes and pass cargo between each other, so fewer are free to hire. [12] Drone attacks on a Saudi pipeline in September pushed rates higher. [12]

Why it matters. Refiners in Asia lost money on Gulf crude in September because of these costs, the agency says. [12] Higher freight adds to energy costs in countries that rely on imports. [12]

Indian Oil, India's largest refiner, plans to buy slightly less crude from Middle East producers under yearly contracts in 2027 and 2028, a source told Reuters. [13] Indian refiners have long bought more than half their crude from the region, because it is close. [13] The war, now in its eighth month, has made those supplies uncertain. [13] Refiners have turned to one-off purchases instead, and some first bought more Russian oil. [13]

Why it matters. Gulf producers are now offering discounts on oil and on shipping to keep buyers like India. [13] Indian Oil also paused a plan to buy gas carrier ships after their price almost doubled. [13]

US oil prices have risen about 50% since the Strait of Hormuz crisis began in February. [14] Yet daily output in the Permian Basin, the biggest US oilfield, is only 1.5% higher, Semafor reports. [14] Diamondback Energy, which pumps about 4% of US oil, has raised its target for the year by only about 4%. [14] Its chief, Kaes Van't Hof, says drilling flat out would be economic suicide, and many drillers expect prices to crash. [14]

Why it matters. President Trump keeps asking for more US drilling, and high fuel prices could hurt him in the midterm elections. [14] After past booms ended in price crashes, drillers now put steady cash for shareholders ahead of growth. [14]

Kinder Morgan, a big US pipeline company, approved 4.7 billion dollars on Wednesday as its share of two new gas pipelines. [15] One would carry gas about 470 miles to the US Southeast. [15] The other would carry gas about 434 miles from the Permian Basin in Texas to its network in the middle of the country. [15] The company says demand is rising from power plants, data centres and companies that ship gas abroad. [15]

Why it matters. It is a bet that US demand for gas will keep rising, from power plants and data centres above all. [15] The two projects lifted the company's list of planned gas projects to a record. [15]

The US Justice Department asked a federal court on Tuesday to send back the construction permit for New England Wind. [16] It is a 2-gigawatt wind farm planned off Massachusetts. [16] Two weeks earlier the Trump administration asked to reconsider the permit for Revolution Wind, which already makes power off Rhode Island and Connecticut. [16] In both cases it sides with groups suing to stop the projects. [16]

Why it matters. Wind companies spend billions and nearly a decade on a project, and a permit that can be reopened later makes that harder to plan. [16] Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said the move could wreck a deal in the US Congress to speed up building permits. [16]

The average cost of a US solar power deal, where a buyer agrees to pay a fixed price for years, rose 4.9% in three months. [17] It reached 64.23 dollars a megawatt-hour, according to LevelTen Energy, which runs a market for these deals. [17] It says new import taxes on equipment caused most of the rise. [17] More than half of solar panels have already been repriced, and the cost is being passed to buyers. [17]

Why it matters. Big tech firms building data centres signed 99% of deals for new farms in the first quarter, and first-time buyers are the fewest since 2016. [17] Deals for new wind farms are scarce because federal permits are hard to get. [17]

Tesla installed 13.7 gigawatt-hours of large batteries in the third quarter, 10% more than a year before. [18] But revenue from that business fell 16% to 2.88 billion dollars, partly because of refunds to customers over tariffs, Tesla said. [18] It did not say how much it refunded. [18] Tesla also says battery supply, not demand, held back its car deliveries, which fell 2% to 486,532. [19]

Why it matters. Tesla says demand for its grid batteries is at a record, driven by data centres. [18] It has shipped its first big batteries made with its own cells from Nevada, as it tries to keep import taxes out of its costs. [18]

PG&E, a big California power company, said a city takeover of its San Francisco grid would cost 22.5 billion dollars. [20] That is more than six times the 3.4 billion dollars the city cited in April. [20] San Francisco wants to run its own power lines to cut costs and improve service. [20] State regulators are now weighing the value of the wires and the cost of splitting them off. [20]

Why it matters. Regulators have already ruled that the city must pay the highest value a buyer might pay. [20] PG&E says its figures show a takeover makes no financial sense for customers. [20]

New Mexico's 2019 law asked its main power companies to get 50% of their electricity from renewables by 2030. [21] The state passed 50% in 2024. [21] PNM, its biggest utility, made 80% of its power without carbon last year. [21] PNM has now asked to build 800 megawatts of wind, 240 of solar and 610 of batteries, with one small gas plant as backup. [21]

Why it matters. Some green groups oppose that gas plant, and the regulator may not decide until mid-2027. [21] The state found it harder to help laid-off coal workers than to build the new power plants. [21]

New York's utility regulator approved two networks that heat buildings with warmth from the ground and from sewers, instead of gas. [22] One in Haverstraw, a Hudson River town, will cost 50 million dollars and link up to 30 buildings, including a primary school. [22] The other, in Buffalo, will cost 61 million dollars. [22] The regulator turned down nine other plans, which would have needed about 1 billion dollars from customers. [22]

Why it matters. A network like this switches the heating of a whole neighbourhood at once, instead of one boiler at a time. [22] The state will put in 93 million dollars to offset the cost to customers. [22]

Mass Save, the energy-saving programme in the US state of Massachusetts, insulates homes for free. [23] In 21 poorer areas with many renters, families do not have to prove their income first. [23] A clause in a state energy bill would make middle-income families in those areas send pay slips and tax forms again. [23] Projects for middle-income homes rose from about 700 in 2023 to more than 8,200 in 2025. [23]

Why it matters. Insulation can cut a home's energy bill by hundreds of dollars a year. [23] The jump followed the end of the paperwork, and supporters say renters and poorer homes have long missed out. [23]

Rob Menendez, a Democratic congressman from New Jersey, introduced the first US federal bill on Monday to make plug-in solar panels legal. [24] These are one to four panels that plug into a normal wall socket, often on a balcony. [24] The bill would make every state's power regulator consider rules for them. [24] It would also help poorer households buy them. [24]

Why it matters. A plug-in set can pay for itself in about 2.5 years, against 10 or more for a rooftop system. [24] It lets renters, who cannot change a roof, make some of their own power. [24]

The US Bureau of Land Management sold leases to tap underground heat on 60 pieces of federal land in Nevada on Tuesday. [25] They covered about 187,000 acres and raised about 4.83 million dollars. [25] A similar sale in Nevada last year raised about 9.4 million dollars. [25] Two of the plots overlap a large solar farm that NextEra Energy, a big US power company, wants to build there. [25]

Why it matters. The agency told NextEra it must work around whoever holds the heat lease. [25] It shows two kinds of clean power competing for the same desert land. [25]

People who lived through floods, fires and storms in the US are forming a political group, the Guardian reports. [26] Extreme Weather Survivors now has about 2,500 members across the country. [26] At a meeting this month near Kerrville, Texas, where floods killed 136 people in 2025, only one of the candidates invited came. [26] Several survivors there said they were still waiting for help from FEMA, the US disaster agency. [26]

Why it matters. President Trump has cut FEMA and is accused of holding back help from states that did not vote for him. [26] Some members avoid the words climate change, because they say the term divides people. [26]

Leaders in Ruidoso, a mountain town in New Mexico, played down flood warnings before a July 2025 flood killed two children, a ProPublica investigation published by Grist finds. [27] Wildfires in 2024 had left the hills above the town unable to soak up rain. [27] Less than two weeks before the flood, the town told residents to stop sharing fearful flood posts online. [27] The mayor and fire chief disputed the reporting or did not answer questions. [27]

Why it matters. After hot fires, slopes across the American West can send floods and mud down fast, and towns have no easy tool to measure that risk. [27] Ruidoso has received over half a billion dollars in disaster money since 2024. [27]

A committee of British MPs that covers the environment and farming says the country is not ready for worsening wildfires. [28] Fire services have gone to more than 1,300 wildfires in England and Wales this year, more than in all of 2025. [28] Britain has no planes to fight fires from the air and no national wildfire plan. [28] The MPs want one, and want farms allowed to build ponds for firefighting water. [28]

Why it matters. Alistair Carmichael, the committee's chair, said Britain's government should start preparing for 2027 now. [28] Most wildfires are started by people, so the MPs also want public warnings and limits on throwaway barbecues. [28]

A report by experts from the Royal Meteorological Society says weather pushed Britain's power grid to its limits in the year to March 2026. [29] Wind and solar made more than 38% of the country's electricity and gas 25%, and renewables' share was the highest on record. [29] On 6 January, a freezing still evening, the wind dropped and gas plants supplied more than 25 gigawatts. [29] The grid operator paid up to 700 pounds a megawatt-hour for that power, against just over 100 for the rest of January. [29]

Why it matters. In heatwaves the grid also has to send less power down its lines, because hot wires sag. [29] The report says the planned grid upgrade must be built for both kinds of extreme. [29]

Britain's Met Office has named a second storm, Boelo, which will follow Storm Austen within two days. [30] Austen brings an amber warning for winds of 60 to 70 mph in Cornwall and parts of Devon on Friday morning. [30] Ireland has an orange rain warning for six counties, including Dublin and Cork. [31] Boelo brings amber warnings for gusts of 70 to 80 mph in western Scotland on Saturday. [30]

Why it matters. Forecasters warn of fallen trees, travel disruption and some power cuts. [30] The ground is already wet, so there is a risk of local flooding. [30]

A committee of Northern Ireland's assembly says time is running out to meet the 2030 targets in its energy plan. [32] The 2021 plan aims for at least 80% of electricity to come from renewables, and for the economy to stop adding carbon by 2050. [32] Businesses told the committee that unclear rules and delays could push investment to Britain, Ireland and other parts of Europe. [32] About 124 million pounds of public money has gone into energy schemes since 2020. [32]

Why it matters. The committee's chair, Daniel McCrossan, said Northern Ireland's government must create the conditions for investment, or it will go elsewhere. [32] The committee said there can be no further delay. [32]

Britain's government wants new nuclear plants to pay into a shared nature fund instead of protecting wildlife at each site, Inside Climate News reports. [33] At Hinkley Point C, a nuclear plant being built in Somerset, protections for fish are set to cost more than 926 million dollars. [33] Underwater speakers to scare fish from its cooling pipes are expected to save fewer than one salmon a year. [33] One environmental law specialist called the plan ecologically illiterate. [33]

Why it matters. Britain is betting more than 22 billion dollars on new nuclear plants by 2030, and wants them built faster. [33] The shared fund would be run by Natural England, England's nature regulator. [33]

A study in the journal Nature Energy modelled hundreds of possible heatwaves in western Europe between 2026 and 2030. [34] In heat, people use more power for cooling, power plants make less, and hot power lines can carry less. [34] Spain's grid ran into limits and had to cut power to some users in the model. [34] Germany's grid coped far better. [34]

Why it matters. The authors say grid planners should test for heatwaves, which are getting hotter and longer. [34] Batteries that start full helped, but only partly. [34]

Super Typhoon Champi reached winds of about 185 mph on Tuesday in the Philippine Sea, the strongest of any storm this year. [35] By Wednesday it had slowed to 175 mph and was about 430 nautical miles south of a US air base in Okinawa, Japan. [35] It was expected to weaken over the next day. [35] Champi is the 25th storm of the year in the north-west Pacific. [35]

Why it matters. The Atlantic's strongest storm this year, Hurricane Isaias, peaked at about 120 mph. [35] In El Nino years Atlantic hurricanes tend to slow while parts of the Pacific get busier. [35]

El Nino has pushed sea levels up to 40 cm higher in the eastern Pacific, and lower around northern Australia, New Scientist reports. [36] Mangroves, salt-water trees on the shore, need regular flooding by the tide. [36] In 2015 to 2016, a long drop in sea level killed about 76 square kilometres of mangroves in Australia's Gulf of Carpentaria. [36] Scientists now expect wide dieback along the coast west of the gulf. [36]

Why it matters. A 2025 satellite study found sea-level changes caused about a third of the damage to mangrove canopies worldwide in 2015 to 2016. [36] Shallow corals and seagrass can also dry out when the sea falls. [36]

Fires in Papua New Guinea had released nearly 32 million tonnes of carbon by 19 October, more than in any year on record by that date. [37] Drought linked to El Nino has dried out New Guinea, the world's second-largest island. [37] Parts of its south went more than 90 days without rain. [37] Smoke has delayed flights and closed schools, NASA reports. [37]

Why it matters. People light most of these fires, to clear land or farm, and in a drought they spread. [37] Rains usually arrive in early November. [37]

Rio Tinto, one of the world's biggest mining companies, has started design work on a heat battery at its Yarwun alumina refinery in Queensland, Australia. [38][39] The battery heats bricks with cheap daytime electricity and uses that heat to make steam later. [39] It would store 360 megawatt-hours and replace some of the coal and gas the refinery burns for steam. [38][39] Australia's renewable energy agency could put in up to 38 million Australian dollars. [38]

Why it matters. It would supply only about 5% of the refinery's steam, but cut about 67,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. [39] Factory heat is one of the hardest uses of fossil fuel to replace. [38]