Climate, in brief

Britain's chancellor, John Healey, the minister in charge of the government's money, backs approving drilling at the Rosebank oil field, the Guardian reported on Sunday. [1]

The decision belongs to the energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh. Last week the Guardian reported that she was leaning towards rejecting it. [1]

If the two ministers disagree, Prime Minister Andy Burnham would be expected to make the final call. [1]

The Mail on Sunday reported that Burnham and Healey had agreed to try to push Rosebank through. Burnham's office declined to comment and said the decision was the energy secretary's. [1]

Healey hinted at his view last week, telling ITV he expected oil and gas taxes to go into a new energy wealth fund. That fund is to get 2 billion pounds in his Budget. [1][3]

Fahnbulleh says Rosebank is not like Jackdaw, the gas field she approved last week. Jackdaw's gas is for Britain, she says, and should flow for up to 11 years. [1][3] Rosebank is an oil field whose oil is mainly for export, she says. [1]

Rosebank would cause about seven times the emissions of Jackdaw, and Fahnbulleh is understood to think it would do less for Britain's energy security. [1]

The field lies about 80 miles north-west of Shetland and holds an estimated 300 million to 500 million barrels, enough for perhaps 25 years. [2]

Adura, a company owned by Shell and Equinor, Norway's state energy firm, owns 80% of Rosebank. Its oil would go by tanker, most likely to refineries in mainland Europe. [2]

Adura says Rosebank's gas, piped to Shetland and on to Aberdeenshire, could heat 500,000 British homes at its peak. It says approval could open four more gas fields nearby. [2]

Britain's last government approved Jackdaw and Rosebank. In 2025 a Scottish court ruled the approvals unlawful because they ignored the emissions from burning the oil and gas. [2][3]

Labour MPs have discussed forcing a vote in parliament if Rosebank is approved, and some wrote to Fahnbulleh asking her to reject it. A decision is expected before Christmas. [1][2][4]

Why it matters. The next fixed date is Healey's Budget on 28 October, which is to put 2 billion pounds into the energy wealth fund; the Rosebank decision itself is expected before Christmas. [1][2][5]

Two men were killed by falling trees on Sunday as Storm Boelo crossed Britain. [6] One, aged 60, died near Castle Douglas in Scotland, and the other, in his 20s, when a tree fell on his car in north London. [6][8] Across Storms Austen and Boelo, 838,700 properties lost power, said the Energy Networks Association, which speaks for the power networks. [6] More than 90,000 were still cut off at 7pm on Sunday, and gusts reached 85mph at Machrihanish in Argyll. [6] More rain and strong wind are forecast for Monday and Tuesday. [11]

Why it matters. These were the first two named storms of the season, and in about half the years since 2015 the first one did not come until after 1 November. [11][23] Ferries between Holyhead and Dublin were cancelled, and about 12,500 properties in Northern Ireland lost power. [9][10]

Storm Austen cut power to about 288,000 homes in France at its peak on Saturday, said Enedis, which runs most of France's local power lines. [12] About 59,000, mostly in Normandy and Brittany, were still without power at midday on Sunday. [12] In Freiburg, in south-west Germany, a cut to 10,000 homes forced the main hospital to take emergencies only and stopped mobile phones working. [12] Hundreds of flights were cancelled or diverted, including at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. [12][13]

Why it matters. Two people were seriously hurt by scaffolding blown off at a market in Nastaetten, Germany, and falling trees injured four people in Brussels. [12][13] As the winds moved north, Denmark barred some trailers from its Great Belt Bridge and Sweden halted some trains. [13]

Marine Le Pen, leader of France's far-right National Rally, said on Sunday she would let France look for oil and gas again if she is elected president in May. [14] She would scrap a 2017 law that stopped new permits to explore for oil and gas and banned shale gas. [14] The law is named after Nicolas Hulot, a former environment minister, and Le Pen called it stupid. [14] She is seen as the favourite to follow Emmanuel Macron, who cannot run again. [14]

Why it matters. A ban France chose nine years ago is now part of next May's election. [14] AP compares the pledge to Donald Trump's push to speed up oil and gas drilling in the US. [14]

Homes in Upper Teesdale, in north-east England, are paying about 600 pounds for 500 litres of heating oil, or about 1.19 pounds a litre. [15] In October 2025 it cost about 52p a litre. [15] Many homes there have no mains gas, so oil delivered by lorry is how they heat. [15] A local farm-support group pools orders to cut about 3p a litre, and one pensioner says she uses electric radiators because oil is too dear. [15]

Why it matters. A typical household energy bill in Britain is forecast to rise by 276 pounds a year in January, and there is talk of help in the Budget for households on some benefits. [5] Homes there already pay double, before winter has started. [15]

Climate Central, a US climate research group, estimates that hotter days caused by climate change led to about 1,950 more shootings in the 100 US cities with the most gun violence from 2021 to 2025. [16] That is about 1.7% of the 116,281 shootings recorded there. [16] It found climate change made a typical day in those cities about 2.4F (1.3C) hotter. [16] Philadelphia, on track for its fewest killings since 1963, had an estimated 149 extra shootings. [16]

Why it matters. No single shooting is blamed on heat, and the number is an estimate built from many hot days. [16] The researchers say the extra risk falls hardest on poorer, paved neighbourhoods with few trees, such as Mott Haven in New York's Bronx. [16]

Dubai Municipality, the city's council, has awarded four contracts worth 3 billion dirhams, about 817 million dollars, to widen its rainwater drains. [17] They are part of Tasreef, a 30-billion-dirham plan to make the drains carry seven times as much water by 2033. [17] Dubai began the plan in 2024, after record rain flooded the city that April. [17] This phase lays 100km of main drains, up to three metres wide, under areas such as Jumeirah and Al Barsha. [17]

Why it matters. The council says the finished system will take more than 20 million cubic metres of water a day and serve the city for 100 years. [17]

More storms were forecast on Sunday for the Four Corners, where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet, after days of flooding. [18] The San Juan River at Farmington, New Mexico, ran two feet above its 1909 record on Friday. [18] New Mexico's governor said there had been hundreds of water rescues, and no deaths. [18] The water left mud mixed with sewage from failed waste plants, and a tornado damaged at least eight homes in Santa Fe on Saturday. [18]

Why it matters. The rain is from two months of tropical moisture blowing in from the Pacific, after months of drought. [18] San Juan County says some homes may wait days for power to come back. [18]

Data centres, the warehouse-sized buildings full of computers that run the internet and AI, have become an issue before the US elections on 3 November. [19] Some 16 US states have proposed laws to ban or pause new ones, and politicians in both main parties have spoken against them. [19] President Donald Trump has called the pushback a sick conspiracy. [19] Data centres worldwide are thought to use more electricity than the whole of France. [19]

Why it matters. The tech industry is expected to spend 765 billion dollars on buildings for AI this year, and more than 1 trillion next year. [19] Opposition has also grown in Mexico, France, Indonesia and the UK. [19]

Wickham Freight Lines, a family-owned Australian trucking firm, has bought a solar-powered electric fridge unit for its trailers. [20] Refrigerated trailers usually run a small diesel generator day and night, even when an electric truck pulls them. [20] The Sunswap Endurance unit uses solar panels and a battery instead. [20] On a 1,670km trial from Sydney to Brisbane and back, it finished with more than 65% of its battery left. [20]

Why it matters. Removing the generator takes its diesel fumes and noise out of the depots and streets where cold food is unloaded. [20] Electrek reports it is the first regular production unit of its kind in Australia. [20]

XCMG, a Chinese maker of heavy machines, has shown an electric terminal tractor with no cab, built to drive itself. [21] Terminal tractors are the short-haul trucks that move trailers around ports and depots. [21] The SDA411 is still a concept. [21] A video showed it driving around XCMG's site, making emergency stops and pulling up to a charger, where a person plugged it in. [21]

Why it matters. This slow, stop-start work suits electric motors, Electrek says. [21] The industry says young people do not want to drive trucks, and many firms are short of drivers. [21]

NASA's PACE satellite is now tracking autumn leaf colour across the whole planet every day or two. [22] It measures the red, yellow and green pigments in leaves from orbit. [22] Its maps showed strong reds in northern Russia, Alaska and Canada from 29 September to 4 October, then spreading across the US Midwest the week after. [22] NASA says it is the first satellite to measure all three pigments worldwide that often. [22]

Why it matters. Scientists hope it will show how the timing of spring and autumn is changing. [22] They also want to learn whether it can give early warning of drought and insect damage. [22]

Germany's president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, presented the German Environmental Prize, worth 500,000 euros, at a ceremony in Aachen. [24] It went to Roda Verheyen, a Hamburg lawyer who takes on environmental cases, and Klaus Vossenkaul, an engineer. [24] Verheyen's 2021 complaint against Germany's climate law helped lead the country's top court to rule that Germany should become climate-neutral by 2045, Steinmeier said. [24] Vossenkaul's membrane filters make wastewater plants smaller, cheaper and less hungry for energy. [24]

Why it matters. The DBU, the German Federal Environmental Foundation, awards the prize. [24] Steinmeier said the two winners had shown what one person can do. [24]

Protesters burned a police station and seven police vehicles on Friday in Pasighat, a town in Arunachal Pradesh in north-east India, the Arunachal Times reported. [25] They oppose the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project, a planned 11,000-megawatt hydropower dam. [25] The violence began after police fired tear gas at young protesters. [25] Protesters also set fire to an office of NHPC, India's National Hydroelectric Power Corporation, and a journalist was hurt, local reports said. [25]

Why it matters. The protesters want detained activists freed, security forces pulled out and survey work on the dam stopped at once. [25] Instead, more security forces have been sent to the area. [25]