As campaigning around the UK general election continues, BBC News reports that the opposition Labour party has released more details of its plans for a new publicly owned company called Great British Energy. Labour said the company would start working on the construction of new low-carbon power “within months” and that it would “turn the page on the cost-of-living crisis” by lowering energy bills, the article says. Labour leader Keir Starmer and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar have travelled to Scotland, where the company would be based, to launch a new logo and website for Great British Energy, it explains. In response, the article adds that the Scottish National Party said the project would “destroy…jobs and investment” in Scotland, where most of the UK’s fossil-fuel industry is based. BusinessGreen notes that Labour has pledged to provide £8.3bn in public funding to establish the company if elected – paid for by a “proper” windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies. Ed Miliband, shadow energy security and net-zero secretary, also emphasised the benefits for households, stating that “it’s time to move on from the Tories’ bone-headed opposition to clean energy, for which British families are paying the price”, according to the Press Association. In response, Conservatives criticised the plans as an “unfunded promise”, highlighting analysis by US investment bank and financial services company Stifel, which concluded that Labour’s windfall tax would only bring in £6.5bn of additional money by 2030, the Daily Telegraph reports. As a result, the newspaper’s article is headlined “Labour launches Great British Energy plan despite £2bn ‘funding hole’”. The Daily Mirror includes a picture of the proposed logo for the new company in its coverage. In related news, Press Association features polling that finds 58% of voters in rural seats support new onshore wind in their area, while 64% back a solar farm.

The Times features an interview with the geographer Prof Brett Christophers, who recently wrote a book titled, “The Price is Wrong”, about what he perceives as issues with funding the climate transition via cheap renewable energy. Regarding Labour’s plans for Great British Energy, Christophers tells the newspaper that he does not “see the point of public sector ownership on a really small scale…It will just be another private sector actor that is nationally owned but it can’t do anything fundamentally differently”. Meanwhile, another Times article quotes a “politically sensitive intervention” in a piece penned by Patrick Vallance, the former UK chief scientific advisor, for the newspaper in which he “throw[s] his support behind Labour’s green energy plans”. (See below for a summary of the comment piece.) 

Meanwhile, BBC News reports that the Green party has launched its plan for the general election campaign, taking aim at Labour’s “timid” plans for government. Party co-leader Carla Denyer said a strong Green presence in parliament could “push” Labour to be bolder on climate, the article adds. Sky News outlines some of their policies, including a “Nature Act” that would “protect and restore the natural world”. The Green party’s campaign was launched in Bristol, where Denyer has one of the party’s strongest chances of taking a seat in the Bristol Central constituency, according to Bristol24/7. In a BBC News video clip, Denyer says the party is aiming for “at least four MPs”.

Finally, in more election news, Carbon Brief’s senior policy editor Dr Simon Evans has a piece in the Guardian factchecking incorrect claims made by Richard Tice, the leader of the right-wing Reform UK party, about climate change.

New Zealand’s right-wing coalition government has “announced sweeping cuts to climate action projects” in its 2024-25 budget, while “making no significant new investments” in climate or environment policy, the Guardian reports. The newspaper explains that “dozens of climate-related initiatives”, including programmes under the nation’s “emissions reduction plan” and funding for data specialists were “subject to sweeping cuts”. It says that despite the government stating it was still funding projects for climate resilience, money for cutting emissions was lacking in what the finance minister, Nicola Willis, described as a “fiscally responsible budget”. Among the “long list” of scrapped climate programmes were initiatives to cut New Zealand’s high farming emissions, work to establish native forests and an effort to put a price on agricultural emissions, according to public broadcaster Radio New Zealand. It adds that, over four years, the government is redirecting NZD$2.4bn (£1.15bn) in “previously ring-fenced” climate spending into other spending, with money raised under an emissions trading scheme now pushed into general spending rather than climate projects. The New Zealand Herald says climate groups called the decision to “open up” this so-called “climate emergency response fund” a “disgrace”. Nevertheless, it adds that the government said it remained committed to New Zealand’s climate goals and was “on track” to meeting those in its first five-year emissions budget. According to the Otago Daily Times, both the opposition Labour and Green parties took aim at the move by the coalition government, with Labour accusing the leadership of “abandoning” its climate objectives.

The world already has enough fossil fuel projects planned to meet global energy demand out to 2050, and governments should stop handing out new licences for oil, gas and coal, according to a new study covered by the Financial Times. The newspaper notes that the research, conducted by scientists at University College London and the International Institute for Sustainable Development, marks the “first peer-reviewed paper published in a scientific journal to argue that no more fossil fuel projects are needed”. [The paper, published in Science, is a “policy forum” commentary. Such articles, according to Science, “may be peer-reviewed at the editors’ discretion”.] It is based on analysis of future global demand for oil and gas production, and for coal and gas power generation, under a range of scenarios from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) sixth assessment report that limit warming to 1.5C, the article explains. In its coverage, the Guardian says the study builds on work by the International Energy Agency (IEA) that found no new fossil fuel expansion would be required if the world were to limit global warming to 1.5C. It adds that the IEA has acknowledged that “continued investment would be required in existing oil and gas assets and already approved projects”.

Meanwhile, in the US, policies taken by Democrat president Joe Biden’s administration intended to wind down high-polluting coal plants and mines are “reviving Republican rhetoric about a so-called ‘war on coal’ ahead of the November election”, according to the Associated Press. It notes that “some coal-state Democrats also have concerns” about the measures being taken. At the same time, the Financial Times reports, in a story trailed on the frontpage, that the surging use of artificial intelligence is forcing the US to rely on coal more than expected. The newspaper says the retirement dates for some coal plants are “being pushed back”, in anticipation of “soaring” power demand. In Canada, the Globe and Mail reports that the government has guaranteed another $1bn in commercial loans for the Trans Mountain fossil-fuel pipeline expansion. 

In Saudi Arabia, Reuters reports that the government has filed papers to sell a new stake in state oil company Saudi Aramco, in “a landmark deal to help fund Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plan to diversify the economy”. The company will sell roughly $12bn worth of shares, according to the Financial Times. “Amid questions about climate change and the future of fossil fuels, the offer will test global investors’ appetite,” says Bloomberg.

Finally, the Financial Times also has a “big read” about the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) growing influence in Africa, increasing investments in renewables as China scales back its spending in the region. It says: “But UAE companies are also investing in fossil fuels. In May, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company bought a 10% stake in Mozambique’s Rovuma gas basin, acquiring it from Portuguese energy company Galp for around $650mn.”

EU member states have unanimously agreed that the bloc will quit the Energy Charter Treaty due to concerns that it “protects fossil fuel investments and undermines efforts to fight climate change”, Reuters reports. The newswire explains that the 1998 treaty allows energy companies to sue governments for making decisions that damage their investments – adding that it has been employed to launch lawsuits against policies to restrict fossil fuel projects. While the EU, alongside the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), will withdraw from the treaty this year, Euronews says EU countries that wish to remain can choose to do so if they wish. It notes that nine member states have already announced their intention to withdraw, a further four have “officially notified” their withdrawal and Italy has already quit. In its coverage, Climate Home News frames the ability for member states to remain within the treaty for the time being as more of a positive. It says they could support “green reforms” that would help “modernise” the treaty, which would help avert lawsuits brought by fossil fuel companies. These reforms are set to be voted on in November and it is “unclear whether a sufficient number of EU states will stay in the treaty long enough to get the reforms approved”, the outlet explains.

China’s ambassador to the US, Xie Feng, has said in a video speech that both China and the US “must lead the way to tackle the climate crisis despite an increasingly competitive relationship”, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports. The outlet adds that the two sides have “agreed to a list of commitments at the provincial and local levels” at the China-US high-level climate talk in California. Reuters reports that China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday that the European Union Commission’s probe on Chinese new energy vehicle (NEV) tariffs is “unreasonable” and “not in line with international rules”, urging it to end its investigation. Another SCMP article says that the EU will “delay a decision on whether to slap countervailing duties” on Chinese NEVs until after its elections in June.

Separately, at a press conference, officials from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) – the country’s top economy planner – said that China has cut 900m tonnes of CO2 emissions in the first three years (2021-23) of the “14th five-year-plan”, the energy news outlet BJX News reports. The officials noted that the release of the “action plan for energy conservation and carbon reduction 2024-25” on 29 May was against a background of “slow progress” on energy conservation and carbon reduction due to “factors, such as Covid-19 pandemic”, added the outlet. (Read more in Carbon Brief’s Daily Briefing yesterday.) BJX News publishes another analysis on the new action plan by Lü Wenbin and Bai Quan, both from the government-funded China Macroeconomic Research Institute, saying that the policy’s regulation on “steel, petrochemicals, non-ferrous metals, building materials and other industries” pointed towards a “direction” for carbon emissions reduction.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that China has eased its rules on new solar and wind power installations in “areas with better resource conditions”, adding that the change could “pressure the profits of renewable power plants, as they might see more of their generation cut off”. A Wall Street Journal article says that a new technology that reduces the cost of producing solar panels could be helpful potentially to “build a supply chain outside of China for an industry crucial to the energy transition”.

Finally, state news agency Xinhua reports that Xi Jinping says China is “ready” to work with Arab countries, including a “more multifaceted” framework for energy cooperation. State broadcaster CCTV reports that, according to a new research report on consumer-side carbon emissions by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the “carbon intensity embedded in China’s export trade decreased by 83.3%, providing more green and low-carbon products to the world”.

Amid the potentially record-breaking heat in New Delhi, the Hindu has an editorial on the role of climate change and what this does or does not mean for the city’s residents. It says: “The temperatures people experience in a place are produced by a combination of factors, including public ventilation, density of built-up structures, and the availability of shade.…But it has become the norm to blame climate change as the all-encompassing cause of the consequences of extreme heat, and thus argue that the governments’ only option is to react.” According to the editorial, it would be difficult to prove such “anomalous heat” is human-caused at the relatively small scale of a city. [It is worth noting that attribution scientists have stated that every heatwave occurring today was made more likely by climate change.] However, even if this were possible, the editorial says this would have little bearing on the practical responses to the heatwave in New Delhi. “No interstate cooperation or heat response mechanism exists to act meaningfully on the finding,” it explains. The editorial criticises official plans for dealing with heat, particularly for people living in informal settlements in the city. It concludes: “Instead of shutting schools and offices to avoid peak heat, as many action plans stipulate, governments should facilitate cooling by (traditional) architectural methods, set up shaded pedestrian corridors, and incentivise the use of air-conditioned public transport. Governments are answerable to the terms on which they expect people to cope with the heat.”

The former chief scientific adviser to the UK government, Patrick Vallance, writes a comment article for the Times in which he compares efforts to cut emissions to the race to create a vaccine for Covid-19. He says: “Some challenges do have similar features to the vaccine challenge and some of these are priorities. I believe that one such priority is the urgent need to end the era of excessive carbon emissions, high energy bills and energy insecurity by accelerating the net-zero transition to clean, homegrown energy.” Vallance describes this as an “overriding mission” for the UK, and, notably, supports a plan for a decarbonised electricity system by 2030, which has been proposed by the opposition Labour party and opposed by the Conservatives, whose own plans aim for 2035. He concludes: “Inevitably there has been debate about how quickly this mission can be achieved. With a determined effort using currently available technologies and those that are close to being deployable, a clean power system by 2030 is achievable.”

Meanwhile, some UK commentators attended the election campaign launch of the Green Party of England and Wales. Columnist Marina Hyde in the Guardian implies that the “less you know about the Greens, the more attractive they are”. She highlights the party’s support for climate targets while also “oppos[ing] a slew of housing developments and solar farms in their council areas”. In her sketch for the Daily Telegraph, Madeline Grant focuses largely on aiming personal attacks at the senior Green politicians attending the event.

Finally, an editorial in the Daily Telegraph suggests that people in the UK care more about the state of the country’s waterways than net-zero policies. “The crusade for net-zero carbon emissions tends to overlook environmental matters of arguably much more immediate interest to the public,” it says.

A new study investigates the conditions that led to a record-breaking 16-day marine heatwave in the waters around Europe in June 2023, finding that the warmer-than-usual ocean conditions contributed to the concurrent land heatwave. Using both oceanographic and meteorological data, a team of researchers finds that strong atmospheric forcing, including weak winds and strong sunlight intensity, contributed to the rapid formation of the marine heatwave. They also find that the heatwave was intensified by overall warming trends in the ocean. They conclude: “Such sea surface temperatures are projected to become commonplace by the middle of the century under a high greenhouse gas emission scenario.”

Increasing rice demand due to urbanisation will increase Africa’s methane emissions by 2.4% by 2050, according to new research. Using projections of urban expansion in Africa, researchers model land-use changes and the accompanying production changes for staple crops. They find that more than 3m hectares of land will be converted to urban land under a middle-of-the-road emissions scenario – a relatively small proportional decrease, but with potential major impacts on local biodiversity. The authors argue that land-use planning and policymaking should take impacts on food production and biodiversity loss into account.