In a “surprise move”, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak yesterday called a general election that will “see climate change, nature and the net-zero transition play a central role” in campaigning, reports BusinessGreen. In driving rain, Sunak announced outside 10 Downing Street that the country will head to the polls on 4 July, the outlet says, and “made his pitch to the electorate to back the Conservatives to lead the UK government for a fourth consecutive term”. In his short address, Sunak pointed out that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has “made all too clear the risks to our energy security”, while also arguing that “China is looking to dominate the 21st century by stealing a lead in technology”, the article adds. Sunak also defended the government’s controversial decision to roll back a number of decarbonisation policies, arguing the government would “prioritise energy security and your family finances over dogma in our approach to net-zero”. Green groups urged both the Conservatives and Labour to prioritise ambitious climate action in the election, BusinessGreen notes. It quotes Leo Murray, co-director of climate charity Possible, who urged political leaders to avoid the temptation to stoke divisions on environmental issues: “We can’t let climate change become a culture war in this general election campaign…We need to protect the consensus for climate action which we’ve built among the public and politicians, and pave the way to a climate parliament.” The Press Association notes that the election comes “after the UK saw its second wettest autumn and winter on record, as storms flooded homes and left fields sodden and unplantable, with analysis suggesting the extreme rainfall was made more intense by global warming”. And an analysis piece in the Guardian by Fiona Harvey and Helena Horton suggests that voters may “punish” Sunak for backtracking on climate policies.

According to the China chamber of commerce to the EU, China could “unleash tariffs as high as 25% on imported cars with large engines”, which will have a “significant impact on Beijing’s relationship with Brussels” as the country ramps up its “threats of retaliation” before the deadline of the EU’s probes into Chinese new energy vehicles (NEVs), Bloomberg reports. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) also covers the story, saying that “this potential action carries implications for European and US carmakers, particularly in light of…Washington’s announcement of tariff hikes on Chinese electric vehicles and Brussels’ preparations for preliminary measures in a high-profile anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese EVs”. Reuters reports that, following the news of the potential countermeasures, “European autos stocks were the worst performing equity market sector on Wednesday”. A separate SCMP article says that, with the early-June deadline of the probes into the Chinese NEVs from the EU approaching, European officials are “experiencing déjà vu all over again” as some in the bloc, which has “kept details of its EV investigation under wraps”, are afraid that “Beijing will start picking off member states who are seen to have vulnerabilities that could be exposed”.

Meanwhile, the SCMP reports that companies, who are “less worried than their western peers” from the UK, are seeing opportunities for partnership, according to the British Chamber of Commerce in China, a business advocacy group. The Financial Times says that “the EU’s trade deficit in goods with China has shrunk to its lowest quarterly level for almost three years, despite fears about the bloc being flooded with cheap Chinese products”, adding that, according to economists, the shift reflects the bloc’s “weak domestic demand” and a “reversal of the post-pandemic shift in consumer spending from services to goods”. Reuters reports that auto firm Stellantis’ chief executive, Carlos Tavares, says that tariffs on the Chinese NEVs are “a major trap for the countries that go on that path”, adding that such an approach won’t spare Western automakers from “restructuring to meet the challenge from lower cost Chinese manufacturers”.

Finally, Japanese economic news outlet Nikkei Asia reports that a new survey has shown that China’s private companies, especially those in the “new energy” vehicle (NEVs) industry, “have created jobs at a much stronger pace than their state-owned peers this decade”. It adds that, of the 81% of employees from mainland China hired between 2019 and 2023, “automotive, electronic device and the semiconductor-new energy sectors” were the “main drivers” of the job growth. 

The US trade representative’s office said on Wednesday that some of the US tariffs on Chinese imports, including NEVs and batteries, will take effect on the first day of August this year, Reuters reports. The SCMP reports that US secretary of state Antony Blinken and US treasury secretary Janet Yellen discussed cooperation with the EU on Tuesday about “using additional sanctions to stymie Russia’s war against Ukraine and tariffs to deal with Chinese overcapacity” to counter Beijing.

Elsewhere, the Financial Times quotes Brad Setser, a trade expert at the nonpartisan member organisation Council on Foreign Relations, saying that the Biden tariffs were “designed to avoid ‘coupling’ in sectors that historically have not been integrated, like autos where China hasn’t been a major source of supply to the US”, adding that, because the tariff hikes are not affecting “the rest of trade”, it is not likely to “result in further decoupling”. Bloomberg reports that the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, the main industry body for Chinese solar companies, have “called for an end to a profit-slashing price war to halt a slump” by cracking down on sales of equipment and materials at below cost-prices with potential intervention from the government. Reuters says that China’s fast-growing solar power expansion, “fuelled by rock-bottom equipment prices and policy support”, is slowing down as “grid bottlenecks pile up, market reforms increase uncertainty for generators, and the best rooftop space runs short”. 

In other China news, state-run newspaper China Daily reports that China has “emerged as a powerhouse in renewable energy adoption in recent years, with a particular focus on bolstering its energy storage capabilities”, adding that, according to the country’s National Energy Administration (NEA), the Chinese government’s “proactive stance on promoting clean energy has also played a pivotal role in driving this boom”. State news agency Xinhua reports that the China Meteorological Administration and Ministry of Water Resources have jointly issued a “blue alert” for flooding in some regions in southern China, warning that “mountain torrents triggered by temporary heavy downpours” may occur this week.

Origin Energy has confirmed it will delay the closure of Eraring, Australia’s largest coal-fired power station, for two years “amid concerns renewable energy isn’t being added fast enough to keep pace with plans to quit fossil fuels”, reports Bloomberg. (The move has been rumoured for months.) The outlet continues: “The utility agreed to a request from the New South Wales government to keep operating the equivalent of two of the four units at the 2.9 gigawatt site – which accounts for about a quarter of power demand in Australia’s most populous state – until August 2027. Origin may receive compensation of as much as A$225m ($149m) a year from the state to help cover the cost of operations.” Origin had planned to close Eraring as early as August 2025 “as competition from cheaper solar and wind facilities has eroded profitability”, the article notes. However, “that proposal has come under pressure after Australia’s main grid operator flagged the state would face energy reliability risks as a result”. Environmental groups say they are “deeply disappointed” with the decision and warned it would have “far-reaching consequences” for investments in renewable energy, reports the Guardian. ABC News and the Australian Associated Press also have the story.

Despite deforestation decreasing 22% in the Brazilian Amazon and by up to 30% in the Colombian Amazon in 2023, forest fires increased more than 150%, according to a new study covered by Colombia’s El Espectador. The study attributes fires to a drought that struck the region last year. 

Separately, Brazil’s Folha de São Paulo reports that 43% of Brazilian municipalities report they are unprepared to face extreme weather events. The newspaper cites a study by the National Confederation of Municipalities, which found that 2,299 out of 3,590 municipalities point to a lack of financial resources as the major cause for their lack of preparedness.

In Mexico, Excélsior covers the deaths of dozens of howler monkeys, an endangered species, in two southern states where temperatures have reached up to 45C. Mexico’s environment ministry is already investigating whether the deaths are due to “heat stroke, dehydration, malnutrition or the spraying of toxic agrochemicals”. In another article, the newspaper reports that the country is currently experiencing its third heatwave of the year, which began on Monday and is expected to end tomorrow, according to the national meteorological service. 

Meanwhile, Chile’s La Tercera reports that Santiago experienced record rainfall of 35.8mm on Monday. In other Latin American news, between 60% and 90% of Peru’s glaciers could disappear by the end of the century due to climate change, according to analysis carried out by the Institute of Nature, Earth and Energy at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, El Comercio reports.

Finally, Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, has falsely claimed that climate change is not human-driven and is due to climatic variations, La Nación reports. But in a meeting with members of the Argentine Network of Scientific Journalism on Monday, Ana Lamas, the sub-secretary of environment, stressed that the government will continue its international climate commitments.

A new technique that produces cement using waste from demolished buildings could save billions of tonnes of carbon by 2050, the New Scientist reports. Cement production is responsible for 7.5% of global CO2 emissions, the outlet says, as a result of the high temperatures and chemical reactions involved in making “clinker”. The researchers “have developed an alternative process to make clinker, which involves reusing cement paste from demolished buildings”, the outlet explains: “This paste has an identical chemical composition to lime flux, a substance used to remove impurities from recycled steel. As the steel melts, the flux made from old cement forms a slag that floats on the top of the recycled steel. Once ground into a powder, the slag is identical to clinker. It can then be used to make Portland cement, the most common form of cement.” If the recycled steel and cement are produced using an electric furnace, powered by renewable or nuclear energy, “the process is almost entirely free of emissions”, the article says. The researchers have been trialling the process at a small-scale electric arc furnace in Middlesbrough, says BBC News, which was present when the first high-grade cement was produced. One researcher told the broadcaster that the idea was “genius” and believes, if it can be made to work profitably at scale, it could lead to huge reductions in emissions. The National also has the story.

In his latest newsletter, New York Times comment writer David Wallace-Wells says that the US is not undertaking its clean-tech trade war with China “from a position of strength or even parity”. US president Joe Biden has “wagered an awful lot of first-term political capital on a new green industrial policy”, says Wallace-Wells. However, the “green boom is overwhelmingly a Chinese story”, he writes: “In just three years, [China] has more than doubled the total amount of solar and wind power installed within its borders; in the US, what looks like a breakneck build-out over the same period has pushed capacity up by less than 50%.” And when you move upstream from final products into the green-tech supply chain, “China dominates even more”, Wallace-Wells notes: “Today, China controls more than 80% of many essential aspects of the global clean-energy supply chain; the US controls almost none of it.” In a “best-case scenario”, subsidies and tariffs “would together help American companies ramp up EV production so rapidly that US manufacturers become a driving force behind the decarbonisation of global transportation”, he says. But “there are risks”, he warns: “To begin with, industrial policy isn’t guaranteed to work, and no tariff is large enough to really reduce China’s global green-tech dominance, because the US market isn’t all that significant to the Chinese. Green self-sufficiency is more achievable, and tariff defenders suggest they are meant to be temporary, allowing the American EV industry merely to find its footing. But for how long should we baby domestic industry when it means higher prices on so much of the good green stuff?”

Bloomberg columnists Mark Gongloff and Liam Denning reflect on BloombergNEF’s latest New Energy Outlook, which estimates the world needs to invest $215tn by 2050 “to zero out carbon emissions and limit global heating to a merely disastrous 1.75C”. As “mind-numbingly big as $215tn may be, it’s actually a bargain compared with the potential economic destruction of unabated climate change”, they write: “Every 1C of heating cuts global GDP by 12%…That’s roughly six times larger than previous estimates, a difference the authors chalk up to chronic underestimation of the impact of rising temperatures and weather extremes on economies.” Gongloff and Denning note that, a year ago, BNEF suggested this cost would be $196tn and so “this year’s estimate represents a nearly 10% increase”. The real issue here is that “the $1.8tn the world invested in the transition in 2023 was well behind the pace necessary to achieve net-zero”, they say: “That investment needs to average $4.8tn a year through 2030 if we’re to have any hope of reaching our stretch goal of keeping the planet mostly livable”. As complex an undertaking as it is to rewire the globe’s energy system, “rewiring is the operative – and simplifying – word”, Gongloff and Denning say: “Greg Jackson, founder and chief executive officer of Octopus Energy, had it right in a recent interview with Carbon Brief when he said: ‘The reality is that it just boils down to electrification.’”. The writers conclude: “If you had to distil BNEF’s 250-odd pages of transition treatise into a motto, it would be: Plug it in. Given the report’s other message – tick tock, essentially – the bulk of the world’s efforts should be focused here.” [BNEF’s analysis has been criticised for not incorporating the fuel savings from operational expenses.]

There is some early reaction to Rishi Sunak’s surprise call for a general election in July. An editorial in the Financial Times says that “for too long, the UK has felt like a country adrift…Investment decisions are not being made; difficult decisions are being ducked”. The newspaper sets out “four main questions need to be addressed”. The third of these revolves around ”strategies to level up left-behind areas and revive productivity growth in a listless economy, notably by supporting the green transition through joint investment, targets and incentives”. The editorial concludes: “Voters will welcome the prospect of restoring a stability and predictability that has long been lacking. But this is not enough. The electorate is looking for delivery – on issues ranging from new nuclear power stations to new homes. There is a widespread acceptance that Britain has not been working as it should. This election must provide an opportunity to start putting it right.”

Elsewhere, the Daily Telegraph sets out its stall in favour of Rishi Sunak’s Conservative party. In an editorial, it says: “It is similarly unarguable that a Labour government might well bring change, but it will not be of the good kind. Labour would tax more, regulate more, be weaker in defence of the national interest and be far more relaxed about mass migration and the excesses of green ideologues. The Tories can hardly claim that their own record is unblemished in any of these areas. But the party must now pull together behind the prime minister and hammer home the message that the situation will be much worse if Sir Keir enters No 10.” In the same paper, Allister Heath – the climate-sceptic editor of the Sunday Telegraph – writes that “on net-zero, Sunak needs to position himself as the moderate, pro-consumer, pro-motorist, anti-20mph and anti-Ulez voice, and contrast that to Labour’s hair-shirt green zealotry”. And climate-sceptic Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn sets out his “truly Tory manifesto”, which includes “dumping the insane, virtue-signalling ‘world-leading’ net-zero targets”, “dismantl[ing] low-traffic neighbourhoods and most cycle lanes” and “start[ing] fracking immediately and guarantee future North Sea licences for as long as there is oil and gas to be extracted”.

New research highlights the importance of considering reliability and carbon pricing in the potential role of off-grid solar power in achieving universal household electricity access in Africa. The study undertakes a “high-resolution geospatial analysis” on universal household electricity access in sub-Saharan Africa at different electricity demand levels. In the study’s “Tier 3” demand reference scenario, 4% of the 470 million people obtaining electricity access by 2030 do so via off-grid photovoltaics. However, factoring in a cost for poor reliability in other systems increases this share to 41% and applying a carbon price of around $80 per tonne of CO2 equivalent increases it to 38%.