Fwd: Daily Briefing: UK nuclear plant’s ‘life extended’ | EU’s ‘stronger’ carbon price controls | Growth is ‘doomed strategy’

[Loretta Lohman]

 

View in browser  Sign up for free to China Briefing, Carbon Brief’s essential fortnightly email, which will be sent out later today. Snapshot New on Carbon Brief • Guest post: How a record-high ‘energy imbalance’ is driving global warming News • UK to extend life of Sizewell B nuclear plant by 20 years | Bloomberg • EU agrees stronger price controls for new carbon market | Reuters • US: Trump targeting immigrants from countries hit most by climate shocks | Guardian • Chinese carmakers push deeper into Europe despite rising EU trade barriers | Caixin Comment • We economists have done the maths: ‘growth’ is a doomed strategy – there is a better way | Olivier De Schutter, Joseph Stiglitz, Jayati Ghosh, Thomas Piketty, Kate Raworth and Jason Hickel, Guardian Research • New research on sea level rise, orangutans and increased iceberg traffic in the Arctic. Other stories • Solar power hits new milestones in the US even as Trump boosts coal over clean energy | Associated Press • Record winter temperatures in Antarctic raise fears over speed of climate breakdown | Guardian • Lee Raymond, Exxon CEO who doubted climate change, dies at 87 | Bloomberg New on Carbon Brief Guest post: How a record-high ‘energy imbalance’ is driving global warming Prof Piers Forster, Dr Debbie Rosen, Dr Matt Palmer and Dr Karina Von Schuckmann Four authors of the latest “indicators of global climate change” report outline their findings in a guest post for Carbon Brief. News UK to extend life of Sizewell B nuclear plant by 20 years Jess Shankleman, Bloomberg ECF and Centrica are “poised to agree on a draft deal with the UK government to extend the life of the Sizewell B nuclear power station by two decades”, reports Bloomberg. According to the outlet, the final deal will be agreed later this year. It says that the deal would give Sizewell B in Suffolk a 20-year contract-for-difference for 2035-55. It adds: “Sizewell B would be paid around £70 ($93.85) per megawatt-hour generated. The cost would be significantly cheaper than the £91.20 that the government agreed to pay new offshore wind farms earlier this year. It will help boost energy secretary Ed Miliband’s case that the government is ensuring energy security without fossil fuels as a response to the war in Iran.” Separately, the Times reports that the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset “could be delayed again by demands to protect fish”. It claims that the “delay would also in effect kill off Ed Miliband’s signature pledge to decarbonise electricity supplies by 2030 because it is due to supply between 7 and 10% of the UK’s total power needs”. MORE ON UK The Guardian reports that “millions of homes are at risk from climate-related subsidence”, with London, Essex, Kent and an area from Oxford up to England’s east coast ranking as the most vulnerable. The Times: “A marine heatwave that has gripped waters around much of the southern and eastern coast of Britain may have contributed to record May temperatures.” The Daily Telegraph: “Labour has approved plans for a giant green-belt data centre despite claims it risks derailing Heathrow’s third runway project.” Reuters: “Britain has offered grid connections to more than 700 projects…under a reformed allocation system expected ​to help unlock up to £40bn in annual clean ⁠power investment.” The Daily Telegraph covers a warning from the Royal United Services Institute, which says that “Britain’s ‘clean-energy ambitions’ [has] left the country heavily reliant on Beijing to continue supplying the rare earths vital to making turbines work”. The Daily Telegraph claims that Ed Miliband is “resisting pressure” from prime minister Keir Starmer to cut spending in his department “amid a cabinet row about how to fund defence”. EU agrees stronger price controls for new carbon market Kate Abnett and Mrinmay Dey, Reuters The European Union has agreed stronger price controls on ETS2, its proposed emissions trading system for heating and transport emissions, according to Reuters. The newswire adds: “[Negotiators] agreed that if the cost of permits in the new carbon market exceeds €45 ($52) per metric ton of CO2, then 40m permits will be released into the ​market from a ‘stability reserve’ to regulate supply, up from a previous 20m. The ​reserve can be triggered twice per year, under the changes agreed ⁠on Wednesday evening, meaning a total of 80m extra permits can be added ​each year.” Separately, the Financial Times reports on the main EU emissions trading system that covers power and industry. It says: “The bloc plans to continue to provide free allowances to emit carbon well into the 2040s in a move that would scrap the existing 2039 time limit. In return, it will require companies to make ‘much-needed investments in Europe’.” MORE ON EUROPE Reuters: “The European Fiscal Board, ​the EU's independent watchdog, criticised on Wednesday the European Commission's move to allow some of ‌the fiscal leeway granted last year to governments for defence, to be spent on the transition to clean energy.” Reuters reports that “Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD is looking to take over an existing factory in southern Europe for its second ​assembly plant on the continent, with Spain among the countries ‌on its shortlist”. Bloomberg: “Three UK clean-technology companies are teaming up to create what may be Europe’s biggest direct air capture facility.” Reuters: "Italy will spend almost €60bn this year to import energy, up €8-9bn from 2025.” US: Trump targeting immigrants from countries hit most by climate shocks Oliver Milman, The Guardian New analysis by the Guardian reveals that, “of the 39 countries from which the Trump administration has fully or partly restricted entry to the US, 22 are ranked within the most vulnerable quarter of nations in the world to climate impacts”. The analysis, using data from the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative, finds that “immigrants from Chad and Niger, the two most climate-vulnerable countries in the world according to the index, are now fully barred from the US, as are people from Sudan, Somalia and Sierra Leone, also among the 10 countries most exposed to climate impacts”. In a related article, the Guardian reports that “neither US nor international law recognises environmental hazards, such as climate-related displacement, as a valid cause to claim asylum or gain entry through other migration pathways”. MORE ON US Fortune reports that the US oil reserve is “slipping below Biden-era lows to its most exhausted level since the Reagan era”. Reuters: “US energy secretary Chris Wright ​told a congressional ‌hearing on Wednesday that he's not aware that ​the US ​has taken millions of barrels ⁠of oil out ​of Iran, after ​President Donald Trump told reporters it had.” Reuters reports that the US is “seeking to loan energy companies up ‌to 40m barrels of crude oil from the strategic petroleum reserve to help push fuel prices down”. The Independent reports on a proposed revamp of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which would “raise the bar for declaring major natural disasters, making federal relief harder to access”. Politico reports that Lee Zeldin, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, has said that the Trump administration is “not going to set nationwide environmental requirements or recommendations for the rapidly growing data centre industry”. Chinese carmakers push deeper into Europe despite rising EU trade barriers Yu Cong and Ding Yi, Caixin China’s vehicle exports to the EU surged 30% year-on-year to exceed 1m for the first time in 2025, while remaining the bloc’s largest source of auto imports, despite Brussels’s “punitive tariffs” on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs), reports financial news outlet Caixin. Business news outlet Yicai reports that BYD’s chairman, Wang Chuanfu, expects the company to become the world’s largest automaker within five years. Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), said on Wednesday that China’s domestic auto demand has declined “more sharply than expected” and will likely remain under “heavy pressure” throughout 2026, reports Reuters. The Associated Press adds that “exports of new-energy vehicles, including pure EVs and plug-in hybrids, more than doubled in May from a year earlier”, according to CAAM. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reports that the EU has begun preparations for next week’s “blockbuster summit’, where the bloc will decide on the “future direction” of its China policy. However, expectations are “low” that Beijing will “give even an inch” on demands to “rein in its trade and industrial policies”, adds the outlet. The EU’s “three-supplier rule” is “blatant protectionism” and another example of the “politicisation and securitisation of economic and trade issues”, according to Chinese news outlet Science and Technology Daily. The state-supporting newspaper Global Times says that restrictions on Chinese “green machinery exports” are “slowing down green transitions and industrial upgrades” in other countries, adding that China’s new-energy machinery exports offer cost-effective solutions to an “urgent and tangible” global need. MORE ON CHINA A “breakingviews” commentary by Antony Currie for Reuters argues that China’s motivation for energy independence and the means to achieve emission reductions by cutting coal use will “drastically” speed up its decarbonisation. Guangming Daily says that China is addressing extreme weather events through “precise forecasting, advanced technology and fair cooperation” with other countries. Inside Climate News: “Driven by steel production, China’s belt and road construction carries a heavy climate cost.” People’s Daily says that China’s cancellation of the export tax rebate for solar panels will “push the sector away from extensive capacity expansion”. BJX News reports that China’s first “off-grid solar-powered hydrogen production project” without energy storage has “successfully” produced hydrogen. China has issued its “second batch of fuel export quotas” for this year at steady levels compared with 2025, despite existing export restrictions, reports Reuters. China has started “tapping its commercial crude reserves to help offset the supply shock from the Iran war”, according to Bloomberg. Comment We economists have done the maths: ‘growth’ is a doomed strategy – there is a better way  Olivier De Schutter, Joseph Stiglitz, Jayati Ghosh, Thomas Piketty, Kate Raworth and Jason Hickel, The Guardian Six prominent economists have penned a comment piece in the Guardian introducing their new “roadmap for eradicating poverty beyond growth”. They state that “poverty and inequality are not accidents” and that “growth has become decoupled from shared prosperity”. They continue: “We are edging towards a ‘hothouse Earth’, where rising emissions and biodiversity loss are destabilising the conditions that support human life. Around 92% of excess global carbon emissions can be attributed to the global north and the wealthiest 10% of individuals are responsible for nearly half of global emissions, while people in poverty are the first to face crop failures and rising food prices. An economic model that depends on endless expansion on a finite planet is not just unfair; it is dangerous.” They argue that a “just transition” must include measures such as “reparative climate finance”. MORE COMMENT Ravi Gurumurthy, chief executive of Nesta, writes in Prospect that the UK “has serious energy needs, which will only contribute to economic growth if the sources are cheap and secure”.  The Financial Times Lex column explains that “the conflict in Iran has yet to produce a major fuel crisis” because the “blow has been cushioned somewhat by surpluses built up before the war started”.  An editorial in the Washington Post, which is based on recent analysis published by Carbon Brief, argues that China has been “doctoring the data on its fossil-fuel emissions by changing what it counts”.  Prof Piers Forster and Dr Debbie Rosen from the University of Leeds outline the findings of the latest indicators of global climate change report in the Conversation, explaining that “Earth’s energy imbalance has doubled”. [See their guest post for Carbon Brief.] Outlets such as Euronews also cover the report’s findings. Scientists Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby and Richard Richels explain on the Climate Cafe substack why US gas prices are so high. Research Human-driven sea level rise has “nearly tripled” the number of days since the 1970s where coastal water levels have surpassed average tide gauge readings | Science Advances As the Arctic warms, increased iceberg activity could “reshape” deep-sea habitats and “elevate” navigational hazards as maritime traffic expands | Nature Around 11% of the population of the world’s “rarest great ape”, the Tapanuli orangutan, is estimated to have perished in an extreme rainfall event in Indonesia in 2025 | Current Biology Other stories Solar power hits new milestones in the US even as Trump boosts coal over clean energy Jennifer McDermott, The Associated Press Record winter temperatures in Antarctic raise fears over speed of climate breakdown Jonathan Watts, The Guardian Lee Raymond, Exxon CEO who doubted climate change, dies at 87 Joe Carrol and Kevin Crowley, Bloomberg Oil prices rise as US launches new attack on Iran The New York Times Shell CEO warns of global energy crisis as Middle East war continues Alex Ralph, The Times Climate change makes once-rare coastal floods more likely, study says Alexa St John, The Associated Press The Netherlands vs the sea: The race to hold back rising waters Radina Gigova, CNN The rightwing campaign to control how US judges view the climate crisis Dharna Noor, The Guardian Deadly Indonesia floods wiped out at least 7% of rare orangutan population, report says Ananda Teresia, Reuters The World Cup’s hottest disaster plan Jeva Lange, Heatmap News Once an Arab oil embargo victim, US becomes world’s top oil exporter Arathy Somasekhar, Reuters NYC, northeast face sweltering heat as World Cup matches begin Brian Sullivan, Bloomberg China is propping up the world economy by importing a lot less oil Rebecca Feng, The Wall Street Journal UK: Zia Yusuf cosying up to group behind ‘authoritarian' Project 2025 agenda Sam Bright, DeSmog Climate Action Tracker: Case for cleaner and more secure energy system has ’never been better’ Stuart Stone, BusinessGreen Comment: When is rare good news on climate science actually bad? When News Corp misrepresents it Graham Readfearn, The Guardian UN climate conference kicks off in Bonn – but not everybody is invited Liam Gilliver, Euronews GWEC: Global offshore wind capacity to quadruple in the next decade Stuart Stone, BusinessGreen Why India’s deadly dengue crisis is now no longer confined to the monsoons Tauseef Ahmad and Sajid Raina, Al Jazeera Vietnam allows coal miners to raise output to meet power generation demand Khanh Vu, Reuters This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Ayesha Tandon, with contributions from Henry Zhang and Anika Patel. It was edited by Leo Hickman. Forwarded this email? Subscribe for free. Carbon Brief Runway East, 18 Crucifix Lane, London, SE1 3JW, UK You are receiving this email because you subscribed to Carbon Brief's email marketing. Unsubscribe me