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Jillian
Ambrose, The Guardian
The
United Arab Emirates has
announced it will complete a
new oil pipeline bypassing the
strait of Hormuz by next year,
reports the Guardian. Sheikh
Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed
Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi’s crown
prince, has “directed the UAE
state oil company to
fast-track the previously
undisclosed project so that
the pipeline can begin
carrying oil from the emirates
to the port of Fujairah by
2027”, the newspaper says,
adding: “The new pipeline is
expected to double the UAE’s
export capacity.” The UAE and
Saudi Arabia are the only Gulf
producers with pipelines that
export crude outside the
strait, notes Reuters. Al Jazeera,
Bloomberg
and the Daily Telegraph
also have the story.
Meanwhile,
energy minister Suhail Al
Mazrouei has said that the
UAE’s recent decision to
withdraw from the OPEC oil
cartel was “not based on any
political considerations”,
reports CNBC.
Posting on Twitter,
Mazrouei explained that the
move was a “sovereign and
strategic choice” based on the
UAE’s “responsibility as a
reliable energy supplier and
its unwavering commitment to
maintaining market stability”,
the outlet reports. Reuters
notes that Mazrouei said the
decision does not “reflect any
division between the UAE and
its partners”. Finally, Bloomberg
reports that India “will
partner with” the UAE to
“expand its strategic crude
and gas reserves”.
MORE
OIL NEWS
-
The
Canadian government and
the province of Alberta
reached a carbon-pricing
deal on Friday that “opens
the way for construction
of a new oil pipeline
starting as early as
2027”, reports Bloomberg
-
Ahead
of a G7 meeting of finance
ministers today, a senior
European official has said
that opening the strait of
Hormuz is of the “utmost
importance” to limit the
economic impacts of the
Iran war, reports CNBC.
-
The
New York Times
analyses the countries
“profiting from the war”
via their oil exports.
-
Iraq’s
new oil minister has said
that the country exports
10m barrels of oil through
the strait of Hormuz in
April, down from a monthly
total of around 93m before
the war, reports Reuters.
-
The
New York Times
reports that “oil prices
climb on fears of broader
energy crunch”, while the
Financial Times
says that the “energy
crisis enters [a] new
phase as peak summer
season approaches”.
-
A
Bloomberg
explainer asks whether
Cuba’s regime can
“survive” as the country
runs out of diesel and
fuel oil.
Josh
Wingrove, Bloomberg
US
president Donald Trump has
said that he stopped short of
asking China’s Xi Jinping to
pressure Iran to reopen the
strait of Hormuz during their
summit last week, reports
Bloomberg. Speaking to
reporters on Air Force One,
Trump said: “I think he will.
I think automatically he’d
like to see it opened up…I’m
not asking for any favours,
because when you ask for
favours you have to do favours
in return. We don’t need
favours,” the outlet reports.
Trump said the pair did
discuss lifting sanctions on
Chinese companies that buy
Iranian oil and that he is
“going to make a decision over
the next few days”, reports Reuters. CNBC also
has the story. At the same
time, the Trump administration
has allowed a waiver that
encouraged sales of Russian
oil to lapse, says Bloomberg.
BBC News
and Bloomberg
both report on Trump’s
comments that the “clock is
ticking” on peace talks with
Iran, which have caused oil
prices to rise.
Meanwhile,
rightwing outlets report on
Trump’s social-media post on
Saturday that declared “good
riddance” to a scenario of
very high emissions that has
been used in reports by the
Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC). Fox News,
the climate-sceptic US media
outlet, says the scenario,
known as RCP8.5 and later as
SSP5-8.5, is “being phased out
after researchers concluded it
no longer reflects the most
plausible trajectory based on
renewable energy growth,
emissions trends and climate
policies”. The New York Post
misleadingly claims that the
IPCC “had quietly adjusted”
its framework of emission
scenarios. Elsewhere, the
climate-sceptic Australian
has similar reporting. [The
new scenarios, which are not
created by the IPCC itself,
were developed by researchers
ahead of the next phase of
global climate modelling,
known as CMIP7, which will
feed into the next IPCC
assessment reports. For more
on the RCP8.5 scenario, see Carbon Brief’s
explainer.]
MORE
ON US
-
The
Guardian:
“Experts sound alarm as
North America’s bees start
swarm season unusually
early.”
-
A
New York Times
long-read reports from
Isle de Jean Charles in
Louisiana on a “cautionary
tale” of climate
migration.
-
US
wind and solar projects
are at risk “as tax
credits expire”, reports
the Financial Times.
-
The
New York Times
reports on startup
companies “drilling for
hydrogen” in the US.
-
Time: “The
US still doesn't have an
answer to China's EV
dominance.”
Kate
Ferguson, The Sun on Sunday
UK
chancellor Rachel Reeves is
expected to announce this week
that the government will
postpone the end of a
temporary 5p fuel-duty cut,
reports the Sun on Sunday.
Reeves is “poised to make the
announcement as part of her
plan to ease the cost of
living crisis in the wake of
the Iran war”, the article
says. The fuel-duty cut –
introduced in 2022 – was
expected to end in September,
the newspaper notes, adding:
“It is politically toxic to
increase fuel duty. The tax
has been frozen for 15 years.”
Picking up on the story, Bloomberg
notes that the Sun on Sunday
does not say “where it got the
information”, while Reuters
quotes a spokesperson from the
Treasury, who said: "We do not
comment on speculation." The Times,
which puts the story on its frontpage
today, says the formal
announcement will come on
Thursday. It adds that the
move is expected to cost
£2.4bn. The Daily Telegraph
also features the story on its
frontpage.
[Carbon Brief
analysis has shown how
successive freezes in fuel
duty have substantially
increased the UK’s CO2
emissions and cost tens of
billions in lost tax revenue.]
Meanwhile,
a group of climate and
transport campaigners have
called for the UK to lower
speed limits and ban private
jets and short-haul flights in
order to avoid a “fuel
crisis”, reports the Guardian.
The Financial Times
says that “European airlines
and oil refiners are growing
more confident the continent
can avoid outright jet fuel
shortages this summer after
plants maximised output,
boosted imports and
governments tapped strategic
reserves”.
MORE
ON UK AND IRELAND
-
More
than 100 new datacentres
in the UK plan to burn gas
to generate electricity,
reports the Guardian,
with “some potentially
doing so permanently”.
-
The
UK government has “walked
back a promise to banish
forced labour” from the
supply chains of its
flagship clean energy
company, GB Energy, says Politico.
-
Experts
on the UK animal welfare
committee have warned that
the “current spotlight” on
reducing carbon emissions
risked “negative
consequences for animal
welfare”, reports the Sunday Times.
-
Greater
Manchester mayor Andy
Burnham has suggested that
renationalising the energy
and water sectors would be
a key policy, if he
succeeds Keir Starmer as
prime minister, reports
the Guardian.
-
In
an interview with the Sunday Times,
Ryanair’s climate-sceptic
CEO Michael O’Leary has
criticised the Irish
government for “banning
fracking and banning
nuclear power”. On
handling fuel protests,
O’Leary says: “f***ing
arrest them and impound
their f***ing tractors”.
-
The
Daily Telegraph
reports on how installing
a domestic battery will
help “beat a £300 surge in
energy bills”, and also that
energy secretary Ed
Miliband has “approved a
huge wind farm off the
coast of Suffolk”.
Hou
Liqiang, China Daily
Simon
Stiell, executive secretary of
the UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC), has
said during a speech in
Beijing that China’s “climate
leadership is more important
than ever”, adding that the
country’s leadership in
climate multilateralism has
“roughly halved projected
global temperature rise over
the past decade”, reports
state-run newspaper China
Daily. Stiell tells the
Shanghai-based Paper that
the more China does to
accelerate “domestic climate
action and energy transition
effort”, the “greater momentum
it can generate for global
action”. Other countries
should follow China’s path to
a “green transition”, as the
Iran war “shows the
vulnerability of a fossil
fuel-based economy”, reports Bloomberg,
citing Stiell. Stiell’s
comments “reflected broader
international anxieties over
energy security and the need
for stable, long-term climate
cooperation”, according to Lin
Boqiang at Xiamen University,
says state-supporting
newspaper Global Times.
Meanwhile,
Financial Times
says that Stiell’s visit to
China and his praise of
China’s global climate
leadership has come as the
country is “braced for extreme
rainfall to batter large parts
of the country in the coming
days”. China Daily
reports that the country has
activated a level-IV emergency
response to flooding in
Guangdong and Guizhou
provinces amid forecasts of
heavy rainfall that is
expected to “affect a wide
area and bring intense
rainfall to some regions”. New
research led by Chinese
scientists suggests that if
carbon emissions continue to
rise, “compound extreme
climate events” will become
more common, adding that the
current target aimed at
limiting global warming to
1.5C and 2C may need to be
“further reduced”, reports
state-run news agency China News
Service.
MORE
ON CHINA
-
Reuters
reports that US trade
representative Jamieson
Greer has said that China
still “drags its feet with
some export licenses” for
rare-earth exports.
-
Chinese
president Xi Jinping has
called for China to foster
new growth engines in
areas including “green
environmental protection”,
according to Xinhua.
-
A
China Daily
editorial says EU
“protectionist actions” in
low-carbon sectors have
“prompted China to review
its economic relations
with the bloc”. Global Times
says a German official’s
call for a “more pragmatic
approach to cooperation”
with Chinese EV makers
“deserves consideration”
by the EU.
-
HSBC
has launched a dedicated
$4bn credit facility to
support the global
expansion of Chinese
companies involved in
sustainable and transition
technologies including
clean power, data centres,
electric vehicles and AI,
reports Reuters.
-
Bloomberg:
“China burns more fossil
fuels for power as coal
production slips.”
-
Shanghai
Securities Journal
reports that global orders
for Chinese-made
transformers have surged,
driven by “power grid
renovation” and energy
transition. Yicai says
power retail companies in
several Chinese regions
saw millions of yuan in
losses.
Anna
Bawden, The Guardian
A
group of “leading
international experts” has
said that climate change
should be declared a global
public health emergency by the
World Health Organization
(WHO), reports the Guardian in
an “exclusive”. A report by
the independent pan-European
commission on climate and
health, which was convened by
the WHO, has concluded that
climate change is such a
worldwide threat to health
that the WHO should be deemed
“a public health emergency of
international concern”
(Pheic), the newspaper
explains. The report was
presented to European
ministers yesterday ahead of
the WHO’s world health
assembly, which starts today,
the article says. It adds:
“Pheics are the highest level
of health alert. Previous
declarations include
infectious diseases such as
Covid and Mpox. While
declaring one would not on its
own reverse climate change, it
would trigger the kind of
coordinated international
response that the scale of the
health crisis demands but has
not yet materialised.”
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