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Ashley Armstrong, Malcolm Moore and Rachel Millard, Financial Times
The owner of British Gas has reached a £20bn deal to buy gas from Norway over the coming decade, in what the Financial Times describes as a “sign that the UK will remain reliant on fossil-fuel imports as it winds down North Sea exploration”. Centrica will buy 5bn cubic metres of gas from Norway’s state-owned Equinor each year from this October until 2035, the newspaper says, adding that this is “equivalent to about 9% of the UK’s gas demands last year and enough to supply 5m homes”. The deal is “about half the amount it has bought annually over the past three years, but around the same as an earlier deal in 2015, the article notes. The Guardian says that the latest agreement “nod[s] to Britain’s net-zero agenda” because it “will include a clause that allows the UK to swap gas imports for emissions-free hydrogen from Equinor’s UK hydrogen plant”. The newspaper notes that the UK “currently imports nearly two-thirds of its gas requirements from Norway, although the UK’s demand for gas fell to record lows last year due to a steady rise in renewable energy output and increased power imports from Europe”. Commenting on the “landmark agreement”, Centrica chief executive Chris O’Shea said that “most people don’t appreciate just how much we rely on our friends in Equinor, friends in Norway, for energy security in the UK,” reports the Times. According to Reuters, O’Shea also said that Centrica is seeking support from the UK government to enable it to invest in its Rough gas storage site, which accounts for about half of the country’s gas storage capacity. He said Centrica will lose £100m operating the site this year and that, without support, its future is uncertain, the newswire says. It quotes O’Shea as saying: "If we don't have a regulatory support framework for Rough, then I can't see it surviving too much longer.” The Press Association and Bloomberg also cover the story.
Danielle Kaye, The New York Times
There is widespread reporting of the very public falling out between US president Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk and its impact on the share price of EV manufacturer Tesla. Investors in the company were “rattled” yesterday by the “escalating tension” between Trump and Musk, the New York Times says, causing the company’s stock to plunge and “wiping billions off” its market value. The newspaper explains: “The shares fell 14.3% for the day as Mr Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, ramped up his public criticism of the House Republican domestic policy bill, calling it an ‘abomination’. The tumble – the company’s worst day since March and its second worst since 2020 – wiped out about $150bn from Tesla’s market valuation.” Responding to Musk’s criticism of the bill on his social messaging service Truth Social, Trump posted: “I took away his EV mandate that forced everyone to buy electric cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!,” the Hill reports. The disagreement between the two “quickly turned nasty”, says the Associated Press: “After Musk said that Trump wouldn’t have gotten elected without his help, Trump implied that he may turn the federal government against his companies, including Tesla and SpaceX.” Trump posted: “The easiest way to save money in our budget, billions and billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon’s governmental subsidies and contracts,” the newswire reports. Reuters says that “openly feuding with Trump could pose multiple hurdles for Tesla and the rest of Musk's sprawling business empire”, particularly as “the US transportation department regulates vehicle design standards” and “would have a big say” in whether Tesla can mass produce self-driving cars. Al Jazeera quotes one Tesla shareholder, who says: “Elon’s politics continue to harm the stock. First, he aligned himself with Trump, which upset many potential Democratic buyers. Now, he has turned on the Trump administration.” The story is also covered by the Daily Telegraph, Forbes and CNN, while E&E News looks at what Trump and Musk “want from the Republican megabill”. In early reporting this morning, Reuters says that Tesla shares listed in Frankfurt have risen “after Politico reported White House aides have scheduled a call” with Musk in an attempt to "broker peace”.
In further coverage of Trump’s centrepiece tax and spending bill, Bloomberg says it would “dampen, but not quash” the expansion of clean energy in the US. It adds: “Wind, solar and storage capacity overall would drop by 10% by 2035 relative to a baseline scenario, the research firm finds. The bill would also result in 3.8m more tonnes of carbon emissions from the country’s power sector by 2050. The impact on wind power would be most severe, with new capacity shrinking by 35% and no offshore wind additions after 2028. Solar and energy storage capacity stand to fare better, falling 5% and 7%, respectively.” The bill would “kill subsidies that made home solar mainstream”, says Reuters.
In other US news, analysis by the Associated Press suggests that rollbacks of regulations at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would remove rules that “could prevent an estimated 30,000 deaths and save $275bn each year they are in effect”. Yale Climate Connections says that the latest US greenhouse gas inventory report – only made public because of a freedom of information request, despite usually being published by the EPA – shows that US carbon dioxide emissions fell by 2.3% in 2023. The Wall Street Journal reports that companies are “quietly water[ing] down climate claims in latest investor reports”.
Finally, in other coverage of EVs, Bloomberg reports on how Tesla is “being eaten alive by the Chinese rivals it inspired”. The Economist says that “China’s own government…is worrying about how cheap its producers’ EVs are”. And the Times reports on how Tesla sales are down in the UK, despite a rise in EV sales overall.
Colleen Howe, Reuters
China has already approved 11 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power plants in the first quarter of 2025, exceeding the 10GW approved in the first half of last year, Reuters says, citing a Greenpeace report. Gao Yuhe, climate and energy project manager at Greenpeace, warns that “approving a new wave of large-scale coal projects risks creating overcapacity, stranded assets and higher transition costs”, adds the newswire. Energy news outlet International Energy Net also covers the report, saying Greenpeace urged policymakers to “tap the full flexibility of ‘generation-grid-load-storage system’ by scaling distributed renewables, rather than treating coal-fired power as the ‘optimal solution’”. State broadcaster CGTN publishes a commentary by Yasiru Ranaraja, director of Belt Road Initiative Sri Lanka, saying China’s coal reliance must be overcome for its "credibility and effectiveness" in "environmental leadership” to be enhanced. Gas production in China’s “largest coalbed methane field” has reached over 3.6bn cubic metres, state news agency Xinhua reports. It adds: “As an unconventional natural gas, coalbed methane is considered a clean and strategic energy resource.”
Elsewhere, Chinese authorities have warned that “floods in northern China from June to August are likely to be more severe this year”, Reuters says, adding that, “as global warming picks up pace, the entire country has been roiled by extreme swings from record precipitation to wilting drought”. China’s shift to market-based pricing for renewables, which began on 1 June, has seen solar prices “weaken to below the levels registered at the start of the year”, industry news outlet China Energy Net notes. A report by Tsinghua University’s Institute for Carbon Neutrality predicts that “industrial emissions” in China will fall to 450m tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2060, down 95% from 2025, says China Science Daily.
Meanwhile, China’s vice premier Ding Xuexiang said during a visit to northern Shanxi province that, as a “major energy province”, it should “take the lead in promoting the clean and efficient use of coal…accelerate the construction of a new energy system” and “accelerate the ultra-low emissions transformation of key industries”, Xinhua reports. Legislators have also launched “onsite inspections” across the country to “promote…implementation of the energy conservation law”, Xinhua also says.
An arm of Chinese battery manufacturer Envision “has started production” in its new gigafactory in France, financial news outlet Caixin reports, with French president Emmanuel Macron attending the inauguration. The US state of California is continuing with “ongoing partnerships” with Chinese provinces on climate policies, state-run newspaper China Daily reports. China has exported “more solar panels to Pakistan than to many G20 nations”, Pakistani financial newspaper Business Recorder says. China’s pledge of $14m in funds for the “Africa solar belt programme” shows its commitment to Africa’s “green finance”, writes Mercy Teduku of the Africa-China Centre for Policy and Advisory in Ghanaian news outlet Modern Ghana.
Anna Gross, Jim Pickard and Rachel Millard, Financial Times
The UK government is poised to confirm that the “vast majority” of new-build homes in England will need to have solar panels on their roofs, reports the Financial Times. According to “Whitehall figures”, the newspaper says that an announcement could come as soon as today that the flagship £13.2bn “future homes standard” will require all new-build homes to have solar panels and low-carbon heating, such as heat pumps. Speaking to BBC News, Miliband described the move as "just common sense". The article explains that the last Conservative government “consulted on new regulations including a proposal that new-build homes should have rooftop solar panels covering the equivalent of 40% of the building's ground area”. When asked whether the government would continue with the 40% figure, Miliband said: "The problem about the previous system was that it said you would have to have a certain percentage of coverage of solar panels, but if you couldn't achieve that percentage you didn't have to do anything at all…Under our plans, we are not going to say that. We are going to say, even if you can't hit 40%, you will still have to have some solar panels, except in rare exceptional cases." He said that the number of homes with solar panels had to be "much, much higher" adding: "It's got to be almost universal," the outlet says. The article notes that the rules will be included as part of the future homes standard, which “will be published in autumn”. The Press Association also has the story, while the Guardian has further reporting on the settlement reached between Miliband and chancellor Rachel Reeves, ahead of the spending review on 11 June, which means there will not be cuts to the government’s “warm homes” insulation plans.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports on warnings from “lawmakers and business leaders” that the country’s first industrial strategy for eight years will be undermined unless the government also announces measures to reduce high energy costs faced by companies. The newswire says: “Ministers have been working on the strategy, which will be presented along with a multi-year spending review due [next] Wednesday and highlight key sectors of priority to drive the Labour government's growth ambitions.” The Press Association also has the story, while Richard Tyler, editor at the Entrepreneurs Network thinktank, writes in the Times that high energy prices mean that the UK’s industrial strategy is “built on weakness”.
Elsewhere, the Press Association reports that UK farmers lost £1.19bn in income from arable crops last year following the extreme wet and stormy weather. This follows the newswire’s reporting yesterday on analysis warning that UK farmers could now be “facing another terrible harvest after the hottest spring on record and the driest conditions in decades”. BusinessGreen says that the UK’s crop harvest is “on a knife edge”. A third article from the Press Association says that “reservoir levels across England have fallen to new lows as swathes of the country struggle in the wake of its driest spring since the 1890s”. Reuters says that, according to the Environment Agency (EA), “reservoirs across England were only 77% full, compared with the average 93% for this time of year, although [the EA] noted that recent rain at the start of June was having a positive effect”.
In other UK news, the Daily Telegraph reports, on its frontpage, that Keir Starmer has “intervened” on suggestions that the UK could adopt “zonal pricing” for electricity. In recent days, it says, “No 10 officials have contacted industry chiefs to signal that the prime minister is overseeing the potential policy”. The article adds: “Downing Street is understood to have requested a further review of the costs and benefits – raising the prospect that the idea could be killed off or kicked into the long grass.” The Daily Telegraph reports that a local campaigner against the proposed Botley West solar farm – set to be the largest in the country – has written to King Charles to ask him to step in to block the project. The Financial Times’ “state of Britain” newsletter looks at why “doubts” are growing over the pace of the UK’s clean-power push. And, finally, BBC News reports that the new leader of Warwickshire County Council – representing the hard-right, populist Reform UK – has pledged to "dumb down" net-zero initiatives at the authority.
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