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Christine Chen and Helen Clark, Reuters
Reuters reports: “An Australian community group has won the first climate change case to come before the country's top court, with judges upholding a decision to block a two-decade extension of a coal mine in the state of New South Wales.” The newswire says MACH Energy’s request to extend the mine would have allowed the company to “extract an additional 406m tonnes of coal”. ABC News says the “landmark ruling” means that “planning authorities are required to consider the emissions caused by burning fossil fuels overseas when approving projects”. A lawyer from the representatives of the community group that brought the original case tells the Guardian: “Given that Australia is the second-largest exporter of coal in the world, this is a very significant judgment.” Bloomberg, Al Jazeera and others also cover the story.
MORE ON OCEANIA
Julian Wettengel, Clean Energy Wire
German government data shows the nation has missed its €6bn target for international climate finance, reports Clean Energy Wire. The outlet says Germany provided €4.7bn in 2025 for “climate mitigation and adaptation in poorer countries”. Oxfam’s Jan Kowalzig tells the outlet that missing the 2025 target is a “blow to the hard-won trust built with those countries”. German newspaper Taz reports that the target for 2024 had been met, with €6.1bn spent. It explains: “The decline is primarily due to significant budget cuts in the BMZ [Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development], which provides 85% of Germany's climate finance.” The story is also covered by Energiezukunft, Migazin and Table.Media.
MORE ON EU
Reuters: “EU to delay methane emissions rules for one year and no more, energy chief says.” The Guardian: “Poland’s ‘solidarity’ push for EU energy resilience in face of Russian aggression.” Ireland’s government cut the rate of carbon tax on home heating oil and gas and “shelv[ed] planned increases” in a “significant” policy reversal, reports the Journal. Reuters: “Thousands of European wind and solar power systems exposed online, Dutch researchers say.” Reuters reports that “abundant solar and wind” development in Spain and Portugal has “sparked a surge” in data-centre development.
Peter Hobson, Reuters
Reuters reports that delegates at the pre-COP31 meetings in Fiji said nations needed to increase emissions-cutting efforts to limit the effects of climate change. The newswire says priorities for the attendees – mostly from Pacific nations – include “making sure the target of limiting warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is honoured, despite projections from the UN that it will soon be exceeded”. Climate Home News reports: “Several Pacific leaders said they had been let down by the insufficient quantity, bad terms and slow speed of international finance to help them adapt to a warming climate that is bringing higher oceans, drought and more powerful storms to their shores.”
MORE ON PRE-COP31
Reuters: “Pacific's new climate fund gets $15m boost but remains far below target.” Reuters: “Pacific leaders watch Tuvalu reclamation effort ahead of UN climate meet.” The Guardian: “Australia faces summer of extreme weather, Anthony Albanese warns at pre-COP.” The Independent: “Trump making climate progress ‘more difficult’, warns former Australian PM.”
Anton L Delgado, The Associated Press
Risks to energy supplies in south-east Asia are “multiplying faster” than solutions to rising electricity demand, according to a new report covered by the Associated Press. The newswire says the International Energy Agency (IEA) report says nations in the region should share electricity and diversify power sources. It adds: “Countries face multiple hurdles, from territorial conflicts between neighbors to differing types of national energy markets.” The newswire quotes IEA executive director Fatih Birol as saying: “[South-east Asia’s] rising needs for energy to power its economic growth face challenges in an increasingly uncertain global energy landscape.” Al Jazeera reports that energy ministers in the region will meet this week to discuss energy security.
MORE ON ENERGY
The Financial Times: “Aramco weighs its options for Saudi Arabia’s growing gas surplus.” The Financial Times: “ExxonMobil looks to offshore projects in Trinidad and Tobago for next boom.” Power consumption in the US is due to rise to “record highs” in 2026 and 2027, “driven by AI-hungry data centres and electrification”, reports Reuters. The Financial Times: “Vitol chief warns of tanker shortage and risk of $200-a-barrel oil.” Reuters reports that Google has entered a “massive” power agreement with Constellation Energy in the US.
Philip Blenkinsop and Andreas Rinke, Reuters
France and Germany have urged the European Commission to implement “trade defence” tools to “strike back against countries that harm it”, such as China, with a focus on products such as hybrid vehicles, reports Reuters. It adds that the tools suggested include one to “limit companies' reliance on single sources” for inputs and one to “limit access to the EU single market for countries that undermine fair market conditions”. Bloomberg reports that the alignment between Germany and France gives the proposals “significant heft” ahead of next week’s summit of EU leaders. The Financial Times says the letter signals that France has won over Germany to its position that the EU should “do more to protect industry”, adding that France sees “green” technologies as “particularly important”. The New York Times runs an article titled: “The hidden policies that power China’s export boom.”
Meanwhile, an editorial by the state-run newspaper China Daily says that overcapacity cannot be “diagnosed by looking at a single country’s exports, still less by attaching a political label to them”. A Bloomberg editorial says that blocking Chinese companies in areas including electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage from the US market might “temporarily shield domestic producers” but risks US industry “falling further and further behind globally”.
MORE ON CHINA
The South China Morning Post says “China is accelerating ultra-deep oil and gas development to expand domestic supply amid global energy uncertainties.” Dialogue Earth: “A long and rocky road to ESG for Chinese overseas mining.”
Sanjeeb Mukherjee, The Business Standard
According to India Meteorological Department (IMD), the south-west monsoon season has ended with a “13% rainfall deficiency” which has “raised the spectre of higher food prices”, reports the Business Standard. It says the deficit is “the worst since 2015, the second-lowest since 2001 and the fourth-lowest” since 1901. The south-eastern state of Andhra Pradesh – which recorded a "53.4% rainfall deficit” – has declared 21 districts drought-affected, reports the Indian Express. Maharashtra is imposing a “10% water cut” on urban and rural areas, as well as directing industries to “reuse or recycle at least 30%” of the water they consume. The Indian railways have said they are “open to operating special water trains for drought-hit districts” in the state, reports the Economic Times, but “cannot find a source of water”. Meanwhile, the News Minute reports that the state of Karnataka has sought $700m in drought relief from the central government.
MORE ON INDIA
A new report finds “a clear partisan pattern in parliamentary questions” on climate change, with a “data blackout often act[ing] as a policy shield”, reports the Wire. The Indian Express reports that the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand has installed its first early warning system to monitor glacial-lake outburst floods. A Mongabay comment argues that India should not “view adaptation as a collection of engineering projects with a climate label” but as a “governance challenge that requires explicit attention to justice”. An editorial in the Indian Express says a new “[green energy] corridor” could be the “backbone of the next phase of India’s green energy transition”.
Pippa Neill, The Guardian
The Guardian reports that plans for a data centre by energy company Drax could produce “nearly double the emissions of all flights out of Gatwick airport each year”. The emissions would come from “burning 4.9m tonnes of wood annually” at the planned North Yorkshire site, explains the newspaper. It adds: “Campaigners say this would make it ‘one of the dirtiest data centres out there’.” However, the Times reports that the data centre has not received the required support to proceed. The newspaper says: “The Times understands the proposal for the Drax site has been rejected and that the council no longer has plans to support the project.”
MORE ON UK
Chancellor John Healey plans to “spend more than £1bn” on cutting energy bills in the budget, reports the Guardian on its frontpage, adding that “final decisions have not been made”. The head of oil firm Equinor says the UK could be seen as “uninvestable” if the government does not approve the Rosebank and Jackdaw projects, reports the Financial Times.
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