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Matt McGrath, BBC News
The UN climate talks in 2026 are set to be hosted by Turkey after a compromise deal was reached with rival bidder Australia, BBC News reports. It explains: “Australia has now agreed to support the Turkish bid in return for their minister chairing the talks…This unusual arrangement has taken observers by surprise. It is normal for a COP president to be from the host country and how this new partnership will work in practice remains to be seen.” The Guardian says “Australia’s climate change minister, Chris Bowen, is expected to lead climate negotiations at the summit”. It adds: “Bowen told journalists the unprecedented deal could involve a pre-COP31 event on a Pacific island…Turkey assuming the COP presidency as hosts and Australia being appointed ‘president for negotiations’. Observers said in practice it could mean the Turks were effectively event managers, including for the world’s largest green technology trade fair, while Australia led the talks on how to combat the climate crisis.”
Agence France-Presse says “Pacific islanders decried on Thursday a wasted chance to draw eyes to their climate troubles”, having been due to have co-host the COP31 talks with Australia. A second Guardian article reports: “Papua New Guinea ‘not happy’ as Australia walks away from bid.” Politico, France24, the Associated Press and Reuters also have the story.
Lisandra Paraguassu and Kate Abnett, Reuters
Host nation Brazil “failed to land an early COP30 climate deal on Wednesday”, Reuters reports, adding that president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva “remained upbeat about the prospects of progress in the last two days of the summit”. The newswire continues: “The Brazilian hosts…had hoped to secure approval for a deal covering some of the most divisive issues in the global climate talks, including fossil fuels and climate finance…but a promised revised deal text did not materialise on Wednesday and was now not expected until Thursday.” The Financial Times says Lula “has single-handedly attempted to resolve geopolitical tensions at the UN’s COP30 climate summit”. It continues: “Lula held back-to-back meetings with a range of ministers and envoys on Wednesday, including from Saudi Arabia, Germany, the EU, Indonesia and hurricane-hit Jamaica, in a push to end the deadlock on key negotiations.” The Associated Press and Economic Times also have the story. Agence France-Presse story says “nations ‘still far’ from deal”.
The Guardian reports: “Divide over fossil-fuels phase-out can be bridged, COP30 president says.” Climate Home News says the EU has “has put forward a proposal for a ‘mutirão’ roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels, after hesitation from Italy and Poland had earlier prevented the bloc from adopting a united position”. The Print says Lula met with Indian environment minister Bhupender Yadav “to discuss fossil-fuel roadmap”. The Hindustan Times says talks on a fossil-fuel roadmap “take centre stage at COP30”.
Agence France-Presse reports: “Countries have to phase out fossil fuels at their own pace, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said at the COP30 climate summit Wednesday, where he had days earlier called for a ‘roadmap’ away from oil, gas and coal.” Bloomberg says “senior officials within the host nation’s government are divided” over the idea of a fossil-fuel roadmap. BusinessGreen says “scores” of businesses are supporting a fossil-fuel roadmap. Context asks if renewables are “ready” to replace fossil fuels. Climate Home News: “As fossil fuels dominate Amazon COP, a roadmap to end deforestation falls behind.”
MORE ON COP30
Agence France-Presse reports that “conservative delegations from the Vatican to Iran are pushing to narrow the definition of ‘gender’ at UN climate talks in Brazil”. Reuters says Germany is to contribute €1bn to Brazil’s “Tropical Forests Forever Facility”. The Wall Street Journal reports on the “challenge” of getting funding. According to Le Monde, COP30 has made “tentative progress on methane”. The UN carbon market under Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement “hit a snag” at COP30, “where governments are struggling to resolve a dispute over funding to get the market up and running, five sources told Reuters”. Climate Home News: “‘Biofuels COP’ stirs debate on how to clean up cars where EVs are tricky.”
Jonathan Watts and Fiona Harvey, The Guardian
Wang Yi, part of the Chinese delegation to COP30, tells the Guardian that China “would like to do our best to steer in this kind of direction towards low-carbon or green transition”, but would not “like to play a leadership role alone”. Wang also “sa[ys] that progress on spreading green technology was being slowed by trade barriers”, according to the newspaper. Meanwhile, Politico reports that developing countries, including China and India, are pushing for COP30 to “effectively condemn” the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) as “protectionist”. Juan Manuel Santos, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, tells the Shanghai-based news outlet the Paper that China can serve as a “bridge” between the global north and the global south, providing clean energy technologies that developing countries “need most”. The Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily says that China has always played an “irreplaceable role” in advancing “climate finance negotiations” and advancing the “multilateral process”.
Elsewhere, Science and Technology Daily publishes an article under the headline: “US in no position to blame China on climate.” The “the daily” podcast by the New York Times discusses China’s role in global climate negotiations and clean energy exports in contrast to the US’ push to encourage the use of oil and gas. Dialogue Earth publishes an article by Lin Zi, director of its China programme, discussing how China can mobilise financial resources as it shifts from “passive response” to “proactive” climate adaptation.
MORE ON CHINA
Exports of China’s “new three” – lithium-ion batteries, solar panels and “new energy vehicles” (NEVs) – increased by 32% from a year earlier in October, Caixin reports. Forecasts expect that sales of electric trucks in China will reach “nearly 46%” of total sales this year and “60% next year”, the Associated Press says. China Electric Power News reports that the total number of EV charging points in China has reached 18.6m, according to the National Energy Administration (NEA). The Chinese government “approved a policy paper to expand the national mandatory carbon market [to include steel, cement and aluminium] via a test system”, says Bloomberg. Reuters reports that “China's first coal-to-chemicals project integrating green hydrogen” has begun commercial operations. Bloomberg: “China’s role in powering Germany draws scrutiny.”
Emily Gosden, The Times
The UK’s windfarms generated a record 22.7 gigawatts (GW) of power on Tuesday evening this week, the Times reports. The Press Association reports: “[The National Energy System Operator] NESO said Britain could hit another milestone in the months ahead by running the grid for a period entirely with zero-carbon power, renewables and nuclear.” Sky News also has the story. Meanwhile, in a story written by the newspaper’s policy editor, the Times reports on its frontpage the findings of “independent energy analyst” Ben James. It says his forecast shows that “Ed Miliband’s clean-power plan will add more than £150 to annual electricity bills by 2030, despite the falling price of wholesale energy.” The Times adds: “The government said that analysis over-estimated the future costs of decarbonising the grid and ‘ignored the benefits of clean energy’.” [Just-published analysis by energy consultancy Aurora forecast that electricity would fall by 2035 and that “Renewables are cost competitive on a system cost basis. Going back to gas power doesn’t cut bills.”]
MORE ON UK
BBC News: “Ford boss: 'Now is not the time to tax electric vehicles'.” The Guardian: “British Jews turn to Greens and Reform UK as support for main parties drops.” BusinessGreen: “New energy resilience strategy aims to protect assets from climate impacts and cyber threats.”
Sharon Lerner, The Guardian
As many as 1.3m more people could die from “temperature-related” causes due to the “extra greenhouse gases released in the next decade” due to the Trump administration’s policies, according to an analysis by the Guardian and ProPublica. The Guardian adds that the “vast majority” of the deaths linked to the US’ “agenda of expanding fossil fuels” will occur outside the US, particularly in the African continent and south Asia. It quotes Ife Kilimanjaro, executive director of the not-for-profit US Climate Action Network, calling the numbers “horrifying”. In response to the story, it says the US Environmental Protection Agency “rejected” the “mortality cost of carbon” – the metric used to calculate the additional deaths – as an “exercise in moral posturing, not rigorous science”. But according to the newspaper, climate scientists say the metric is “valid” and may underestimate the potential death toll.
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