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Alison Withers, Reuters
“Almost 90% of satellite-detected methane leaks flagged to governments and oil and gas companies are not being acknowledged,” Reuters reports. The newswire says that the International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) “got a 12% response rate from 3,500 alerts from leaks detected across the oil and gas sector…marking limited progress from last year's response rate when only 1% of alerts resulted in action to prevent them”. According to Bloomberg, there were “25 instances of operators cutting emissions as a result of IMEO alerts”. It adds: “Countries like Yemen, Argentina and Oman have achieved 100% or near 100% response rates, which has translated into major emissions cuts, according to IMEO head Giulia Ferrini. The agency has trained roughly 2,000 engineers, asset managers, regulators and policymakers from 40 countries on how to use the data.” The New York Times notes that four years ago, more than 100 countries pledged to cut global methane emissions by 30% by 2030. It says that according to the report, “the world is not moving quickly enough” to achieve this goal.
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YaleE360 reports that “the five biggest meat and dairy producers are generating more methane than the five largest oil and gas companies”, according to a separate report. DeSmog adds that according to this report, “the 45 largest meat and dairy corporations in the world were responsible for more than 1bn tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions in 2023”.
Andrew Roth, The Guardian
The US has imposed sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, to put pressure on the country to “to negotiate an end to its war against Ukraine”, the Guardian reports. It continues: “The British government sanctioned Rosneft and Lukoil last week. The EU has sanctioned Rosneft, the Russian state-owned oil company, but not Lukoil, which is privately owned, largely due to exemptions for Hungary and Slovakia, which buy Russian oil.” Reuters says: “The sanctions are a major policy shift for Trump, who had not put sanctions on Russia over the war and instead relied on trade measures.” BBC News reports that the sanctions “came one day after Trump said a meeting planned with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Budapest would be shelved indefinitely”.
Reuters reports that oil prices jumped 3% today. Bloomberg says the sanctions are “sending shockwaves deep into the heart of China’s oil industry”. The outlet notes that around 20% of China’s crude imports come from Russia. It continues: “The risk for China as well as India, Russia’s biggest customers, lies in their dealings with sanctioned entities, which can leave companies exposed to crippling secondary penalties.” Reuters says: “Indian state refiners are reviewing their Russian oil trade documents to ensure no supply will be coming directly from Rosneft and Lukoil.” Sky News, the Wall Street Journal and Al Jazeera also cover the news
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Bloomberg reports that the EU has “adopted a new package of sanctions targeting Russia’s energy infrastructure”, including “tighten[ing] a transaction ban on two major Russian oil companies” and “sanction[ing] 117 additional so-called shadow fleet vessels, which have enabled Russia to evade previous measures”. Politico reports that “the Trump administration plans to propose opening federal waters in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to offshore drilling”.
Oliver Milman and Andrew Witherspoon, The Guardian
The first half of 2025 was “the costliest on record for major disasters in the US”, with 14 “separate weather-related disasters that each caused at least $1bn in damage”, the Guardian reports. The newspaper says that non-profit Climate Central carried out the analysis, because the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had stopped doing so after 45 years. It explains that the Trump administration “retired” the NOAA dataset in May, citing “evolving priorities, statutory mandates and staffing changes”. It continues: “Information on billion-dollar disasters until the end of 2024 is still available, frozen, on NOAA’s website, but Climate Central has sought to extend this work, citing its importance as a barometer of the climate crisis as well as a planning resource for cities and states facing increasing dangers from extreme weather impacts.”
CNN reports that the database “was rebuilt and will be maintained by its previous administrator Adam Smith, a former economist at the NOAA”. The New York Times notes that “more than half of the costs from extreme weather so far this year stem from the wildfires that tore through Los Angeles in January”. Bloomberg reports that “the US saw more than $101bn in losses from severe storms and fires in the first half of 2025, setting a record”. NBC News and Agence France-Presse also cover the story.
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The Daily Telegraph reports that BP has “abandoned” its proposed Beacon Wind offshore wind project after Trump “declared war on renewable energy”. According to the Times, the scheme would have been built off the coast of Massachusetts. The Hill says: “The Trump administration has sent a referral to the Department of Justice recommending Biden-era Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) staff face criminal charges, alleging politicisation of emergency funding.” The Guardian covers new data, which reveals “higher than average migration growth to the US from areas in Guatemala, Bangladesh and Senegal hit by repeated climate disasters”. The Guardian reports that Tesla “saw a precipitous drop in profit in its most recent quarter”, despite “record vehicle sales” driven by “a rush to buy electric vehicles before a US tax credit for them disappears”. Reuters and the Financial Times also cover the story. Yale Environment 360 says: “Offshore wind had been poised to take off along the East Coast, with about 30 utility-scale farms planned. But the Trump administration’s opposition to wind power has caused most of those projects to be abandoned, with only seven farms now moving ahead or in operation.”
Jim Pickard and Peter Campbell, Financial Times
The UK’s transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, “has launched a process designed to fast-track a new third runway at Heathrow”, the Financial Times reports. According to the newspaper, Alexander told the House of Commons yesterday that an updated Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS), which sets out the framework for future development at Heathrow, will be published for consultation by summer 2026. The document will be completed by the end of 2026, about a year earlier than expected, the newspaper says. The Guardian reports: “The updated policy statement will include Labour’s four key tests for proposed airport expansion – on climate, noise, air quality and economic growth – and be consistent with net-zero commitments, the Department for Transport (DfT) said.” The Press Associated adds: “[Alexander] said new environmental and climate obligations since 2018 mean an updated ANPS is necessary to allow a decision to be taken on expansion planning applications.”
Meanwhile, BBC News reports that a decision on which developer will build Heathrow’s third runway is due by the end of November. The broadcaster says that “two rival bids are under scrutiny: one from Heathrow Airport itself and another from the Arora Group, led by hotel tycoon Surinder Arora”. The Daily Telegraph also covers the news. Separately, Reuters reports that Heathrow airport “reported record passengers for the third quarter of 2025”. In related comment, the Daily Telegraph has an editorial saying that “no infrastructure project has been more debated or longer delayed”, adding inaccurately: “The Climate Change Committee, whose opinions must be taken as gospel, has questioned whether the expansion would breach the UK’s carbon emissions and net-zero obligations.”
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The Press Association covers a report by the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee, which it says warns that the UK government “should not ramp up the decline of Scotland’s oil and gas industry”, arguing that “jobs created in clean energy were failing to make up for losses in the North Sea”. The Press Association reports that if Scotland elects a Labour government, Ed Miliband will “invite nuclear bosses to Scotland” on day one, in a “push for new reactors”. The Daily Telegraph notes that “SNP ministers have used their planning powers to block the construction of any new nuclear plants north of the border over the past 18 years”. Politico reports that “[short-lived former prime minister] Liz Truss thinks Green Party could be Britain’s next official opposition”.
Kiran Stacey and Helena Horton, The Guardian
“Government insiders say Keir Starmer is prepared to miss his own target of removing almost all fossil fuels from the UK’s electricity supply by 2030 if doing so proves much more expensive than building gas power instead,” according to a Guardian “exclusive”. The newspaper continues: “The issue will come to a head within weeks as Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, decides how much renewable energy to commission for the next few years. Allies say Miliband is willing to buy less than experts say is needed to hit the 2030 target, if paying for them would push energy bills much higher than their current levels.” However, the article undermines its own headline with a series of quotes, including a “government aide” saying: “The prime minister made this the centrepiece of one of his missions. He is not going to drop it now.” It also quotes a government spokesperson saying: “The government is fully committed to delivering clean power by 2030 because it is how we deliver a system that can bring down bills for consumers.”
Meanwhile, the Tony Blair Institute [TBI] has published a new report calling for the government to “continue backing net-zero, but re-prioritise the government’s efforts to achieve clean power by 2030 towards growth and value for money”, the Press Association reports. It continues: “After a row erupted earlier in the year when the former prime minister claimed the current climate approach was not working, and limiting fossil fuels in the short term was ‘doomed to fail’, the latest intervention from the Tony Blair Institute takes care to distance itself from anti-net zero rhetoric.” The Financial Times covers the TBI report in a story trailed on its frontpage. It says the report “warned the policy [to decarbonise the power system by 2030] risked pushing up energy bills in the rush to build new wind and solar farms and said high electricity prices have become a drag on the economy”.
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