Climate Focus

By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello!

Today’s newsletter focuses on the ultimatum given by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright to the International Energy Agency – stop net zero emissions goals or lose the United States as a member.

European countries played down the threat at the agency's biennial meeting in Paris and restated their commitment to pursuing cleaner fuel.

The Paris-based IEA was formed after the 1970s oil supply crisis and provides research and data to the U.S. and other industrialized countries to guide energy policy.

The U.S. has paid about $6 million (5.10 million euros) per year in IEA dues, out of a total agency budget of $22 million.

IEA Director Fatih Birol declined to comment on the mandate from the U.S. to remove the net zero scenario from the agency’s annual World Energy Outlook forecast, but said its data was respected globally as reliable.

For a bit of context, in 2015 the U.S. and nearly 200 other countries signed the Paris Accords, an international pledge to limit global warming by burning less oil, gas and coal, with a goal of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

It’s one of the many anti-environmental policies pursued by President Donald Trump’s Republican administration this week.

Trump has rejected international efforts to tackle global warming and sought to unfetter the development of fossil fuels and stymie the rollout of renewable energy.

On Friday, the Trump administration also announced that it will roll back air regulations for power plants limiting mercury and hazardous air toxics – a move it says will boost baseload energy but which public health groups say will harm public health for America's most vulnerable groups.

Trump's EPA has said that easing the pollution standards for coal plants would alleviate costs for utilities that run older coal plants at a time when demand for power is soaring amid the expansion of data centers used for artificial intelligence. 

Click here to catch up on Thursday's Sustainable Switch on the states that are pushing back against data centers due to pollution.

Have you got concerns about data centers in your area? Then feel free to reach out to me on Sharon.kimathi@thomsonreuters.com or find me on LinkedIn here.

Four years after a record drought devastated northern Kenya, failed rains are once again causing starvation. Kenya's National Drought Management Authority said in December last year that more than nine counties in the country –  mostly concentrated in the north and the east – were facing emerging drought conditions, which could sharply affect food security, water access and pasture availability.

A search crew snowmobile is parked at Alder Creek Adventure Center, to try to locate a group of missing skiers. Truckee, California, U.S. REUTERS/Jenna Greene 

Eight backcountry skiers were confirmed killed and a ninth was presumed to have perished in California's Sierra Nevada mountains in the deadliest U.S. avalanche in 45 years, authorities said.

The rescuers themselves faced life-threatening conditions, with the risk of further avalanches still high after a winter storm dropped several feet of fresh, unstable snow in recent days.

This week, heavy snow and rain across Romania left 200,000 homes without electricity across 266 towns, Energy Minister Bogdan Ivan said. Roads were blocked and dozens of trains were delayed in the capital, Bucharest, which was struggling under 40 cm (16 inches) of snow. 

Australia's environment ministry said that U.S. aluminum company Alcoa will have to pay A$55 million ($38.9 million) to remedy the native forest it illegally cleared in Western Australia to mine bauxite, without seeking government approvals. Alcoa said it operated in accordance with Australia's laws while agreeing to the payment to acknowledge its historical clearing.

Environmental group Extinction Rebellion said it is under federal U.S. investigation and that some of its members have been visited by FBI agents, including from the agency's task force on extremism, in the last year. The FBI said it can neither confirm nor deny conducting specific investigations, citing Justice Department policy.

Click here for a story on loggerhead turtles that nest in Cape Verde arriving earlier than usual as the waters in the Atlantic warm. While researchers thought the change seemed promising, a larger issue has emerged.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2025 Arctic Report Card confirmed that October 2024–September 2025 was the warmest period since 1900, and the region continues to warm more than twice as fast as the global average. Click here for the full Reuters article.

That’s the amount the Spanish government approved in financial aid for people affected by the storms that battered the Extremadura and Andalusia regions in the past weeks.