Newspapers are continuing to preview the king’s speech, which is scheduled for later today and will set out the UK government’s programme of proposed legislation for its final year in office. Legislation allowing companies to bid for new licences to drill for oil and gas in the North Sea every year will be “at the heart” of the speech, the Financial Times says. According to the paper, prime minister Rishi Sunak says the new bill will protect jobs and strengthen Britain’s energy security by reducing its exposure to international markers. It continues: “Claire Coutinho, energy minister, added on Monday that some of the revenue generated by the licences could help fund the transition to clean energy and other government priorities.” However, the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) has said that new licensing “will do little to reduce Britain’s dependence on imports or affect prices of oil or gas significantly, given that the basin’s reserves are in decline and the commodities are traded on international markets”, according to the paper. [Carbon Brief’s Simon Evans made a chart using NSTA figures, showing that gas production from the North Sea is set to decline by 97% by 2050 – or 95% if new licences are issued.] Separately, BBC News says: “Energy security secretary Claire Coutinho told the BBC the government’s plans for oil and gas licences ‘wouldn’t necessarily bring energy bills down’. Instead, Coutinho said the new licences would improve ‘security’ of energy supply, and raise tax revenues from oil and gas companies ‘that would help us for example fund public services’.” [A second Carbon Brief chart compares the maximum of 18 terawatt hours (TWh) of additional gas that would be produced per year, with new licences, to the 73TWh of extra demand that has been added by government decisions over the past decade, including blocking onshore wind.] Meanwhile, Bloomberg says: “Rishi Sunak watered down proposals to deregulate North Sea oil and gas extraction after UK civil servants warned that policy suggestions from the prime minister’s office would breach international law.” According to the outlet, Sunak’s aides asked officials at the department of energy security and net-zero for options to increase oil and gas extraction ahead of today’s king’s speech, including a proposal to remove some of the requirements for environmental assessments. However, it says that civil servants “responded to the request by warning that a radical deregulation of environmental standards would be a definitive breach of international law”.

Politico calls King Charles an “eco-warrior” and says he will “hate every word of his first king’s speech”. The outlet notes that the king’s speech is traditionally written by the government and read by the monarch in the House of Lords. The i newspaper quotes Ed Matthew, campaigns director at climate change thinktank E3G: “He’ll have no choice but to read out that bill and explain why the government says they need it…But ultimately as a champion of action to protect the UK and the global environment, he will know that increasing licensing of oil and gas in the North Sea sends a very damaging signal globally that the UK is watering down its climate commitments.” The i newspaper frontpage splash reads: “Green king forced to announce shredding of eco policy.” Separately, the Times quotes Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf, who said the new licences “fly in the face” of climate-change obligations. Elsewhere, the Guardian reports that around 20 bills will be included in today’s speech, which the Conservatives are expected to use to “try to open up key dividing lines with Labour on issues including net-zero”. As well as the North Sea legislation, other measures “are expected to prioritise motorists over the pursuit of reducing carbon emissions, including moves to make it more difficult for councils in England to introduce 20mph zones or clean-air schemes such as Greater London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez)”, the paper says. Reuters, Sky News, the New York Times and CityAM also preview the speech.

Elsewhere, the Times says that demand for new cars has overtaken pre-pandemic levels. However, it adds: “The data also suggests that Rishi Sunak’s decision to delay a proposed ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars has stalled the advance of electric vehicles. Total sales of battery electric vehicles were just shy of 24,000, or 15.6% of the market. That is lower than so far in 2023 as a whole, during which the sale of zero-emission cars has represented 16.3% of the market.” [The car industry data on which the article is based shows that EV sales grew by 20% year-on-year in the month of October, with their market share in the month climbing by 0.8 points.] The Daily Telegraph also covers the new numbers. Separately, the Times says campaigners have urged Britain to follow the lead of France and Norway by bringing in a weight tax on SUVs to bring down emissions. 

Meanwhile, the Independent reports that two Just Stop Oil (JSO) activists have been arrested for smashing the glass covering a painting at the National Gallery in London. According to the paper, the protestors “said their actions were to demand the government immediately halt all new oil and gas projects in the UK”. It adds: “The artwork has history as a site of political activism. In March 1914, the painting was first slashed by suffragette Mary Richardson using a meat cleaver, following the arrest of Emmeline Pankhurst. Speaking immediately after smashing the painting, [a protestor] said: ‘Women did not get the vote by voting; it is time for deeds not words. It is time to Just Stop Oil.’” The Daily Telegraph carries a video of the protestors in the National Gallery. The Guardian adds that at least 40 activists who were “slow marching” in Whitehall were detained after they laid down on the road and lined up on pavements along Whitehall. BBC News adds: “Tory party deputy chairman Lee Anderson said that JSO were ‘now stuck to the Cenotaph’ as he shared a picture on social media site X. The activists said they had been moved to the base of the monument after shutting down traffic on Whitehall, an account supported by one officer at the scene. The Met Police confirmed that there were no offences linked to the Cenotaph and no protester glued themselves to the road.” Sky News says that Just Stop Oil is currently carrying out a four-week campaign of demonstrations.

British Steel has confirmed that it will close its blast furnaces in Scunthorpe and replace them with two electric arc furnaces – one at Scunthorpe and one at Teesside – BBC News reports. According to the broadcaster, the new furnaces should be in operation by late 2025. It continues: “The department for business and trade said the proposals were part of a plan to put the UK steel industry on a greener, more sustainable footing for the future. A spokesperson said the government had offered ‘a generous support package including more than £300m of investment’.” The outlet adds that earlier this year, Indian-run Tata Steel announced it would close its two blast furnaces in Port Talbot and replace them with electric arc furnaces. Tata’s decision could result in 3,000 British jobs lost, while British Steel’s decision could cause a further 1,500-2,000, and “unions have already threatened industrial action over Tata’s plans”, the broadcaster says. It quotes Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, saying: “The Conservatives are presenting a false choice…Other countries have shown that it is possible to transition to zero-carbon steelmaking and protect good steelmaking jobs for the future. We can do the same here.” The Guardian reports that the £1.25bn scheme is contingent on £500m in government support. The Financial Times notes that blast furnaces use coke to produce iron from ore, while electric arc furnaces melt down scrap and recycled steel and are “not able to produce some of the higher grades of steel required for certain applications such as carmaking”. Unions have warned that the decisions by Tata Steel and British Steel will leave the UK completely reliant on imports for primary steel and “dangerously exposed to international markets”, the paper says. It adds that British Steel said its plans would reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 75%. The Daily Mail, the Times and the Standard also cover the story. In a comment for the Daily Mail, columnist Alex Brummer writes under the headline: “Britain’s sprint to net-zero has dealt another devastating blow to the nation’s beleaguered steel industry.” Separately, the Guardian reports that arc electric furnaces use 87 times less coal than blast furnaces. It adds that news of the blast furnace closures have “prompted calls for the government to reconsider approval for a controversial Cumbrian coalmine that had been planned to supply the industry”. According to the paper, West Cumbria Mining plans to produce 2.8m tonnes of coking coal a year for use by steelmakers in the UK and EU, but the blast furnace closures mean that most of the coal would be exported.

Elsewhere, Politico reports that “business groups representing UK energy and steel sectors are looking nervously at a potential financial cliff-edge, when additional export costs are introduced through the EU’s carbon border tax” [from 2026]. It continues: “Industry bodies Energy UK and UK Steel are both now calling on ministers to avoid the cliff edge by tying the UK’s carbon price to the EU’s – which would involve ‘linking’ the emissions trading schemes (ETS) in the two jurisdictions. The bloc appears in no mood to wave through any such deal, however.”

In other UK news, the Guardian covers a new report which finds that the US and UK militaries “owe at least $111bn” in “climate reparations”. According to the paper, the report finds the two militaries have generated at least 430m metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent since the 2015 Paris Agreement, which it values at $11bn based on a “social cost of carbon” of $258 per ton. Elsewhere, the Press Association says that “UK imports have been linked to deforestation almost twice the size of Paris since the environment act was signed into law nearly two years ago, according to campaigners”. Reuters covers an announcement by the National Grid that it is speeding up the connection of up to 20 gigawatts of low-carbon energy projects to its electricity transmission and distribution networks in England and Wales. Separately, Reuters reports that Britain has given Virgin Atlantic permission to fly from London to New York later this month using 100% “sustainable aviation fuel” (SAF), “paving the way for a world first as airlines step up efforts to decarbonise travel”. According to the newswire, airlines are “pinning their hopes on SAF”, which uses waste such as cooking oil to reduce emissions by up to 70% compared to fossil fuels. Steph Spyro, environment editor at the Daily Express, says that costs have become a barrier to widespread SAF adoption, noting that SAF is several times costlier to produce than traditional jet fuel.

China’s top economic planner the national development and reform commission (NDRC) has issued a plan to develop pilot programmes for peaking carbon emissions in certain regions, reports the Chinese energy outlet BJX News. The plan proposes selecting “100 cities and industrial parks nationwide” to carry out pilot projects “in key areas including energy, industry, energy conservation, construction and transportation” for achieving carbon peaking, according to the outlet. It says the notice adds that the pilots will develop substantial plans to peak carbon emissions in their jurisdiction by 2025. Meanwhile, China’s national energy administration (NEA) revealed that in the first three quarters of 2023, newly installed solar capacity nationwide reached nearly 129 gigawatts (GW), a year-on-year growth of 145%, with installed capacity in Henan province exceeding 10GW, reports the industry site China Energy Net. Chinese business outlet Jiemian carries an interview with Liu Yiyang, deputy secretary-general of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA), who says that the recent price decline in the solar industry is beneficial for “technological advances, cost reduction and efficiency improvements”. The state news agency Xinhua quotes He Deyan, from Lanzhou University, as saying that the solar industry should “improve battery efficiency” and “reduce costs through innovation”. 

Another Xinhua article reports that China’s National Meteorological Centre (NMC) on Monday renewed “an orange warning for blizzards, the second-highest level, and a blue warning for cold waves, the lowest level”. According to the news agency, experts say that this round of strong cold air process has “widespread impact, with complex precipitation patterns involving rain and snow, as well as extreme snowfall events”. The state-run newspaper China Daily covers the same news, adding that some areas of north China will see “snow depth of 10-20 centimetres, with some areas reaching over 30 centimetres”. Bloomberg says that cold snaps in northeastern China are “disrupting harvesting of grains from corn to rice and bolstering prices”.

Separately, Chinese financial outlet Caixin reports that Saudi Arabia is looking to Chinese companies to strengthen its renewable energy industry. Xinhua reports that Qatar’s minister of state for energy affairs endorsed the country’s “growing cooperation with China in the energy sector”, including a recent liquified natural gas deal. Chinese energy outlet IN-EN.cn carries an interview with Simon Sharpe, former deputy director of the UK government’s COP26 unit, who says that “renewable energy, energy storage, and decarbonisation in carbon-intensive industries will be important areas for cooperation between China and the UK”. Finally, the Communist Party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily publishes a series of speeches made by members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a key advisory body to the government, on environmental protection. 

The Biden administration has announced progress on 15 “large renewable energy projects”, the New York Times reports. The paper continues: “All of the developments are on federal lands in the West, including a geothermal lease sale across 12 counties in Northern Nevada, a new transmission line west of Phoenix, and the completed construction of more than 800 megawatts of solar power in Southern California…The administration wants to issue permits for 25 gigawatts of renewable energy on public lands by 2025, enough to power about five million homes. It’s a target that could be surpassed if all the projects announced on Monday reach completion.” The Hill also covers the announcement.

In a comment for the Financial Times, Gina McCarthy, the first national climate adviser to the White House and a former administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, argues that health and climate change should be considered together at the upcoming COP28 climate talks. She writes: “For as long as I can remember, health has never been treated as a serious factor in the consideration of climate action or as a significant driver of climate investments, even though these challenges are inseparably linked and nothing is more important to us and our families than our wellbeing.” McCarthy notes that more than 99% of people are breathing air that exceeds the WHO air quality guidelines and says that clean air should be made “a core consideration in every country’s climate strategy”. She continues: “Today, it’s important to incentivise clean energy as a way to beat out higher-priced fossil fuels and reduce air pollution…While it makes sense to try to eliminate millions of premature deaths each year from air pollution, historically this battle has been chronically underfunded. Only 1% of international development funding ($17.3bn) and 2% of international public climate finance ($11.6bn) was expressly committed to targeting air pollution over the last six years for which full data is available…My hope is that we can find a way at this COP to live up to the Paris Agreement, by staying focused on ways we might invest in the clean energy transition, while taking steps to phase down fossil fuels. If we engage on all levels and include health experts to advance new metrics in the development and implementation of country strategies, we will succeed in creating the cleaner world we so desperately need.”

There is continuing comment in UK newspapers about new legislation to mandate annual North Sea licensing rounds, expected to be announced in the king’s speech later today. Guardian columnist Zoe Williams says: “The oil and gas licences themselves are nonsense. Sunak knows that…This policy has no concrete practical application. It is pure vice-signalling. This is not to say the Conservatives aren’t doing immeasurable damage to the net-zero pledge – they are managing that sabotage in other ways. On fossil fuels, though, it’s just posturing. That future you say you care about? We don’t, because we’re not woke.” A Daily Telegraph editorial says: “The Conservatives, belatedly but correctly, have reasoned that, while moving to a carbon-free future may be desirable, and probably inexorable, it is not going to happen within the unrealistic timescales set out by politicians in search of an easy headline. This country will still need oil and gas well past the 2050 target date for ‘net-zero’ to be achieved. The word ‘net’ is the key here since it does not mean an absolute end to the use of carbon fuels…While we continue to use gas and oil, importing it from overseas when we could be exploiting our own reserves is both hypocritical and risky.” The editorial calls Sunak’s expected legislation “pragmatic and realistic”. Separately, columnist Matthew Lynn writes in the Daily Telegraph that the move is “not nearly enough”. Lynn continues: “There’s no point in just ‘permitting’ investment in new energy supplies. We need to start encouraging it as well. If we don’t, we could end up even more dependent on unreliable and expensive foreign supplies…We should get rid of the windfall tax, and all the other levies that are imposed on the industry…We could even make new fields tax free for a decade.”

In other UK comment, Ben Kolosz, lecturer of renewable energy and carbon removal at the University of Hull, explains in the Conversation that abandoned oil rigs could be used to sequester CO2. Separately, Laura Lender and Grazia Todeschini, engineers at King’s College London, argue in the Conversation that “surging sales of large electric vehicles raises environmental red flags”. According to the piece, larger and heavier EVs require bigger batteries, which demand more raw materials and are more carbon-intensive to produce. Finally, an editorial in the Sun asks: “How can Prince Harry lecture anyone on climate when his own carbon use dwarfs average Brit?” 

A meta-analysis of more than 400 studies finds greater vulnerability to extreme weather events (EWEs) in native species than non-native. Comparing the responses of 187 non-native and 1,852 native species to extreme weather, the study finds that “terrestrial and freshwater non-native animals are only adversely affected by heatwaves and storms, respectively, whereas native animals negatively respond to heatwaves, cold spells and droughts in terrestrial ecosystems and are vulnerable to most EWEs except cold spells in freshwater ecosystems”. In addition, non-native animals typically displayed “low abundance in terrestrial ecosystems, and decreased body condition and life history traits in freshwater ecosystems” in response to EWEs, whereas “native animals displayed declines in body condition, life history traits, abundance, distribution and recovery in terrestrial ecosystems, and community structure in freshwater ecosystems”. An accompanying News & Views article says that “understanding the underlying mechanisms that shape how different species respond to EWEs is a crucial area for further research”.

New research into energy consumption and the release of mercury from “artisanal” gold mining Brazil’s Amazon rainforest finds that the practice has a “major environmental impact”. The researchers investigated the use of mercury and energy at 47 mining sites in Brazil’s Tapajós River basin – including “numerous mines that were operated informally or in some cases even illegally”. They find that artisanal gold mining “contributes to climate change through energy consumption responsible for the release of about 16,000kg of CO2 equivalent per kilogram of gold”.