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Tiffanie Turnbull, BBC News
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor party has won a “landslide” victory in the country’s election, BBC News reports. The broadcaster says: “Albanese's centre-left government will dramatically increase its majority after the conservative Liberal-National coalition suffered a thumping defeat nationwide.” It reports that in his victory speech, Albanese addressed issues including climate change and energy, adding that he promised to “do more to address climate change and protect the environment”. CNN says that Albanese first took office in the “so-called ‘climate election’ of 2022, with promises to cut Australia’s carbon emissions and reach net-zero by 2050”. France 24 says the election was “shaped by living costs, climate anxiety and US president Donald Trump's tariffs”. According to the Times, however, climate change was “rarely mentioned” in the campaign. Net Zero Investor says Albanese’s “decisive victory strengthens Australia’s climate policy outlook”. The Guardian says voters have “dealt a significant blow to the Greens, with the minor party on track to lose several MPs”. A second Guardian story says the Greens “blame poor election showing on Liberal vote collapse and targeted attack from rightwing groups”.
In related comment, Guardian Australia’s climate and environment editor Adam Morton writes that the country has “backed a rapid shift to renewable energy”. For the Conversation, Monash University’s Anna Skarbek and Anna Malos say the new government has “five huge climate opportunities”, including a new international climate pledge for 2035, a “firm plan” for net-zero and bidding to host the COP31 climate talks next year. Bloomberg says Albanese’s “next campaign is to secure COP31 climate talks” [in 2026]. For Bloomberg, columnist David Fickling looks at the “implausible plan to replace the government’s renewables-focused climate targets with a switch to nuclear energy” that had been put forward by the losing opposition leader Peter Dutton, who lost his seat. Another Guardian comment, by Flinders University researcher Intifar Chowdhury, says that “Gen Z want the government to address the big structural problems: housing supply, inequality and climate.”
Mehul Srivastava, Financial Times
The UN is “considering sweeping reforms…as it braces for even deeper funding cuts from the Trump administration”, the Financial Times reports, citing an internal memo. It adds: “The memo also suggested that the UN’s climate change arm be integrated into the environment programme. It mulled whether the COP climate change summits, which produced the landmark Paris Agreement [and] are attended by tens of thousands each year, ‘should be discontinued’ in its current form.” The newspaper continues: “The reforms would allow [UN secretary general António] Guterres ‘to go into the meetings and say – “Look, the UN is being proactive and is already creating efficiencies”’, said a person familiar with discussions around the review, which is called UN80. ‘What’s better – for the UN to make these changes now or be forced to make them when the money isn’t there?’ The UN said in a statement to the FT that the memo ‘is the preliminary result of an exercise to generate ideas and thoughts from senior officials on how to achieve the secretary-general’s vision” of making the UN “more effective and efficient’. The document was one of three “work streams” it is pursuing, the statement said.” Reuters, which first reported on the memo’s contents, says: “The memo contains a range of suggestions, some large, some small, some speculative, which, if all adopted, would represent the most sweeping reforms in decades.”
Meanwhile, the US is seeking to “weaken a global deal aimed at helping developing countries struggling with the impacts of climate change and other issues”, Reuters reports, citing an “internal UN document”.
Timothy Gardner, Valerie Volcovici and Leah Douglas, Reuters
There is widespread media coverage of the 2026 budget outlined by the White House on Friday. Reuters reports that the proposal to Congress suggests cutting $163bn in 2026 federal spending. It continues: “The White House said the energy budget proposal cancels more than $15bn in carbon capture and renewable energy funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law that former president Joe Biden, a Democrat, signed in 2021. It also proposes to cancel $6bn from that law for EV [electric chargers.” The newswire adds: “The budget is meant to lay out an administration's policies and what lawmakers ultimately adopt often differs from the White House request. It was not immediately clear how Congress would agree to cut funding approved in bipartisan law that is popular in many Republican districts. Congress would likely have to pass legislation such as rescissions or amendments.” Inside Climate News says: “Some of the largest percentage cuts are at EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], with a proposed budget of $4.2bn, down 55% from the current year, and the National Science Foundation, with a proposed budget of $3.9bn, down 56% from FY2025.” The Associated Press adds: “The proposal outlines $1.5bn in cuts to what it calls ‘climate-dominated’ NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] operations, research and grants, plus infrastructure and satellites. It says these are not aligned with the administration ending the Green New Deal, referring to the Democrats’ moonshot plan to combat climate change and shift away from fossil fuels.” Reuters says the EPA announced plans on Friday to “slash its budget by $300m in fiscal year 2026, reduce staffing to 1980s levels and dissolve its research and development office as part of a sweeping overhaul of the agency”. It adds: “Critics including the Union of Concerned Scientists said the staff cuts and changes in organisation of the EPA would force staff members to follow the political program of the president rather than scientific evidence.” The Associated Press reports that “some scientists and activists saw it as an attack on EPA’s Office of Research and Development, which has long provided the scientific underpinnings for EPA’s mission to protect the environment and human health”. The New York Times reports that scientists from the EPA’s research division will “disperse” to other divisions “where they among other things will be tasked with approving the use of new chemicals”. Separately, the New York Times reports that NASA would see a 24% cut in its budget under the White House proposals. The newspaper says the agency has proposed cancelling projects including “climate monitoring satellites”. The Guardian reports that alongside $163bn cuts in “discretionary non-defense spending”, the White House plan would boost the Pentagon’s budget by more than $1tn. NBC News, CNN, the MailOnline, the Financial Times, the Associated Press and E&E News also cover Friday’s announcement.
The Guardian reports that “the Trump administration has ordered the closure of 25 scientific centres that monitor US waters for flooding and drought, and manage supply levels to ensure communities around the country don’t run out of water”. Axios says: “Defense secretary Pete Hegseth says the Pentagon will no longer ‘do climate change crap’.”
Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press
The American Meteorological Society (AMS) and the American Geophysical Union (AGU) have said they will “try to fill the void from the Trump administration’s dismissal of scientists writing a cornerstone federal report on what climate change is doing to the US”, the Associated Press reports. The newswire continues: “Earlier [last] week, Trump’s Republican administration told about 400 scientists working on the National Climate Assessment (NCA) that they were no longer needed and that the report was being reevaluated. That report, coming once every four to five years, is required by a 1990 federal law and was due out around 2027.” The Guardian says the AMS and AGU “will work together to produce over 29 peer-reviewed journals that will cover all aspects of climate change including observations, projections, impacts, risks and solutions”. It adds: “According to the AMS and AGU, the collection will not replace the NCA but instead create a mechanism for important work on climate change’s impact to continue.” CNN reports that the announcement by the societies “is a solicitation for authors to contribute scientific studies that would have gone into the sixth NCA”. Bloomberg adds that a statement by the two groups called the effort a “first-of-its-kind special collection” of research on climate change in the US. NBS News, Reuters and the New York Times also cover the news.
Meanwhile, the Times reports that “France and the EU have jointly unveiled plans to spend hundreds of millions of euros on incentives for US-based scientists to move to Europe to escape President Trump’s funding cuts and his battles with academia”. The newspaper reports that the EU will allocate €500m and France an additional €100m “to attract foreign researchers”. It continues: “Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, accused the US president of a ‘gigantic miscalculation’ in making federal funding and tax breaks for American universities dependent on scrapping diversity policies.” Bloomberg adds: “French president Emmanuel Macron made a plea to US-based researchers who have been affected by Donald Trump’s policies to choose Europe…The French education ministry said in a statement it has created an online platform to facilitate relocation for those focusing on topics ranging from health, to climate, biodiversity, decarbonisation and natural resources.” The New York Times also covers the news.
Nate Raymond, Reuters
A group of Democratic state attorneys general have filed a lawsuit arguing that the Trump administration’s decision to pause all federal wind-energy approvals “is unlawful and must be blocked”, Reuters reports. The newswire continues: “The lawsuit seeks a court order declaring the indefinite pause unlawful and barring the agencies including the US Departments of Commerce and Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency from implementing Trump's directive.” The Associated Press reports that Trump filed the executive order “pausing approvals, permits and loans for all wind energy projects both onshore and offshore” on his first day back in office. It adds that attorneys general from 17 states and Washington DC “say Trump doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally shut down the permitting process, and he’s jeopardising development of a power source critical to the states’ economic vitality, energy mix, public health and climate goals”. The Guardian also covers the news.
In further US news, a Guardian “exclusive” says that “the expected amount of greenhouse gas emissions from active and planned projects in US oil and gas fields has jumped under Trump, after previously dropping under Biden”. Separately, the Guardian reports that “Puerto Rico has voluntarily dismissed its 2024 climate lawsuit against big oil…two days after the US justice department sued two states over planned litigation against oil companies for their role in the climate crisis”. Inside Climate News covers draft legislation released on Friday, which “cuts fossil fuel royalty rates, expands drilling on public lands and in the Arctic, reinstates canceled mining leases and cancels Western resource management plans that balanced conservation with development”.
James Murray, BusinessGreen
There is widespread ongoing media coverage of last week’s local elections in the UK, where the hard-right populist Reform party made big gains. BusinessGreen reports that Reform gained more than 500 councillors, the Liberal Democrats gained nearly 100 and the Greens gained 29. The outlet quotes Reform leader Nigel Farage using a victory rally in County Durham to say: “I would advise anyone who’s working for Durham county council on climate change initiatives, or diversity, equity and inclusion, or thinks they can go on working from home, I think you had all better really be seeking alternative careers very, very quickly.” The Guardian also covers Far | 