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Magdalena Del Valle, Bloomberg
UN secretary general António Guterres has warned that it could “run out of cash by July…as the organisation continues to tackle a financial crisis largely fueled by overdue US payments”, reports Bloomberg. It quotes a letter from Guterres to member states saying that the body is facing “imminent financial collapse”. The Associated Press says the letter calls for UN financial rules to be “overhauled or [for] all 193 member nations pay their dues – a message likely directed at the US and the billions it owes”. It explains that the US “now owes $2.196bn to the UN’s regular budget” and another $1.8bn for peacekeeping operations.
Reuters says: “Guterres has repeatedly spoken about the organisation's worsening liquidity crisis, but this is his starkest warning yet and it comes as its main contributor the US is retreating from multilateralism on numerous fronts.” It adds: “US president Donald Trump has described the UN as having ‘great potential’, but said it is not fulfilling that and he has launched a Board of Peace which some fear could undermine the older international body.” Politico reports: “Trump, in a brief phone call with Politico, cast himself as the saviour for a UN in danger of financial collapse, touting his ability to get members to pay unpaid dues. But he declined [on] Sunday to say whether the US would make good on the billions of dollars it owes the international body.” [Last November, Bloomberg Philanthropies pledged to “cover the gap” at the UNFCCC, the UN’s climate change body, left by the absence of a US contribution, according to the Financial Times.]
Lisa Friedman, The New York Times
A federal judge has ruled that the US energy department “violated the law when secretary Chris Wright handpicked five researchers who rejected the scientific consensus on climate change to work in secret on a sweeping government report on global warming”, reports the New York Times. It says the report, which “downplayed the dangers of warming”, was later cited to “justify a plan to repeal the endangerment finding, a landmark scientific determination that serves as the legal foundation for regulating climate pollution”. The newspaper explains that a 1972 law “does not allow agencies to recruit or rely on secret groups for the purposes of policymaking” and that the judge found the department “did not deny that it had failed to hold open meetings or assemble a balance of viewpoints, as the law requires”. [Carbon Brief comprehensively factchecked the error-strewn report produced by the secret panel.]
Reuters says of the ruling: “A US federal court on Friday ruled the Department of Energy violated the law when it formed a climate science advisory group, potentially putting its forthcoming final proposal to repeal a key climate regulation at risk.” The newswire adds: “The endangerment finding repeal is under final review at the White House. It was initially supposed to be released late last year.” The Guardian reports on how “Trump’s EPA rollbacks could harm our air and water – and worsen global heating”.
MORE ON US
The Financial Times: “Ford has held talks with electric vehicle maker Xiaomi over a partnership that would pave the way for Chinese carmakers to gain a foothold in the US, according to four people familiar with the talks.” Heatmap News: “The Trump administration is now delaying renewable projects it thinks are ugly.” Vox: “More homes [in the US] may be in danger of wildfires than previously thought as wildfire threats grow…A new generation of models are revealing where fire hazards were underestimated.” Inside Climate News reports on geothermal under a headline calling it the “promising renewable energy that Democrats and Republicans actually agree on”. The Times of India looks at how Trump “got it completely wrong” when he claimed that the recent US winter storm showed global warming was a “con”.
International Energy Net
China’s energy-sector investments saw “rapid growth” in 2025, with investment in “key” projects exceeding 3.5tn yuan ($500bn) for the first time, reports energy news outlet International Energy Net, covering a National Energy Administration (NEA) press conference. An NEA official said investment in “new business models” in China’s energy transition accelerated, with investment in onshore wind rising 50% year-on-year and “doubling” in key new-energy storage and hydrogen projects, it adds. The official noted China’s renewable-sourced power generation exceeded the EU’s total electricity consumption, reports the Shanghai-based Paper. Another NEA official said China’s total installed capacity of “green hydrogen” exceeded 250,000 tonnes a year, double the 2024 figure, says finance news outlet EastMoney. International Energy Net cites a third NEA official saying China’s “green electricity certificate (GEC)” market “demonstrated robust growth in both volume and value” in 2025. Industry news outlet BJX News publishes the full press conference transcript.
MORE ON CHINA
China will “refine” capacity pricing for coal power and establish similar mechanisms for gas power, pumped storage and new-energy storage, reports Xinhua. Li Peng, manager at State Power Investment Corporation’s Energy Research Institute, says in BJX News that the new policy will “safeguard [the] survival” of these industries. Chinese premier Li Qiang told UK prime minister Keir Starmer that China and the UK should “deepen cooperation” in clean-energy industries and “safeguard multilateralism and free trade”, says Xinhua. EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra says countries must resist China’s pull in clean technologies, reports Bloomberg, adding cooperation with China is a “mistake”. The Chinese state-supporting Global Times newspaper says Hoekstra’s position could “undermine Europe’s own climate ambitions”. NEA head Wang Hongzhi has discussed “deepening cooperation in the energy sector” with Russian energy minister Sergey Tsivilyov, according to International Energy Net. International Energy Net says China’s efforts to curb “involution” have made steady progress, with polysilicon and wafer prices rising by 52% and 35%, respectively. China Coal Market reports that coal-fired power units “effectively shouldered” peak-load support and electricity supply this winter amid nationwide cold waves.
Nicholas Kusnetz, Inside Climate News
There is widespread coverage of the news that US president Donald Trump has nominated Kevin Warsh as the next governor of the US Federal Reserve. Inside Climate News says: “In a speech last year to a group of financial leaders that was broadly critical of the Fed, Kevin Warsh called climate change a ‘politically charged’ issue that the bank would do better to avoid.” The Associated Press carries a profile of Warsh that says he has, in recent months, “become much more critical of the Fed, calling for ‘regime change’ and assailing [current chair Jay] Powell for engaging on issues like climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion, which Warsh said are outside the Fed’s mandate”.
An editorial in the Washington Post says Warsh is “right that the central bank has lost its focus”. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal says “he is the right choice for a central bank that needs reform after a generation of exceeding its proper monetary remit”. Another Associated Press article says senator Elizabeth Warren, the highest-ranking Democrat on a committee that has the power to approve or reject Warsh’s appointment, “accused Warsh of reshaping his views to appease Trump ahead of his nomination”.
Preeti Soni, Bloomberg
In a speech unveiling India’s union budget on Sunday, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated $2.2bn to “ramp up the deployment” of carbon capture, utilisation and storage [CCUS] technologies, reports Bloomberg. It adds that the plan aims to mitigate emissions from “five heavily polluting sectors” over the next five years: power, steel, cement, refineries and chemicals. The budget announcement comes “[a]t a time when high-emission Indian industries are staring at the risk of facing the EU’s carbon border tax”, writes the Times of India.
From establishing “dedicated rare-earth corridors” in India’s coastal and mineral-rich states to “customs duty exemptions”, the budget “mark[s] a sharper push to build India’s critical minerals ecosystem”, reports the Indian Express. These corridors “are intended to integrate mining, separation, processing, research and manufacturing, reducing India’s dependence on imported rare-earth value chains”, explains Down to Earth. The Hindu Businessline notes that “over 45%” of India’s rare-earth mineral imports are from China. Sitharaman’s budget also hikes allocations to India’s coal ministry by a “whopping 640%”, according to the Economic Times. Last week, India classified coking co |
