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Grant Smith, Bloomberg
China’s oil demand is expected to peak in 2027, two years earlier than previously forecast, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Bloomberg reports. The outlet continues that the IEA says China’s “extraordinary” domestic sales of electric vehicles (EVs), high-speed rail and gas-fueled trucks will “help displace crude oil”. Global oil demand growth, meanwhile, will “slow to a ‘trickle’ [over] the next few years, with consumption at a maximum of 105.5m barrels a day in 2029…It would then decline slightly the following year”, the outlet adds. The Times covers the news under the headline: “China nears peak oil demand amid ‘extraordinary’ EV sales.” The Daily Telegraph says China is “weaning itself off oil as drivers turn to electric cars”. Reuters says global demand “will keep growing until around the end of this decade despite peaking in top importer China in 2027”. Nikkei Asia quotes the IEA saying the peak in China’s demand marks a “fundamental transformation” of the global energy market.
In other China developments, state news agency Xinhua reports that China and Europe are “forging ahead with deeper cooperation” in areas such as “clean energy deployment”, which helps build “regional resilience” and support “global climate ambitions”. China Environment News reports that Huang Runqiu, head of China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), told EU counterpart Jessika Roswall in Belgium that, facing “multiple challenges in environmental and climate governance”, there is a “greater need” to strengthen cooperation.
Elsewhere, Bloomberg reports that the Chinese government is loosening import regulations on battery and steel scrap, a move that will “support recycling of battery metals and help speed the green transition in the steel market”. Reuters reports that thinktank the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) says Chinese automakers are “rapidly pulling ahead in the global zero-emission vehicle market”. The climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph has a column titled: “China’s electric car revolution is eating itself.”
Sanjay Dutta, The Times of India
Covering the same IEA report on the oil market, the Times of India says that India’s “thirst for oil will rise more than any other country” over the next five years and make it “the main driver of global [oil] demand growth”. This demand will grow at a “relatively fast rate”, it continues, as “changing spending patterns, urbanisation and industrialisation make India’s economy more energy-intensive.” The story notes that 85% of India’s oil demand is currently met by imports and this “[h]igher dependence will weigh [on] the country’s energy security at a time when the global oil market is in turmoil”. However, the newspaper adds that India “has charted a multi-pronged path” to reduce its oil import dependence, focusing on “raising domestic production, tapping unconventional sources such as biogas and ethanol, speedy electrification and a thrust on expanding renewable energy capacity”. At the same time, Indian Express analysis of tanker data finds that “47% of crude oil imported by Indian refiners in May” is likely to have passed through the Strait of Hormuz that Iran is considering closing amid the ongoing conflict with Israel, adding that the “importance of the chokepoint for India’s energy supply and security cannot be understated”. Separately, the country’s oil and gas minister, Hardeep Singh Puri, is quoted by ANI as saying that India has the potential for “several Guyana[-sized]” energy reserves in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Meanwhile, the Economic Times quotes union road transportation minister Nitin Gadkari as saying “bioenergy has the potential to replace up to 50% of India's fossil fuel consumption” in the next five years, adding that the shift was “not only environmentally essential but economically strategic”. According to new research by New Delhi thinktank Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), India’s total vehicle stock “is expected to more than double” to 500m by 2050, with two-wheelers accounting for nearly 70% of that total, another Economic Times story reports. It adds that while electric vehicles are already “cost-competitive” in the two and three-wheeler segments, “diesel is likely to remain the dominant energy source for India’s transport sector”, with diesel demand expected to peak only in 2047 under a business-as-usual scenario.
In other energy news, the Associated Press covers a new report saying that Indonesia’s coal industry “is facing mounting pressure and should diversify” as China and India – “its biggest customers” – cut back on imports. According to its analysis of government data, India’s coal imports “fell 8.4%” between April and December 2024. On Tuesday, India’s coal ministry described the allocation of its 200th coal mine as a “historic milestone”, Press Trust of India reports. Finally, according to government data seen by Moneycontrol, half of India’s electricity generation capacity “could be non-fossil fuel based from as early as December this year, even as the share of renewables in the country’s energy consumption mix is likely to remain low at 13-15%”.
Barney Jopson, Financial Times
The Financial Times reports that Spain has “spread the blame for the catastrophic Iberian blackout between its grid operator and electricity companies, saying the April outage stemmed from a combination of ‘bad planning’ and errors at power plants”. It continues: “Announcing the findings of a 49-day probe into what went wrong, Sara Aagesen, Spain’s energy and environment minister, said several factors combined to leave the country unable to control a surge in voltage that should have been manageable.” The FT adds: “The minister said the voltage surge itself was caused by oscillations in the frequency at which the electrical current changes direction. Some oscillations were natural, she said, but one was ‘atypical’. The unusual change originated from a solar power plant in south-west Spain near the city of Badajoz, the government report said. Prime minister Pedro Sánchez’s government has consistently argued that the blackout was not caused by Spain’s high reliance on renewable energy.” Bloomberg reports that, according to Aagesen, Spain’s grid “didn’t have enough backup thermal plants operating during peak hours, when voltage on the network surged”. Reuters says: “The [government] report, made public on Tuesday, also blames power generators for the worst-ever blackout to have hit Spain and Portugal, since some conventional power plants, such as nuclear and gas-fired plants, failed to help maintain an appropriate voltage level in the power system that day.” El País says the government report ruled out a cyberattack and pointed to poor system planning and “improper” actions by some generators. It quotes a joint European solar industry statement as saying: “Let’s be clear: solar photovoltaic energy was not the cause of the blackout.” The Guardian, Euractiv and CNN are among other publications covering the news.
Jillian Ambrose, The Guardian
UK energy and net-zero secretary Ed Miliband has said his party will “win the fight” against net-zero critics while announcing a “£1bn investment scheme” to boost jobs in the offshore wind sector on Tuesday, the Guardian reports. The newspaper says Miliband “appeared to take aim at his political opponents in the Conservative and Reform UK parties” while speaking at an energy industry conference, saying: “We’re going to win this fight, and we’re going to win this fight partly because of all the jobs that these companies are creating with us. The forces that want to take us backwards, the forces that oppose net-zero, will have to reckon not just with the government. They will have to reckon with all these companies that are creating jobs.” The Daily Telegraph also covers Miliband’s comments. The Press Association has more detail on the “public-private deal” to drive £1bn in investment for the offshore wind sector, reporting: “In addition to previously-announced funding of £300m from publicly-owned Great British Energy, the Crown Estate has pledged £400m to support new infrastructure including ports, supply chain manufacturing and research and testing facilities. And £300m from industry would match government funding, to deliver investments into supply chains such as advanced turbine technology and offshore wind turbine foundations, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) said.” The Times focuses on the Crown Estate investment in its coverage.
Elsewhere, the Guardian covers a report finding that “tough rules announced in the government’s immigration white paper could jeopardise the UK’s net-zero mission by causing labour shortages”. A story trailed on the frontpage of the Daily Telegraph says a US energy giant is “in talks” to build a nuclear power plant at a long-earmarked site at Wylfa, Wales. The Press Association covers National Electricity System Operator (NESO) analysis saying the risk of the UK having power outages this winter is lower than it has been for the past six years. The Guardian reports that “more UK gas plants will be in line for windfall payments to help keep the lights on this winter after generators received multimillion-pound payouts last winter”. The Guardian also reports that steel trade unions have said it is “vital” that the government secure a deal to protect the steel industry from Donald Trump’s tariffs after the industry was excluded from an initial UK-US pact signed on Monday night. A freedom of information request by the Daily Telegraph has found that the UK climate envoy Rachel Kyte has amassed 76,000 air miles since taking office eight months ago. [It is Kyte’s role to represent the UK at international events.] Another Daily Telegraph story reports on a Which? survey of just under 30,000 drivers, according to which electric vehicles break down more often than other types of cars. However, the article says MOT and other data shows EVs are less likely to break down than petrol and diesel cars. The Daily Telegraph also speaks to campaigners opposing the Sizewell C nuclear project over its impact on the local area.
In addition, the Independent reports that a “four-day heat health alert issued for most of England as temperatures set to soar to 32C”. The Times covers Met Office research published in the journal Weather finding that there is a 50% chance UK temperatures could exceed 40C again in the next 12 years and could reach as high as 46.6C. The Press Association says that the research finds that the UK could face heatwaves that “go on for a month or more”. Bloomberg explains that the researchers “used a global climate model that creates simulations of plausible summer temperatures under current climate conditions”. The Independent and Daily Telegraph also cover the research. Finally, BBC News covers research finding that rising ocean temperatures could see endangered sharks, rays and native oysters booming in UK waters.
Zack Colman, Politico
Politico speaks to more than a dozen US federal employees who say “cuts and freezes are jamming up some of the basic functions of government at agencies targeted in Donald Trump’s rollbacks of his predecessors’ energy and environmental policies”. It continues: “Lockdowns of spending and an absence of guidance from political appointees are leaving Environmental Protection Agency scientists unable to publish their research, preventing some Energy Department officials from visiting their department’s laboratories and forcing the cancellation of disaster planning exercises at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said the 13 employees, who were granted anonymity to avoid reprisals. They said the chaos has also left recipients of Biden-era energy grants in limbo as they wait for approval to continue the projects they’ve started.” One FEMA employee tells Politico: “We are set up for failure.”
Elsewhere, there is continued coverage of the news that US Senate Republicans have released draft legislation that would phase out clean energy tax credits and measures to transition away from fossil fuels. The Associated Press says: “Senate Republicans cast their version of the bill as less damaging to the clean energy industry than the version House Republicans passed last month, but Democrats and advocates criticised it, saying it would still have significant consequences for wind, solar and other projects. Reuters reports that solar stocks “plunged” following the news. A second Reuters story says the proposals would “raise [the] value of tax credit to use captured CO2 to produce more oil”. A third Reuters story says the bill “risks [an] exodus of clean hydrogen investment”.
In addition, Reuters reports that the Interior Department has confirmed plans to open 82% of Alaska's 23m-acre National Petroleum Reserve for oil and gas leasing. The Financial Times reports that “US states are sending bipartisan delegations to Brussels to seek advice on climate policy, especially carbon pricing schemes, in the face of the Trump administration’s deepening opposition to green measures”. Bloomberg analysis finds that the US spent $1tn on responding to climate disasters within the country over the past year until 1 May, equivalent to 3% of GDP. Inside Climate News says that US labour advocates are calling for heat protections for workers ahead of what is projected to be an extreme summer. It comes as the Independent reports that “tens of millions” of US citizens should prepare for a “wet hot” summer.
Nikolaus Kurmayer, Euractiv
There is ongoing coverage of the news that the European Commission has tabled a bill that, according to Euractiv, “would phase out the large volumes of Russian gas still flowing into the EU until the end of 2027”. The outlet continues: “Last year, Russia still supplied almost a fifth of its natural gas to the European Union, with increased LNG imports partly replacing drastically reduced pipeline flows. With Tuesday's proposal for new legislation, the EU executive hopes to end those imports altogether.” The Guardian reports that EU energy commissioner, Dan Jørgensen, said a proposed ban on Russian gas imports “would remain, irrespective of whether there was peace in Ukraine”. Reuters says the Commission plans to use “legal measures to ensure member states such as Hungary and Slovakia cannot block the plan”. Bloomberg says the proposal “sets the stage for heated debate, with some member states nervous it will boost energy prices and cost companies millions of euros in legal fees”.
In other news, Politico reports that a draft amendment to the European Climate Law by the Commission would “allow the limited use of carbon credits from projects in other countries to meet EU climate goals”. Euractiv reports that Denmark, which will hold the rotating six-month | 