Ursula von der Leyen announced yesterday that she will seek a second term as president of the European Commission, the Guardian reports. The paper says: “During her time in office, von der Leyen has had her critics, including Peter Liese, a German MEP and EPP [European People’s Party] environment and health spokesperson. He has accused her of pushing through the EU’s ‘green deal’ – a package of reforms aimed at transforming the EU into a low-carbon economy – at the expense of farmers and agricultural sectors. On Monday, Liese said that von der Leyen was nonetheless the ‘right candidate in turbulent, difficult times’.” According to the paper, Liese also said: “We can hardly overestimate her achievements in climate protection. At the same time, in the last few months following the departure of [former European commissioner for climate action] Frans Timmermans, she made a smart change of direction and addressed the concerns of farmers before the farmer protests all over Europe even started.” Politico reports that von der Leyen “walks [a] fine line between defending her green legacy and locking in support for another run”, saying that for her second term, she is pitching “more military might” and “less climate talk”. It continues: “The current set of European Parliament lawmakers was elected at the height of the Greta Thunberg-inspired youth marches that catapulted climate change into the political mainstream and boosted green parties across the continent. Under pressure to tackle global warming, von der Leyen launched the European Green Deal after entering office, declaring it the EU’s ‘man on the moon moment.’ This time around, the mood is different. Angry farmers, not climate activists, are blockading roads around Paris and Berlin, with many complaining about the EU’s growing list of environmental regulations. Green parties have fallen in the polls. Europeans are now more worried about economic and geopolitical instability, immigration, the rising cost of living and the war in Ukraine than about climate change. Yet the message from the EU’s own scientific advisors is blunt and unchanging: Europe isn’t on track to meet its climate targets and must do more to cut planet-warming emissions – especially in agriculture. But there’s little appetite for expanding the Green Deal: Von der Leyen’s own party is the loudest advocate for a pause in environmental lawmaking.” The Times says that von der Leyen’s first term was “overshadowed by popular resistance to her green policies”, but adds that “she is all but certain to be reappointed to the presidency”. It continues: “Her biggest challenge is to preserve her flagship climate change policies after a number of steps back forced by voters’ anger over expensive heat pumps or bans on non-electric cars, and Europe-wide protests by farmers.”

This comes as Reuters reports that “hundreds of Czech farmers drove their tractors into downtown Prague on Monday, disrupting traffic outside the agriculture ministry, as they joined protests against high energy costs, stifling bureaucracy and the European Union’s Green Deal”. Politico notes that among their demands, the farmers want the Czech Republic to withdraw from the Green Deal. In other European news, the Financial Times reports that “ExxonMobil has warned it is willing to withhold billions of dollars in climate-related investments in Europe unless Brussels cuts environmental red tape”. Elsewhere, Politico says: “Romania is leading EU efforts on small-scale [nuclear] reactors that could make the bloc a clean tech leader. But so far, they remain unproven.” Bloomberg reports that “the heads of major industrial companies want the European Union to cut energy costs and the regulatory burden of green rules to help the region stay competitive as the energy transition accelerates”. DeSmog reports that Italy’s first climate change lawsuit opened on Friday. According to the outlet, Greenpeace Italy and climate advocacy group ReCommon brought the lawsuit against Italian oil company Eni. Reuters reports that Germany is “likely in recession”, according to its central bank: “Germany has struggled since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine pushed up energy costs, and its vast, industry-heavy economy is now in its fourth straight quarter of zero or negative growth, weighing on all of the euro zone.” The Financial Times says: “The government was left with a €60bn hole in its [transformation and climate policy] spending plans after the constitutional court last November banned the use of off-budget financing vehicles to bypass the country’s debt brake.” The Daily Telegraph, in contrast, blames the recession on “uncertainty over net-zero targets”. Finally, Bloomberg reports that the price of carbon in the EU has dropped to its lowest in more than two years.

Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf, of the Scottish National Party, has “rejected” plans put forward by the opposition Labour Party to increase the windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas production, the Times reports. According to the newspaper, Labour leader Keir Starmer proposed increasing the tax from 75% to 78% and extending it until 2029. The paper continues: “Yousaf accused Starmer of pushing ‘aggressive tax plans for the sector’ that put tens of thousands of jobs at risk. He pledged to work with oil and gas firms that wanted to speedily transition towards green energy…In a speech in Aberdeen, the first minister tried to reach out to the sector after Sir Keir Starmer’s strategy angered businesses. Offshore Energies UK, the trade body for the sector, has said it will hold ‘emergency summits’ in Aberdeen and London over Labour’s plans, which it has said is deterring investment and putting 42,000 jobs at risk. The talks will take place on Tuesday with North Sea operators and on Thursday with supply chain companies.” BBC News quotes Yousaf saying: “We support a windfall tax in order to protect people during a cost of living crisis. But Labour’s plans to increase this to pay for new nuclear power plants in England is plain wrong and will cost tens of thousands, if not more, jobs in the north east.” The broadcaster continues: “He accused the UK Labour leader of ‘doubling down on austerity’ with his plans if the party wins the upcoming general election.” The outlet adds that Yousaf “said Labour’s decision to ‘dump’ their £28bn pledge and ‘water down’ energy plans showed that Scotland was ‘not the priority’ for Labour.” The Guardian reports that Yousaf “accused Labour of behaving like Margaret Thatcher by throwing oil and gas workers ‘on the scrapheap’”. Labour called Yousaf’s comments “completely incoherent and out of touch”, according to the Scotsman. The Daily Telegraph quotes Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, saying: “Humza Yousaf is displaying breathtaking hypocrisy masquerading as a friend of Scotland’s oil and gas industry when he and the SNP have abandoned it at every opportunity.” Separately, the Scotsman explains how the windfall tax would work. 

In other UK news, the Guardian reports that prime minister Rishi Sunak will promise farmers a grant scheme later today. The newspaper continues: “Sunak will respond to farmers’ calls for a commitment from government that the UK’s food self-sufficiency will remain at or exceed the current estimated level, which is about 60%…Speaking at the National Farmers’ Union in Birmingham, where he will be questioned by the outgoing president, Minette Batters, Sunak will also announce grants for farmers in England – claimed as the largest ever grant offer – expected to total £427m, and which will include an ‘unprecedented’ package of funding for technology and productivity schemes.” The Financial Times adds: “Sunak will announce a £220m fund to help farmers improve productivity, part of the £2.4bn the government has said it would spend annually on farming by the end of this parliament…Farmers were promised they would be big winners if the UK left the EU. But many complain they are receiving less support than when the UK was part of the bloc.” According to the Daily Express, Sunak will also announce plans to “cut bureaucratic red tape so farmers can easily create buildings to diversify earnings”. BBC News reports that Sunak is expected to announce that the Farm to Fork food-security summit held last year will become an annual event. The Daily Telegraph reports the £220m fund will be used for “future-focused technology, including equipment which increases automation to reduce reliance on overseas workers”. Similarly, the Daily Mail says: “Fruit-picking robots could slash the need for migrant labour.” Sky News adds: “Speaking before the annual NFU conference begins on Tuesday, the organisation’s chief Minette Batters said food production is increasingly having to compete for land and resources with homes, tree planting and climate plans.” The Press Association also covers the story.

Elsewhere, the Guardian reports that “the woman at the centre of an attempt by the government’s senior law officer to remove one of the last remaining legal defences available to climate protesters says the move is an assault on the rights of juries to acquit defendants”.

China faces “difficulties including greater-than-expected growth in energy demand which has increased the need for transformation”, national energy administration (NEA) director Zhang Jianhua posted on the NEA’s official WeChat account, the Hong Kong-based outlet South China Morning Post reports. On the first working day after the Spring Festival holiday, state news agency Xinhua reports that president Xi Jinping hosted a meeting of the central commission for deepening reform (CCDR), an influential committee consisting of high-ranking officials. It says policymakers at the meeting passed the “opinions on promoting comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development” during the meeting and affirmed that “promoting the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development is the foundational policy to resolve problems around resources, the environment and ecology”. Chinese industry outlet BJX News publishes an updated list of provinces, cities and regions in China that have issued local government work reports, which include “energy and electricity planning for 2024”. Chinese energy outlet IN-EN.com reports that, in 2024, China will continue to “promote the green development of small hydropower”, building “over 80 new demonstration stations of green small hydropower throughout the year”. 

Elsewhere, BJX News reports that between 10-15 February, total trading volumes in the Guangdong spot market for electricity, China’s “largest” regional scheme, are expected to reach “2,500 gigawatt-hours (GWh), with an average daily trading volume exceeding 400GWh”. Another BJX News article by Tang Fang, from the energy research institute of the State Grid, argues that the spot market creates an “invisible hand” that “encourages thermal power companies to lower generation and promote prioritising consumption of new energy”.

Following unusually high levels of snow over the lunar new year period, the Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily reports that China’s top meteorological authority has issued “three extreme weather alerts” for drastic drops in temperature, freezing weather and sandstorms, with one official saying “[against] the backdrop of global warming, the rising temperature in the North Pole will cause stronger cold waves [to head] downwards to the south”. Xinhua reports that China’s meteorological authorities “renewed an orange alert for a cold wave” on Monday, which is “the most severe warning in its three-tier warning system, forecasting temperature drops in most parts of the country”. 

In other news, the Financial Times reports on the frontpage of its international edition says that the US has “warned Beijing that the US and its allies will take action if China tries to ease its industrial overcapacity problem by dumping goods on international markets”, particularly in clean-energy sectors such as electric vehicles, solar panels and lithium-ion batteries, according to two senior US treasury officials. The state-run newspaper China Daily quotes Wang Yi, vice-chair of China’s national expert panel on climate change, as saying that former US and Chinese climate envoys “Xie [Zhenhua] and [John] Kerry would continue to play roles in meeting the global climate challenge”, and that Wang had been asked by Xie to “communicate with Kerry on the issue of illegal deforestation [and]…how they will conduct research on long-term strategic cooperation” on climate change. Finally, BJX News reports that India currently has not included restrictions on Chinese solar components, as per the recently published “approved list of models and manufacturers”. 

The chief executive of oil and gas lobby group Offshore Energies UK, David Whitehouse, argues in the Times that the UK is “scar[ing] off investors with instability and our windfall taxes on energy firms”. He writes: “UK offshore energy companies could invest £200bn in homegrown energy production this decade alone. This investment will deliver 50 gigawatts [GW] of wind, 10GW of hydrogen and at least four carbon capture and storage clusters, while also supporting homegrown oil and gas and meeting our decommissioning commitments.” He adds that without further investment, the UK will “be reliant on overseas imports for more than 80% of the natural gas required to heat our homes and to drive industry by 2030”. However, he says that “we continue to scare off investors with instability and our windfall taxes on energy firms”. He concludes: “Many of the companies producing oil and gas are leading the expansion into wind, hydrogen and the development of carbon capture and storage. Cut off revenues from oil and gas and you cut off the opportunities to invest in key elements of the energy transition.” Elsewhere, an editorial in the Sun says that “Jeremy Hunt would be crazy not to extend the 5p fuel duty cut in next month’s budget.”

In other UK comment, Mark Maslin, a professor of natural sciences at University College London, writes in the Conversation about a new project pairing leading comedians with climate scientists. He says: “Even though climate change is the greatest threat humanity has ever faced, research by the Climate Science Breakthrough team shows that just 2% of the public can name a climate scientist. Nearly everyone knows Jo Brand. Getting famous comedians to translate what climate scientists are saying in a funny, ironic and often blunt way makes the science much more accessible. And it works. Research shows that humour can be a transformative tool in science communication and have a positive impact on people’s understanding of climate change. So far, my video with Jo Brand has been viewed more than 3m times and has gained mainstream attention, with celebrities like Ellie Goulding, Gary Lineker, Rainn Wilson and Thom Yorke retweeting the videos. Each time, that brings the core message to a broader audience.” Elsewhere, Richard Ekins – head of Policy Exchange’s “judicial power project” and professor of law and constitutional government at the University of Oxford – argues in the Daily Telegraph: “Last month Michel Forst, the UN special rapporteur on environmental defenders, denounced the UK’s ‘regressive new laws’ on public protest. For Amnesty International and the Guardian, Forst’s intervention ‘offers a damning indictment of the repressive crackdown climate activists in the UK face for exercising their right to peacefully protest.’ For everyone else, this assessment of our public order law will seem risible. Far from ushering in a new authoritarian crackdown on peaceful protest, legislation enacted across the past two years has been an obviously inadequate response to the rising tide of lawlessness on our streets.”

Meanwhile, climate-sceptic columnist Matthew Lynn uses his Daily Telegraph column to criticise European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and her “massively expensive ‘Green New Deal’ that was designed to turn the continent into a global leader in combating climate change”. Finally, ​​Margaret Renkl, a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, writes about efforts to stop the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company from building “the South’s largest gas pipeline in more than a decade”.  

Half of the mammals, amphibians, birds and reptiles living in the Tibetan Plateau could become “imperilled” due to land-use change and 10% could be exposed to high risk levels of warming-induced permafrost thawing by 2090, according to research using a very high emissions scenario. The research uses modelling to examine how land vertebrates (animals with a backbone) in the Tibetan Plateau, a vast elevated plateau located at the intersection of central, south and east Asia, could be affected by permafrost thaw and land-use change under the “RCP8.5–SSP5” scenario. The authors conclude: “Our study highlights national stewardship for species that are in particular need of reimagining proactive biodiversity conservation planning to avoid detrimental impacts of future permafrost degradation and human modification.”