Friday, 19 June 2026

11 briefs so farlast update 18:51 UTC

Key points

Brent Slides to Four-Month Low as War Premium Unwinds.
Europe Hesitates on Hormuz Demining as Trump Pushes Rapid Reopening.
EIA projects record 86 GW of new US power capacity in 2026, led by solar and storage.
Uzbekistan starts construction of first small modular reactor.

All sections Policy & Geopolitics Climate Renewables Grid & Storage Oil & Gas Generation

Somalia wins USD 80 million Green Climate Fund grant for farmer adaptation

Somalia secured a USD 80 million Green Climate Fund grant for its Ugbaad project, helping farmers earn a steadier living as droughts and floods worsen, according to Climate Change News. Abdiaziz Ibrahim Aden of Somalia's Ministry of Environment and Climate Change said the programme targets more than 2 million beneficiaries.

Aden told Climate Change News the grant has reduced the pull of armed groups on young Somalis. A United Nations Development Programme finding cited in the same report attributes two in three conflicts in the country to competition over natural resources.

Nearly 2 million Somali children could face acute malnutrition this year, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification has warned.

Alec Crawford of the International Institute for Sustainable Development called climate change a threat multiplier on social and economic tensions. "It is a contributing factor to violence and instability and conflict, but it's not the sole driver," he told Climate Change News.

Policy context

COP30 in Brazil agreed a set of indicators for the Paris Agreement's Global Goal on Adaptation, 10 years after governments set the goal itself. The indicators are designed to track how countries implement their adaptation commitments.

For Green Climate Fund recipients such as Somalia, those indicators give donors a way to measure whether grants like the Ugbaad package translate into results against the rural climate shocks, resource-driven conflict, and child malnutrition pressures described in Climate Change News.

Source: climatechangenews.com (opens in a new tab)1 sourcePermalink

04:23 UTCClimate

China and India coal power both fell in 2025, ending half-century pattern

China and India both saw coal power generation fall in 2025, the first simultaneous drop in half a century, according to Carbon Brief.

The break ends a long stretch in which rising electricity demand in the two largest coal consumers pulled thermal output higher in step.

Carbon Brief attributed the decline to new clean-energy capacity additions, which were more than sufficient to meet rising demand. The drop did not stem from weaker consumption. Wind, solar, and other clean sources absorbed load growth and pushed coal off the margin in both grids.

The coal data lands as Beijing prepares its next policy move. China has pledged to have peaked its emissions by 2030, with key climate and energy targets due for release by the government in March.

India has historically leaned on thermal generation to meet fast-growing demand from industry, cooling load, and electrification. A joint decline with China signals that clean-capacity build-out in both systems has reached a scale capable of bending the coal curve across a single year.

Whether the shift holds depends on clean additions continuing to outpace demand growth in both grids, and on the direction Beijing sets in its March targets release.

Source: carbonbrief.org (opens in a new tab)1 sourcePermalink

Coal power station cooling towers in the background with solar panels and wind turbines in the foreground under hazy morning light. — Photo: Johannes Plenio / Pexels (opens in a new tab)