Thursday, 13 August 2026

China has published a five-year plan devoted specifically to climate change, according to CleanTechnica.

The document, the 15th five-year plan for a national response to climate change, sets out climate and energy targets for the 2026-2030 period, CleanTechnica reported. It follows a series of earlier plans that laid out in-depth targets across the same policy areas.

Mauritius, Mozambique and the Republic of the Congo declared support for a precautionary pause on deep-seabed mining at the annual meeting of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Kingston, Jamaica, in July, according to Mongabay. Their announcements bring the number of African countries backing a pause to six.

The three joined Malawi, Kenya and Madagascar. Malawi was the first African country to endorse a precautionary pause, in May 2026, with Kenya and Madagascar following in June, Mongabay reported.

Globally, the six African states sit within a group of 46 countries supporting either a moratorium or a precautionary pause on extraction of minerals from the seabed, according to Mongabay.

The position matters inside the ISA's own decision-making structure. Kenya, which backs a moratorium, was allocated a seat for the first time on the 36-member ISA Council during the two-week meeting, the body where rules governing deep-seabed mining exploitation are negotiated. Africa holds 10 seats on that council, giving the continent a strong voice in shaping the rules, according to the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition.

North Korea launched a missile into the sea for the second time in a week, ahead of US-South Korean military exercises that Pyongyang describes as a rehearsal for invasion, according to Semafor Net Zero.

The same Semafor report set that launch alongside two other regional disputes. Taiwan attacked planned joint naval exercises by Chinese and Indonesian forces off its coast, calling them "wilful and irresponsible."

Japan, separately, criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin over his visit to the Kuril Islands, a trip that took in one island Tokyo claims as its own.

The energy link runs through the Gulf. The Diplomat argued that friction across East Asia has been exacerbated by the war in the Middle East, with regional nations heavily reliant on Gulf energy imports now facing what it called "hard choices they have long deferred."

The missile launch was the second inside a week, per Semafor, and was timed to the imminent US-South Korean drills.

Taiwan's objection concerns exercises staged off the coast of the self-ruled island by two navies operating together. Japan's complaint centers on a territorial claim rather than a military manoeuvre.

The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has opened a consultation on legislative amendments to the Contracts for Difference (CfD) supplier obligation, intended to enable implementation of the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS).

According to DESNZ, the consultation seeks views on proposed changes to the supplier obligation, the mechanism through which electricity suppliers fund CfD payments.

The consultation applies to England, Scotland and Wales and closes at 11:59pm on 9 September 2026, DESNZ said.

The UK government has published its response to a call for evidence on Hydrogen to Power and interconnectors in the Capacity Market, confirming changes to how interconnector de-rating factors are calculated.

The revised methodology will be implemented ahead of Capacity Market Prequalification 2026, according to the published update. The same document sets out the government's continuing approach to enabling Hydrogen to Power participation in the scheme.

The response summarises stakeholder feedback and sets out next steps for policy development within the Capacity Market. The underlying call for evidence ran from 2 October 2025 to 27 November 2025.

On 13 August 2026, the government updated the technical adjustment methodology document to clarify the datasets that were in place when the interconnector de-rating factors were calculated.

De-rating factors determine how much capacity an interconnector can sell into the Capacity Market auction, so the calculation method directly shapes the volume of cross-border capacity that qualifies. Prequalification is the stage at which units establish eligibility before bidding, which is why the timing of the methodology change matters for participants preparing submissions.

The U.S. Department of Energy has issued revised operating directives governing its National Laboratories, plants and sites, moving to streamline how the laboratory complex is managed.

Congress and the Government Accountability Office have pressed for changes to the directives framework for more than three decades, DOE said, with the National Academies and other independent reviews reaching similar conclusions. Those reviewers repeatedly pointed to what the department calls "unnecessary complexity" in the framework.

The department presented the update as part of a wider modernization of operations across its laboratory complex.