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Jim Pickard, Rachel Millard and Sam Fleming, Financial Times
UK chancellor Rachel Reeves has said she is planning to cut the link between electricity and gas prices in the UK, in a bid to reduce energy bills, reports the Financial Times. Speaking during meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington DC, Reeves said that the government will soon set out details of how the wholesale price of electricity could be set more often by renewables, rather than volatile fossil fuels. The Sun reports that “households are in line to save hundreds of pounds a year” due to this “major shake-up of the energy market”. It notes that this comes “as the Iran war piles pressure on families”. Bloomberg notes that, as it stands, the UK is facing a bigger inflation spike than many other countries “because of its heavy reliance on gas”.
The Daily Telegraph highlights comments made by Reeves about allowing oil and gas drilling at new fields adjacent to existing ones, which it says “could represent the softening of Labour’s key manifesto pledge not to issue new licences to explore new fields”. However, as the Press Association quotes Reeves saying, these so-called “tiebacks” were announced in the budget last year. The Independent has a piece about “why drilling in the North Sea won’t bring down UK energy prices”. Reeves also tells BBC News the UK is “not facing an immediate shortage of petrol, diesel or jet fuel”.
Separately, Reuters reports that the UK government has announced its carbon price support tax on electricity generation will be scrapped from April 2028 “as it seeks to curb electricity prices for households and businesses”. The move was broadly supported by the industry and came after the hard-right, climate-sceptic Reform UK party pledged to cut the tax if it took power, according to the Financial Times.
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The UK’s first proposed “nationally significant” data centre would be powered using a “new gas-fired power station”, setting the government’s AI plans “on a collision course with its net-zero goals”, reports the Times. The Guardian reports on analysis by the thinktank Ember that finds the company behind Drax power plant “received record subsidies of almost £1bn for burning trees to generate electricity in 2025”. The UK’s Environment Agency has far surpassed its original target of ensuring 52,000 properties are better protected from flooding through improved defences over the past two years, according to BusinessGreen.
John Leicester, The Associated Press
International Energy Agency (IEA) executive director Fatih Birol tells the Associated Press in an interview that Europe has “maybe six weeks or so” of remaining jet-fuel supplies, amid the Iran war. He notes that there could be flight cancellations “soon” if oil supplies remain blocked from passing through the strait of Hormuz. BBC News picks up on Birol’s comments, noting that an IEA report this week warned that jet-fuel stocks would reach a tipping point by June if Europe is unable to replace at least half of its Middle East imports. In a separate interview with Bloomberg, Birol says that it may take up to two years to recover a significant share of oil and gas production that has been disrupted by the war.
Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph reports that “two of Europe’s biggest airlines have cancelled hundreds of flights in response to soaring fuel costs”, with a story trailed on the newspaper’s frontpage. The Times and Daily Mail report that summer holiday flights face being “cancelled”. Deutsche Welle reports that Germany's national airline Lufthansa says it will retire older aircraft earlier than planned, partly due to fuel prices. Bloomberg reports that airlines in Nigeria have warned they may halt flights next week. Another Bloomberg story notes that Norwegian budget airline Norse Atlantic has cut all of its Los Angeles flights. The Daily Mail reports that climate charity Possible has called on the UK government to ban private jets.
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The Financial Times says fuel suppliers in Asia are “rushing to secure biofuels after they became cheaper than their fossil-fuel counterparts for the first time”. US defence secretary Pete Hegseth has stated that Iran’s energy infrastructure is “not destroyed yet” and that the US is ready to finish the job, reports the Guardian. Reuters reports how, in the face of a fuel crisis, “interest in electric trucks has picked up in Australia, one of the most road-freight dependent countries in the world”. In Sudan, where war has accelerated the decline of an already-unstable power grid, now “shockwaves” from the Iran war have “compounded these pressures further”, according to Al Jazeera. Bloomberg reports that Pakistan is facing power outages as the war in the Middle East “chokes its supplies of liquefied natural gas [LNG]”. A Reuters piece says the war “exposes [the] cost of Asia's fossil fuel reliance” and Bloomberg says it is pushing “Asia to think twice before doubling down on LNG”.
Bloomberg
China will “significantly increase” the supply of non-fossil energy by 2030 and double it by 2035 compared with 2025 levels, according to a briefing by Wang Changlin, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, covered by Bloomberg. The news outlet explains that these comments “clarify the meaning of a 10-year action plan to double non-fossil energy that was first flagged last month in the 15th five-year plan”. Previously, Bloomberg says it was unclear whether the plan referenced generation or capacity – and when the start and end dates were. The article notes that analysts see this as a “boost to Beijing’s green targets”.
Meanwhile, Chinese solar panel manufacturers say that rising global demand for renewables stemming from the oil supply disruption caused by the Iran war is “unlikely to significantly ease the industry's overcapacity”, reports Reuters. The newswire quotes an unnamed solar industry executive saying that increases in prices and global demand “won’t seriously impact the overall supply-demand dynamics”. At the same time, the government will impose “lifetime accountability” on officials’ investment decisions in order to “tighten control over state spending and address industrial overcapacity”, according to finance outlet Caixin. Elsewhere, a commentary by the state news agency Xinhua says that China’s “compelling clean energy options stand out as a cornerstone of the country’s enduring stability” as the world grapples with concerns over energy security.
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Bloomberg reports Chinese refiners “cut run rates” last month to “conserve supplies snarled by war” in the Middle East. Reuters publishes a comment by columnist Clyde Russell, saying that China continued to build its massive oil stockpile in March. Global Times reports China’s energy resources remain “sufficient, stable and orderly” amid global energy disruption, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Chinese vice premier Ding Xuexiang called on China and Turkmenistan to expand cooperation in areas including gas, renewables and NEVs, reports Xinhua. The South China Morning Post reports: “China fast-tracks hydrogen strategy to ‘scale-up’ phase in high-stakes energy transition.” Zheng Shanjie, head of the NDRC, said China should accelerate the construction of a new energy system in a visit to a hydrogen facility, according to International Energy Net. China’s NEA has launched a nationwide campaign to improve “power supply quality”, reports BJX News. China has a rising amount of idle waste-to-energy capacity and is “running out of waste to burn”, says a “sharp commentary” in the People’s Daily.
Jan Strupczewski, Reuters
Senior executives at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have made further comments warning that European governments should not excessively shield businesses and consumers from more expensive energy, according to Reuters. The newswire quotes Alfred Kammer, head of the IMF's European department, who said such measures would “weaken” the price signal to cut consumption and could be fiscally very expensive. The fund recommends targeted payments for vulnerable consumers, with a clear end date, rather than blanket support, according to the newswire.
Separately, the EU’s competition and climate chief Teresa Ribera tells the Financial Times that short-term measures to tackle energy prices amid the Iran war should not undermine Europe’s climate goals.
MORE ON EUROPE
The UK and France plan to host a summit of around 40 nations to discuss setting up a naval force that would ensure freedom of navigation in the strait of Hormuz, according to Bloomberg. Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats are blocking the government of Friedrich Merz from proceeding with plans to build a fleet of new gas power plants, unless the legislation includes “carve-outs for renewables”, reports Bloomberg. Kyriakos Pierrakakis, chairman of the eurozone finance ministers' group has told an IMF event that a cross-border European energy union is needed to help the EU stay competitive against the US and China, reports Reuters. Slovakia has stated that it is prepared to obstruct the EU’s latest round of Russia sanctions, unless it receives reassurances from Ukraine that oil flows through a damaged pipeline on Ukrainian territory will resume, according to
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