Headlines: September 2025

Summer’s on its way out and good riddance. As autumn begins to streak in, worrying headlines begin to multiply, and they’re multiplying very much like bacteria in a Petri dish with an extremely favourable environment.

#1 Sky-high electricity costs hinder Britain's net zero mission

Besides hitting competitiveness and contributing to stubbornly high British inflation rates, power prices have acted more generally as an obstacle to Britain's shift towards cleaner energy and the government's goal of hitting net zero by 2050, according to more than 25 industry figures including business owners, energy managers and policy experts.

They said high power costs have stripped companies of the cash to invest in more efficient machinery, deterred them from moving to lower-carbon electricity sources, and prevented some from competing with foreign rivals to make the wind farms, pylons and batteries needed for a net zero future.

Imagine that. First, you do everything in your power to make electricity expensive so industrial consumers have motivation to invest in alternative electricity sources. Then you find out they don’t have that motivation because they don’t have the money to invest in these alternative electricity sources you want them to invest in, because all the money’s going to cover electricity bills. A totally unforeseeable development.

Speaking of unforeseeable developments,

#2 Shell Shelves Dutch Biofuels Plant

Shell has decided to “prioritize our capital towards those projects that deliver both the needs of our customers and value for our shareholders,” Machteld de Haan, the firm’s head of downstream, renewables and energy solutions, said in a statement, reiterating previous pledges to back projects that will boost investor returns.

So. Sustainable aviation fuels are neither what Shell’s customers need, nor do they generate profits that would contribute to shareholder returns. It seems you can’t just create demand for something out of thin air, especially if that thing is three times as expensive as the thing you’re trying to replace, for which there is already plenty of demand. Wonders never cease.

And speaking of wonders, here’s another one.

#3 New Lloyd’s of London boss gives insurers green light to cover fossil fuels

The new chief executive of Lloyd’s of London has set out plans to grant “more freedom” to insurers trading at the marketplace, scrapping his predecessor’s commitment to end their coverage of the most polluting fossil fuels.

Tiernan said: “Lloyd’s strength is that it’s apolitical. It’s important we don’t wade into issues we don’t need to . . . Lloyd’s needs to remain apolitical, so we preserve that role when times are choppy in the regions where we operate.”

What an outrageous idea, being apolitical in a world where even pets have become a point of political debate. Even more outrageously, the gentleman suggests that net-zero ambitions are a political issue rather than a last-ditch desperate attempt to save our dying planet. It’s all Trump’s fault.

While we’re on the topic of last-ditch desperate attempts, here’s one.

#4 Carbon capture set to be less useful in tackling climate change, scientists warn

Far less carbon dioxide can be safely stored underground than previously thought, scientists have said, highlighting the risks of relying on a technology that is undeveloped at the scale needed to meet global climate goals.

Researchers from Imperial College London and others said in a peer-reviewed paper published in the journal Nature on Wednesday that the greenhouse gas was at risk of leaking back into the atmosphere after it has been injected underground.

Clearly, any headline with “experts warn” at the end removes any suggestion that the information contained below it is anything other than cold, hard fact. Equally clearly, the word “peer-reviewed” does the very same thing. Therefore, it is an indisputable fact that we must stop any attempts to capture and store CO2 underground. I can’t wait to see what direct-air-capture fans have to say about this.

Fans of heat pumps are also in trouble.

#5 Heat pump maker warns Europe’s market is in ‘structural’ slump

The slump in European heat pump sales is a “structural problem”, according to one of the world’s largest makers of the units, which conceded demand was only one-third of its previous projections.

European demand has fallen well short of its expectations as the economy has weakened and generous subsidies have been scaled back.

The consistency with which reality keeps falling short of energy transition projections is truly astounding but not half as astounding as the determination of the political powers that be to keep pushing into the dead-end street that is that same energy transition. The good news: there are cracks appearing in that determination and they’re starting to show as

#6 Expensive ‘green’ hydrogen jeopardises German industrial energy transition

Executives of Germany’s leading manufacturing and energy industries have warned that “green” hydrogen is still far too expensive compared with other fuels, raising doubts over a key plank of the country’s efforts to cut carbon emissions.

Green hydrogen costs around €6 per kilogramme — close to double the cost of “grey” hydrogen produced from natural gas. Energy industry executives say they expect that green hydrogen will rise to around €10 per kilo in 2030 due to rising regulatory costs and investment costs, about four times the price of natural gas today.

So, green hydrogen is not only not getting cheaper but it’s getting more expensive thanks to the tireless efforts of the people who were supposed to help it get cheaper so it starts making some economic sense. Farewell, green hydrogen dreams. And not only green hydrogen dreams because

#7 Australia delays first offshore wind auction as global investment retreats

Australia's Victoria state has postponed its inaugural auction for offshore wind farm funding, citing global investment hurdles, in a setback to an industry deemed vital to the country's transition from coal-fired power to renewable energy.

"As the global market for offshore wind investment changes, we're making sure the auction is competitive and attractive and will release a new timeline for this process later this year,” Minister for Energy and Resources Lily D'Ambrosio said.

And a very good luck with that. It’s funny, though. Australia is not the U.S. It can’t really blame Trump for the “investment changes”. It is promising guaranteed minimum prices. And yet takers seem to be few and far between. Or perhaps doubts have arisen about the vital nature of that industry in the context of Down Under’s transition.

More doubts about transition-related developments are about to arise in the UK as well because

#8 UK gas traders need to watch how the wind blows this winter

The outlook for wind speeds around the United Kingdom this autumn and winter will likely be decisive for the UK's gas market over the coming months, with potentially far-reaching consequences for Europe's gas and power arenas.

Any extension of the below-normal wind farm output seen so far this year could trigger a steep rise in gas use by UK power firms heading into winter, with tighter gas supplies and higher gas prices a likely outcome.

What a great and wonderful opportunity for Miliband and his friends to once again blame international gas prices for the price that Britons are paying for their electricity. Wind speeds obviously have absolutely nothing to do with it. If only bloody gas wasn’t so irreplaceable, right?

The struggle is real, nowhere more so than in the corridors of power in Brussels.

#9 EU decision on 2040 climate target to be delayed, diplomats say

A controversial 2040 EU climate emissions target decision will not come at ministerial level next week — as originally planned — since countries claim they need more time to mull the issue, according to EU officials.

[One] EU official said that member states weren't yet ready and the issue will be pushed back to be discussed and agreed by EU heads of state during an October summit.

The EU wants to mandate a 90% emissions reduction target for 2040, from 1990 levels. Far from all member states are on board with it, with the Central Europeans being a pain in the Manneken Pis of their Brussels betters yet again, claiming the target would amount to a death sentence to their economies.

Place your bets for the October summit, ladies and gentlemen. If the target passes, the clock starts ticking more loudly for the EU’s TOD. If it gets delayed again, we have evidence of residual common sense that may help avoid the lethal outcome.