Energy in Demand News, July 5-6, 2026

adaptation, air pollution, carbon emissions, climate change, climate risk, decarbonisation, electricity grids, electrification, energy efficiency, energy security, energy transition, fossil fuels, GHG emissions, international co-operation, renewable energy, transport, urban policies

In Canada this week, EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen

urged decisive action by quoting a famous hockey credo:

“you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

The Trump administration is moving to gut energy efficiency rules for home appliances that are proven to cut demand for power and lower utility bills. The Washington Post reports that the Energy Department on Thursday said the proposal would “Permanently End Green New Scam Appliance Mandates.” It takes aim at energy conservation standards for a host of appliances, including air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines.”

So much for concerns about energy security. The Financial Times reports that Europe risks starting winter with gas stocks at 15-year low. “We’re at a critical stage of the summer for Europe’s gas restocking plans,” said Natasha Fielding, an analyst at Argus Media. “While the announced US-Iran deal has pushed down gas prices and raised hopes for a flood of Mideast Gulf supply returning to the market, the longer we see constrained LNG supply, the lower start-of-winter European gas stocks will be and the bigger the chance of winter price spikes.”

The World Bank has dropped a crucial target for climate finance, under intense pressure from the US, as the lender’s biggest shareholder upends decades of global co operation on tackling rising temperatures. “The World Bank said on Monday evening it would extend its climate change action plan, but would “retire” the target that 45 per cent of its financing would go to projects that offered climate “co-benefits,”the Financial Times reported. The decision came after months of negotiations. European shareholder nations, alongside many developing client countries, had argued for retaining the target and saving the climate action plan, while the US — which holds effective veto power and the largest controlling vote at the World Bank — pushed for their demise.”

The EU is also weighing weaker data centre climate rules in a win for Big Tech, the Financial Times also reported. “The EU is set to bow to pressure from tech groups by proposing they can use cheaper offsets to counter the climate impact of gas-powered data centres, according to draft rules seen by the FT… It is preparing to significantly water down plans for a “traffic light” system that rates data centres based on energy and water use, according to a draft proposal set to be discussed by member state experts on Thursday… That means a data centre running through the night on Germany’s grid, which continues to use coal, can still cancel out its emissions by relying on certificates linked to solar power produced during the day in Spain.” They are also saying “certificates from nuclear energy could be considered, in a boost for nuclear-reliant countries such as France.” What next?

In planning travel over the upcoming weeks, here are some useful ideas to help you along:

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799), a German physicist, satirist, and Anglophile, who was the first person in Germany to hold a professorship explicitly dedicated to experimental physics, gives us a lesson in wisdom: “One’s first step in wisdom is to question everything — and one’s last is to come to terms with everything.”

EiD welcomes your views about this week’s selection of posts on the zero-carbon energy transition:

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