The Group of Seven (G7) countries agreed on Friday to release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil from emergency reserves and pledged to refrain from energy export restrictions after pressure from US President Donald Trump, Reuters reports. As a result, Trump has said that he would now not impose a diesel export ban. Interestingly, Reuters continues that Trump said “the plan was never really on the table, even though in the past two weeks he said several times that such a ban was under consideration.” The release will begin immediately and last four months, with a substantial amount of diesel to be released within 20 days by G7 members and partners. “EU governments had discussed on Friday a proposal by France for European countries to release 50 million barrels of diesel, and for IEA members to release 50 million barrels of crude oil, three sources familiar with the discussions said… A 50-million-barrel release of diesel would equate to approximately 17% of the EU’s total emergency stocks of diesel and gasoil, Eurostat data showed, or about 3% of the bloc’s annual consumption.” Now let’s watch for the impact on consumer prices.
The Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab at Johns Hopkins University has created a great data source that maps clean-energy investments around the world. The paper explaining it with some results is here.
The Financial Times reports that “UK banks have bucked a European trend away from coal financing and increased their exposure to the most polluting fossil fuel in the years since the war on Ukraine, according to campaign group analysis… Loans and underwriting by UK banks to the coal industry rose 17 per cent from $1.95bn in 2022 to $2.28bn in 2025, driven mainly by the largest banks, Barclays and HSBC, according to data analysed by the German non-profit group Urgewald.” Ben Caldecott, director of the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group was quite scathing: Banks should only choose to finance fossil fuel companies “if they have credible climate transition plans built into corporate strategy. It is hard to see how any of this coal financing and refinancing could pass that basic test.” The FT adds: “In contrast to UK and US banks, those headquartered in the EU nearly halved their coal financing, according to the analysis.”
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News reports on the challenges facing grape growers in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. Grape growers are confronting another consequence of a changing climate: wildfire smoke has tainted much of the 2026 grape crop, leaving otherwise healthy-looking fruit potentially unusable. But repeated losses from frost, drought and fire are also exposing weaknesses in crop insurance, because coverage based on historical production can fall sharply after successive bad years — one grower says a crop potentially worth C$600,000 is insured for only C$130,000. The experience is a striking example of how climate change is challenging not only agriculture and local economies, but also the financial and insurance systems designed around a more stable climate.
Energy markets depend on categories—household, business, consumer, company—but real lives do not always fit neatly within them. As Europe prepares to strengthen consumer protections through the Citizens Energy Package, a fundamental question is whether the people most vulnerable to market failures have a strong enough voice in the rules designed to protect them. To learn more, read the latest post by Marine Cornelis. Check out her latest Energ’ethic podcast with Tom Low, Citizens Advice.
To ensure the momentum of the zero carbon energy transition, we need a new generation of experts to continue the good work. EiD encourages all young researchers (born after 1991) in energy efficiency and biomass to submit contributions for next year’s Young Energy Researchers Conference next March 2nd as part of World Sustainable Energy Days, March 2-5, 2027 in Wels, Austria. Altogether there are five dedicated conferences and a tradeshow packed into the four days. See the overview of the conferences. The young energy researchers conference has 2 tracks, one for energy efficiency and one for biomass. Submissions (in English only) are welcome from all scientific fields (e.g. technology, engineering, economics, social sciences, architecture, law, arts). The deadline for submissions for all the events is October 9th.
In planning travel over the upcoming weeks, here are some useful ideas to help you along:
- There’s never been a more important moment to travel right in Europe with masses of overdevelopment, cruise ships, walking pollution and captive cetaceans still hot topics when it comes to responsible tourism issues in Europe. Check out the Responsible Travel website.
- Experience the beauty of Scotland this autumn.
- Autumn is the best time for a cycling trip in Europe because the summer heat is gone, the roads are quiet, and the trees turn bright red and gold. Check out Bike Tours in Europe for some inspiratio.
- 2026 is the centenary of the death of the painter Claude Monet (1840-1926). To mark this anniversary, the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris has organised an exhibition, entitled Monet, painting time, focusing on his body of work’s relationship with time. It continues until January 27, 2027.
Bonaro Wilkinson Overstreet (1902-1985), an American author, poet, psychologist, and lecturer, puts us in a good mood for this month: “October is a symphony of permanence and change.”
EiD welcomes your views about this week’s selection of posts on the zero-carbon energy transition:
- Why are we building homes that could become uninsurable?
- Wastewater is too valuable to waste
- Massachusetts shows the wider value of energy efficiency: keeping money at home
- Who should pay for climate damage — taxpayers or fossil fuel companies?
- Bulgaria’s remarkable battery boom
- New analysis from IISD: clean energy investments are saving countries billions during energy crises
- Building transport systems for a less predictable world
- New report from Bruegel on how climate policies can speed up manufacturing decarbonisation in the Western Balkans
- Cheaper electricity — but at what cost?
- Solar is becoming Europe’s energy security shield
Please send your comments on any of the posts. Please recommend EiD to your friends and colleagues.
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