Axios

The Biden administration plans to identify and lease federal waters along seven coastal areas to offshore wind power developers over the next few years, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced Wednesday.

Why it matters: The new plan constitutes an aggressive push by the federal government to reach its goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind-generating capacity in U.S. waters by 2030.

A major new report provides a stark warning ahead of the UN climate summit: Yes, clean-tech deployment is really surging, but energy systems are still transforming far too slowly to rein in global warming.

Driving the news: The International Energy Agency is out with its big annual World Energy Outlook, a 386-page trove of data and analysis.

Google Cloud is partnering with five sustainability-focused companies to offer public and private sector customers new ways of anticipating and reducing their climate risk exposure, among other applications, the company announced Tuesday.

Why it matters: With more climate and sustainability-related data being generated than ever, a premium is being placed on finding ways to gain insights from the firehose of information.

Indian auto heavyweight Tata Motors is planning a major expansion of its electric vehicle lineup, staked by the big TPG Rise Climate fund and Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund ADQ.

Driving the news: Tata is creating a new unit that aims to develop a portfolio of 10 EVs over the next five years and, working with Tata Power, build out charging infrastructure in India, the company said.

About 100 Central California properties and a shuttered oil refinery were under threat overnight from a rapidly growing wildfire that forced the closure of a major highway near Santa Barbara, per the Los Angeles Times.

The big picture: The Alisal Fire that ignited near the Alisal Reservoir on Monday has grown to 13,400 acres with 5% containment, officials said. Nearly 800 firefighters are now battling the wind-driven blaze that caused thousands of people to evacuate.

This year is bringing the second-largest global carbon emissions jump on record as fossil fuel use rebounds after 2020's pandemic-fueled downturn, a new International Energy Agency report finds.

Why it matters: It shows how, despite surging renewables, the global energy system remains far from an emissions-slashing pathway that achieves Paris agreement goals for limiting global warming.

The Biden administration on Tuesday revamped its main climate science website, climate.gov, and launched a push into developing new tools that can provide people with information about the climate risks they face.

Why it matters: The push into what the administration defines as "climate services" comes in response to a mandate from President Biden to put more actionable climate intelligence into the hands of local leaders and everyday Americans.

Weather and climate disasters in 2021 have killed 538 people in the U.S. and cost over $100 billion, according to a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Why it matters: The first nine months of 2021 saw the largest number of billion-dollar disasters in a calendar year so far, with 2021 on pace for second behind 2020, per the report.

A lot of discussion about oil companies' climate efforts compares U.S. and European majors, but a new report shows there's no strategic consensus in the wider industry.

Driving the news: Deloitte's analysis says separate approaches have emerged as companies prepare for long-term declines in demand in a world that will still likely use huge amounts of oil for decades.

China's energy crisis is a wild card in the fraught efforts to secure a meaningful deal at the UN climate summit in Glasgow.

Driving the news: Power shortages and the push for more coal supplies are in tension with calls for Chinese officials to accelerate their climate efforts.

Nations’ follow through — or lack thereof — on pledges made at the looming UN climate summit will help determine the long-term fate of tens of millions of people living in coastal megacities threatened by rising seas.

Why it matters: The delayed response of the climate system, with seas that warm and expand slowly and ice sheets that can take centuries to reach equilibrium — long after air temperatures have leveled off, means the stakes of COP26, and government decisions in coming years, are extraordinarily high.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Monday that the state's Justice Department is investigating the massive oil spill off Orange County's Huntington Beach coastline.

Why it matters: It's "an environmental disaster with far-reaching consequences for our fish and wildlife, for our communities, and for our economy," Bonita said in a statement.