June 2026 – Week 1

By Anders Lorenzen

In this week’s live blog, we are taking a broader look across climate and energy, covering the key news, developments and comments.

As part of an expanded focus on real-time coverage, this live blog will continue to track developments across global energy markets, including electricity prices, oil and gas benchmarks, and renewable generation trends. But we will also track key climate news and events, including impacts such as extreme weather events as they happen.

It is updated every day throughout the week with the most significant developments around energy and climate.

Last week’s live blog can be found here.

This blog has now closed, but this week’s live blog is live and can be found here.

Latest

Friday 5th of June 2026

10:30 GMT

Oil supply: The IEA have repeated warnings of record-low oil inventories and added that we may reach historical low levels.

Earlier updates

10:10 GMT

Food security: In an article we published yesterday, Máximo Torero, the Chief Economist of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), argued that food prices are set to rise due to interconnected global shocks from crises like the Hormuz blockade, saying it requires urgent resilience-building measures.

Torero stated:

The world is entering an age of shocks, where crises are no longer isolated events but interconnected disruptions with global consequences. COVID-19 exposed vulnerabilities in global supply chains. The war in Ukraine has disrupted food and energy markets. Now, the Strait of Hormuz crisis is revealing how tightly interconnected energy, fertiliser, and food markets have become.

He urged governments to urgently prioritise:

In the long term, countries must focus on building structural resilience. That means investing in diversified ports, roads, railways, warehouses, logistics hubs, and alternative trade corridors to reduce dependence on chokepoints. Countries should also establish strategic fertiliser reserves, enhance regional and domestic connectivity, and invest in cleaner and more resilient energy systems for agriculture.

Read the full article below:

Thursday 4th of June 2026

19:10 GMT

Wind power: Several US states have joined forces and sued the Trump Administration on the back of the US government paying off the French energy giant TotalEnergies for not pursuing an already agreed offshore wind project.

State attorneys general from Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont joined New York in challenging the cancellation of the lease off New York, the larger of the two projects and the bulk of the payout. They say it will harm their states’ economies, energy grids and climate goals.

11:50 GMT

Extreme heat: The records keep coming in from May’s European heatwave.

Spain say they have recorded the highest ever May heat-related deaths.

Wednesday 3rd of June 2026

15:10 GMT

Net-zero: Analysis from the UK business group CBI Economics has highlighted just how important the green economy is to the wider UK economy.

Their report found that the value of the net-zero industry is a whopping £105bn, supports over a million jobs, and crucially is responsible for 4% of the UK’s economic output.

Additionally, it found that there is a net-zero pipeline of £0.5 trillion of investments, and it grows wages as on average net-zero jobs is around 11% higher than the national average.

Net-zero is a broad industry and encompasses such as solar panel installation, energy efficiency and home insulation, wind turbine manufacturing, installation and electric vehicles and battery production, hydrogen production and carbon capture and storage (CCS)

Tuesday 2nd of June 2026

23:05 GMT

Oil price: Oil futures have continued a moderate climb this week, with Brent Crude gaining 2% Monday and Tuesday, respectively, and WTI with a slightly larger jump of 4% and 3%, respectively.

17:20 GMT

Oil supply: Venezuela, the country with the world’s largest proven oil reserves and where the oil industry at the moment is controlled by the US government after they captured its then-leader, Nicolas Maduro, in January, continues to gradually increase its daily output. In May, they increased their oil output to 1.25 mbd, according to shipping data.

10:45 GMT

Extreme weather: The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has reacted to WMO’s El Niño update. Its chief advisor on climate change, Dr Ruth Fuller, responded:

El Niño will amplify the impacts of climate change, pushing an already overheating planet into more dangerous territory for people and nature. It increases the risk and severity of Amazon forest fires, damages ocean ecosystems and disrupts weather patterns around the world.

Here in the UK, with May temperatures already breaking records, extreme weather is becoming the new normal, putting lives, livelihoods and wildlife at risk. We need to end our dependence on fossil fuels, invest in clean energy, and restore nature at scale.

09:45 GMT

Extreme weather: the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has just held a briefing about the weather phenomenon El Niño and to what degree it is exacerbated by climate change.

The UN body has shared the following key messages about what is driving the weather phenomenon in 2026:

• Warm ocean waters are fueling the development of El Niño
• El Niño typically increases global temperatures and drives more extreme weather and rainfall patterns
• Above average temperatures forecast nearly everywhere for June to August
• Advanced forecasts help in preparations to protect lives and livelihoods
• Time for informed decision-making, planning and preparedness is now

You can watch the press conference below:

WMI press conference on El Niño.

00:45 GMT

Extreme heat: One of the world’s major tennis tournaments, the Grand Slam Roland Garros in Paris, France, is yet again playing host to how athletes are struggling against extreme heat.

The tournament drew headlines for all the wrong reasons as the world no 1 Jannik Sinner was knocked out, struggling to cope with extremely high temperatures.

Sinner, who was on a 30-match winning streak and the clear favourite to take another title at Roland Garros, suffered an early exit in the second round. He was up two sets and 5-1 and appeared to be in total control. Then the sizzling 33°C heat caused, at first, dizziness, then a medical timeout, 16 straight points lost. The normally very consistent best male tennis player was defeated by a player ranked 56th.

Monday 1st of June 2026

12:55 GMT

Extreme heat: More from the Met Office, as our calendars read the 1st of June and meteorological summer begins in Europe and the northern hemisphere, they chronicle how summer has changed in the UK in recent decades.

Their explainer looks at trends such as how the summer of 2025 compares to the record-breaking summer of 1976 and the first measurements of 40 degrees C in 2022.

12:50 GMT

Extreme heat: The UN body, the World Meteorological Organisation, and the UK’s Met Office last week released a report warning that more temperature records are ahead.

The organisation predict that in the next five years we will see the global temperature record broken again.

Saturday 30th of May 2026

19:45 GMT

Oil price: The oil futures are again reacting to geopolitical news, as Brent Crude and WTI on Friday reached a two month low after another surge in optimism of a US-Iranian peace deal.

Friday 29th of May 2026

19:15 GMT

Heatwave: The record-breaking heatwave in the UK has exposed the country’s infrastructure as one that is not fit to deal with extreme heat events, as some areas in England ran out of water.

01:40 GMT

Temperature records: Portugal has joined the UK and also recorded a new all-time high temperature for May.

The country recorded 40.3°, measured in the central town of Mora, beating the previous record of 40°C set in May 2001.