Energy experts have criticised former British prime minister Tony Blair’s call for greater oil and gas extraction, arguing that moving away from the country’s net zero targets would increase long-term economic and climate risks.

The criticism followed an essay by Blair in which he argued that the United Kingdom should use its remaining oil and gas reserves and reconsider its target of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Blair’s position has renewed debate over the future of the UK’s energy policy, particularly as the country faces rising concerns over energy security, extreme weather and the cost of living.Energy specialists said expanding fossil fuel production would not provide a reliable solution to energy challenges and could expose households and businesses to continued volatility in international fuel markets.

Ed Matthew, UK programme director at the climate thinktank E3G, described Blair’s intervention as out of step with current energy and environmental pressures.Matthew said recent heat records and international energy disruptions demonstrated the risks associated with continued dependence on fossil fuels.

He argued that renewable energy offered a more stable alternative because operating costs were low once infrastructure was built.Blair’s comments came as the UK recorded periods of unusually high temperatures and increased solar power generation. Scientists have linked rising temperatures and more frequent heat extremes to climate change driven largely by greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.

Medical professionals warned that extreme heat could increase health risks, particularly for older people and young children. Farmers also reported pressure on livestock and crops, with economic losses expected to exceed hundreds of millions of pounds.The debate has centred on whether the UK should prioritise domestic fossil fuel extraction or accelerate investment in renewable energy and low-carbon technologies.

Supporters of increased oil and gas production argue that domestic resources could improve energy independence and reduce reliance on imported fuels. Critics say fossil fuel markets remain globally connected and that new extraction would not shield consumers from international price changes.

The UK has committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050, a target that requires substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions across electricity generation, transport, industry and buildings.Experts opposing Blair’s proposal said abandoning the target could weaken investment certainty for clean energy industries and slow the development of technologies needed for the transition.

Renewable energy capacity has expanded in recent years, with falling costs making technologies such as solar and wind increasingly competitive. However, the transition also requires improvements in energy storage, grid infrastructure and industrial adaptation.

Blair has previously questioned aspects of current climate policy and argued that energy strategies should focus more heavily on technological development and economic competitiveness.His latest comments have drawn attention because they come during a period of heightened global energy uncertainty.

International conflicts and supply disruptions have contributed to fluctuations in oil and gas prices, reinforcing arguments on both sides of the energy debate.Climate policy experts said the central challenge for governments was balancing energy reliability, affordability and emissions reduction.

They argued that investment decisions made now would influence the UK’s energy system for decades, with consequences for both economic resilience and climate risks.

The ministry said India successfully met a peak power demand of 270.82 gigawatts (GW) on Thursday, marking the fourth straight day of all-time high electricity consumption as soaring temperatures across large parts of the country drove increased use of cooling appliances.

“Although we are prepared to supply electricity as required, due to the intense summer, let us all try to use electricity wisely and judiciously,” the ministry said in a statement, while noting that rising demand appeared to be linked to greater usage of air conditioners, coolers and other cooling equipment.

The warning comes as large parts of northern and central India continue to endure severe heat conditions. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the highest temperature recorded on Thursday was 47.6 degrees Celsius in Banda district of Uttar Pradesh, while New Delhi registered temperatures of around 43 degrees Celsius on Friday.

The heatwave has also pushed nighttime temperatures to unusually elevated levels, limiting relief for residents and increasing electricity consumption around the clock. One of New Delhi’s principal weather stations recorded a minimum temperature of 31.9 degrees Celsius on Thursday, the highest May overnight temperature in the capital in 14 years, IMD data showed.

India’s electricity generation mix remained dominated by thermal power, primarily coal-fired plants, which accounted for 62% of output on Thursday. Solar energy contributed 22%, while wind and hydropower each represented about 5% of generation, according to official data.

Despite the ministry’s assertion that demand was being met, some users reported localized outages on social media platform X. Industry analysts note that extreme heat can strain aging distribution infrastructure, including transformers and local transmission networks, leading to isolated power disruptions even when overall generation capacity remains adequate.

The prolonged heat has also affected water bodies and ecosystems. In New Delhi, municipal workers were seen removing dead fish from Sanjay Park lake after shrinking water levels and high temperatures reduced oxygen concentrations in the water.

India, the world’s most populous nation and the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070 but continues to rely heavily on coal to meet growing energy demand.
Meteorologists have warned that minimum temperatures across the country are likely to remain above normal through May.

The IMD said average minimum temperatures in April were 0.78 degrees Celsius higher than the long-term average nationwide.

Scientific studies have linked the increasing frequency, duration and intensity of heatwaves globally to climate change, with India experiencing a series of increasingly severe summer heat events in recent years.

The country’s highest officially recorded temperature remains 51 degrees Celsius, measured in Phalodi, Rajasthan, in 2016.

A network of U.S. scientists is intensifying efforts to develop more climate-resilient apple trees as increasingly volatile weather patterns threaten orchards across major fruit-growing regions, raising concerns about long-term risks to an industry that generates roughly $23 billion in annual economic activity.

Researchers at Cornell University, the United States Department of Agriculture and several partner institutions are focusing on rootstocks, the underground foundation of commercial apple trees that influences growth, productivity and resistance to environmental stress.

The work has gained urgency since a series of severe temperature swings damaged orchards in the northeastern United States in 2015, an event that some researchers later linked to a phenomenon known as “rapid apple decline.”

Terence Robinson, a horticulture professor at Cornell University, recalled how unusually warm temperatures in February 2015 were followed by a sharp cold snap that swept through New York and into fruit-growing regions of Pennsylvania.“We got a warm-up in February, and then a big cold air mass moved into New York and pushed all the way down into the fruit-growing area of Pennsylvania,” Robinson said.

“In the spring, we started seeing tree damage.”Scientists concluded that the rapid temperature drop, estimated at as much as 65 degrees Fahrenheit within days, disrupted trees that had already begun emerging from winter dormancy. Researchers found particularly severe damage in rootstocks rather than trunks or branches.

The findings drew attention to vulnerabilities in some of the apple industry’s most widely used rootstocks, including the M9 variety developed more than a century ago at England’s East Malling Research Station.Commercial apple trees are typically produced through grafting, a process that combines two different plants.

The upper fruit-bearing portion, known as the scion, comes from commercial varieties such as Gala or Red Delicious. That section is attached to a separate rootstock selected for characteristics including tree size, productivity and disease resistance.

Because rootstocks determine how trees absorb water, respond to stress and tolerate environmental conditions, scientists increasingly view them as central to protecting orchards from climate-related disruptions.Robinson and USDA scientist Gennaro Fazio jointly oversee the Geneva Apple Rootstock Breeding Program, based in Geneva, New York.

The initiative, operated by Cornell University and the USDA, is the only commercial apple rootstock breeding effort in North America focused on developing new foundations for orchards.Since 1968, researchers in the program have crossed and evaluated thousands of apple rootstocks.

Early efforts concentrated largely on disease resistance, particularly protection against fire blight, a destructive bacterial disease affecting apple and pear trees.More recently, researchers have expanded their priorities to include drought tolerance, resistance to high-salinity soils and improved survival during unstable winter conditions.

“We still continue wanting to have a rootstock that is dwarfing, because dwarf orchards are much more profitable, and that produces early,” Robinson said. “We have broadened our list of goals for this program to include drought resistance, tolerance of high-salt-content soils and the ability to withstand more moderate winters.”The process is lengthy.

Developing a commercial rootstock can take decades because scientists must cross parent trees, evaluate offspring for desirable characteristics and test performance across multiple climates and growing conditions.Cornell released its first commercial rootstock in 1997, nearly three decades after the program began.

Some varieties introduced in 2023 originated from genetic crosses first made during the 1970s.“It requires long-term commitment to learn to love apple rootstocks,” Robinson said.Researchers say the challenge has become more complicated because climate variability is increasing faster than orchard replacement cycles.

Apple orchards are typically expected to remain productive for 15 to 30 years, meaning growers must make planting decisions without knowing exactly how weather patterns may evolve over the lifespan of their trees.

Lee Kalcsits, a professor of tree fruit physiology at Washington State University, leads the Strengthening Pear and Apple Resistance to Climate project, known as Sparc, a national research collaboration studying how extreme weather affects fruit trees.

Kalcsits said breeding efforts should prioritize adaptability rather than designing trees for one specific future climate scenario.“We need to be mindful that the rootstocks we select are adaptable,” he said. “It’s not that they’re adapted to a future climate, but that they’re adaptable.”Research published by Kalcsits and colleagues in 2024 found that both fall and spring temperatures are warming in major U.S. apple-growing regions.

Warmer conditions can interfere with the chilling requirements apple trees need before flowering and can also cause trees to leave dormancy earlier, increasing exposure to damaging cold events.Scientists say abrupt winter fluctuations have become a growing concern as climate-driven disruptions to atmospheric circulation allow Arctic air masses to move farther south into the United States.

Robinson said damaging cold snaps have struck major apple-producing areas, including southern Pennsylvania and western Michigan, four times since 2015.Rootstocks can influence how trees respond to those conditions by affecting dormancy timing, cold tolerance and water use.

Some newer rootstocks developed through the Geneva program have shown reduced damage during false springs followed by hard freezes compared with older standards such as M9.Researchers are also turning to wild apple populations from central Asia, where domesticated apples originated, to expand genetic diversity and identify additional stress-resistance traits.

Experimental rootstocks are tested nationwide through a research collaboration known as NC-140, which evaluates orchard performance across multiple states. One test site operates at North Carolina State University’s Mountain Horticultural Crops Research Station near Asheville.

Mike Parker, a tree fruit extension specialist at North Carolina State University, said scientists monitor survival rates, trunk growth, fruit size and yields over many years before recommending new rootstocks to commercial growers.“When we put the replicated trials in multiple states, there’s things that we find out real quick, like that this rootstock is a dog and ain’t going to fly,” Parker said.

“We would much rather kill trees at our research station than have growers lose trees on their farm.”Parker has overseen the university’s rootstock evaluations since 1996 and, like Robinson, is approaching retirement.

Robinson said he is concerned that long-term agricultural breeding programs may struggle to attract younger researchers, many of whom prefer working on commercially visible fruit varieties rather than root systems that can take decades to develop.

He also expressed concern that funding agencies could eventually scale back support for long-duration breeding programs if policymakers conclude that existing rootstocks are sufficient for current industry needs.“I fear that they’ll say: ‘We have enough rootstocks, let’s just close down this effort,’” Robinson said.

“And for things that we’re facing right now, we probably have a good series of rootstocks available. But it’s these emerging problems, that you don’t really think of or didn’t plan for, that you might not be able to respond to if they shut down the program.”

The Copernicus Climate Change Service said sea surface temperatures in April were the second-highest ever recorded for the month, with warming accelerating across parts of the Pacific Ocean as neutral conditions transition toward El Niño.

Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, said daily ocean temperatures in recent days had moved close to surpassing the previous records set in 2024.

“It’s a matter of days before we are back in record-breaking ocean SSTs again,” Burgess told AFP, referring to sea surface temperatures.

Copernicus said marine heatwaves reached unprecedented levels in waters between the tropical Pacific and the United States during April, reflecting broader warming trends tied to both natural climate variability and long-term greenhouse gas emissions.

Last month, the World Meteorological Organization said El Niño conditions could emerge between May and July. The climate phenomenon, linked to warming Pacific Ocean waters and shifting trade winds, alters global weather systems and raises the likelihood of drought, heavy rainfall and severe heat events.

Scientists say El Niño is unfolding against a backdrop of persistent global warming, with oceans absorbing roughly 90 percent of excess heat generated by human-driven emissions from fossil fuels.

The previous El Niño contributed to 2023 and 2024 becoming the second- and hottest years on record respectively, according to climate agencies. Some forecasters believe the developing event could rival the strength of the “super” El Niño recorded in the late 1990s.

Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, said last week that a strong El Niño could significantly increase the chances of 2027 becoming the hottest year ever observed globally.

Burgess cautioned that forecasting the intensity of El Niño during the Northern Hemisphere spring remains difficult because of seasonal uncertainties in climate models. She said, however, that the event was already likely to have substantial global consequences.

“We’re likely to see 2027 exceed 2024 for the warmest year on record,” Burgess said, noting that El Niño’s strongest influence on global temperatures often emerges in the year after it peaks.In its monthly climate bulletin, Copernicus said April temperatures globally were 1.43 degrees Celsius above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average, making it the third-warmest April on record.

The agency also reported Arctic sea ice levels remained near historic lows during April, while Europe experienced contrasting weather conditions that could increase the risk of drought and wildfires during the coming summer.

Climate researchers say the persistence of marine heatwaves, shrinking ice cover and rising global temperatures underscores the intensifying impact of climate change, even before the full effects of El Niño materialize.

The storm is expected to bring heavy rainfall and winds of up to 130 km/h (80 mph), raising concerns about flooding and damage in the country’s most populous urban area. Weather officials said the system is likely to make its closest approach on Sunday.

Cyclone Vaianu is then forecast to track west of the Chatham Islands on Monday, though its impact could still be felt across parts of the region.

Emergency authorities have urged residents in vulnerable areas to follow evacuation instructions and prepare for severe weather conditions as the storm system intensifies.

The fire department said a man in his 50s was found trapped under a car in Nea Makri, northeast of Athens, amid severe weather conditions. Emergency services reported nearly 500 calls across the greater Athens area, including more than 30 rescue operations.

Authorities issued emergency alerts and closed schools in Athens and other regions as the storm intensified. Ferry services, a key transport link for Greece’s islands, remained suspended in many areas due to rough seas.

The national weather service warned of continued severe conditions, forecasting intense rainfall, thunderstorms and possible hail across much of the country.

Localized flooding has already been reported in several areas.On Wednesday, flights to Crete were disrupted after an African dust storm reduced visibility, forcing some aircraft to reroute.

Officials said the storm system, which has affected large parts of the country for three days, is expected to ease by Friday.

Authorities said a vehicle carrying 10 people was caught in a wadi in Barka, where seven individuals were rescued while three others were later found dead. In a separate incident in Al-Maawil, two citizens died after their vehicle was carried away by floodwaters, with their bodies subsequently recovered.

The Civil Defence and Ambulance Authority said emergency teams were deployed to both locations following reports of vehicles being overwhelmed by rising water levels in wadis, which are prone to sudden flooding during periods of intense rainfall.

The agency confirmed that rescue operations resulted in saving seven people from the Barka incident.Officials attributed the fatalities to severe weather conditions affecting parts of the country, though no additional details on rainfall intensity or affected regions were immediately provided.

Oman has faced recurring episodes of deadly flooding in recent years, particularly during periods of heavy rainfall that cause wadis to overflow rapidly. In April 2024, flash floods killed at least 20 people and caused widespread inundation across several areas, highlighting the persistent vulnerability of low-lying zones and road networks to sudden water surges.

Authorities have previously issued warnings about the dangers of crossing flooded wadis, which can turn hazardous within minutes due to upstream rainfall and fast-moving currents.