Global coal financing has held near $117 billion a year since COP26, with Urgewald tracking $467 billion in loans and underwriting from 744 banks to thermal coal companies between 2022 and 2025, 62% of it from Chinese lenders and 14% from US banks. EU-headquartered banks cut annual coal financing 46% to $2.6 billion by 2025, while UK banks increased support 17%, led by Barclays at $5.7 billion over four years and a 34% annual rise to $1.6 billion. In contrast, Chinese annual coal financing climbed to $75 billion, US banks to $16.7 billion, and South Korean banks more than doubled exposure to $1.75 billion, signalling capital is concentrating in jurisdictions with weaker coal policies.

Washington’s post-2025 critical minerals strategy is now backing more than 180 projects with tools such as equity stakes, loans, offtake guarantees and price floors, including $7.6 billion in non-equity support for rare earth and magnet projects in the 18 months to June. The Pentagon has taken $400 million in preferred shares and a $150-million loan in MP Materials, while guaranteeing a $110/kg neodymium-praseodymium floor price and magnet offtake from a second Texas plant, and the Department of Energy has issued a $2.23-billion loan plus warrants for Lithium Americas’ Thacker Pass. A conditional $725-million loan to Energy Fuels and over two dozen mineral agreements with partners from Australia to the DRC signal a deliberate build-out of non-Chinese mining, separation and refining capacity, with CRU projecting Chinese market share erosion by 2030.

The Institution of Engineering and Technology has launched the 2026–27 IET Faraday Challenge with a new flexible format allowing schools, youth groups and home-educating families to run engineering design challenges on their own timetable rather than fixed competition days. Teams of 6–8 students aged 12–13 will work on a real-world brief from an industry partner, using standardised kits of electronic components and structural materials supplied by the IET. The format is intended to widen access beyond well-resourced schools and give more pupils early exposure to structured engineering problem-solving.