Crypto News: Cuba’s surprise solar savior

There’s an unexpected source of relief helping to mitigate at least some of the energy chaos being experienced by Cuba amid widespread blackouts. Exports of solar cells and modules from the US have surged this year.

Also in today’s edition, the EU plans to push for greater emissions cuts at next month’s COP31 talks in Turkey — and has flagged the bleak outlook for new climate finance commitments. Elsewhere, BBVA says bankers heading to the summit must find ways of mobilizing capital at greater scale.

And new calculations by Bloomberg Intelligence show the size of the opportunity in the EU and UK for industrial companies as governments lift spending to improve infrastructure resilience.

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Keeping the lights on

By Jim Wyss

When Cuba suffered its seventh national blackout this year, the guests at La Campana in Havana kept partying. Thanks to the event center’s solar panels and backup batteries, they didn’t even realize the lights were out.

Cuba’s chronic power woes have made life a misery on the island of 9.4 million people. But that pain is being mitigated by one of the fastest solar adoption rates in the hemisphere. And the US is helping keep at least some of the lights on.

In the first seven months of this year, the US exported $6.3 million worth of solar cells and modules to Cuba, according to US Census data. That’s up 1,070% versus all of 2025, when just $538,000 worth of equipment was shipped to the island from American ports.

Solar panels on private businesses in Havana’s Vedado neighborhood on June 8.

And while China remains the main supplier by far, exports from Cuba’s longtime ally are dropping. By the end of July, the Asian giant had exported $19.5 million in solar equipment to Cuba. That’s down 83% from 2025’s full-year tally, according to data compiled by BloombergNEF.

Another fresh donation of 5,000 solar systems from China arrived in September, yet it’s US shipments that have become a lifeline for average Cubans trying to find a few watts to keep their phones charged or their businesses afloat. Among them is Ramiro Llovet, who runs La Campana out of his home in Havana, hosting weddings, birthdays and corporate gatherings for groups as small as 15 people and as large as 350.

Even as President Donald Trump squeezes Cuba hard in hopes of ousting the Communist Party that’s held power for almost seven decades, his administration is allowing goods to be sent to entrepreneurs on the island like Llovet through a loophole in the longstanding trade embargo.

Trump’s de-facto fuel blockade and ever-tighter sanctions have chased away allies such as Venezuela and Mexico, dovetailing with the president’s push to reassert US dominance of the Western Hemisphere and curb the influence of China and Russia. That’s created space for American exporters to step in, with the resulting surge in cargo shipments helping both to stave off a complete humanitarian collapse in Cuba and to create a dependency on the US in the absence of other benefactors.

The energy crisis is nonetheless forcing the island to dramatically ration power.

Deputy Cuban Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío told Bloomberg News that for the last eight months he’s only had power at his home for two or three hours a day. Trump’s pressure campaign “has successfully intimidated the whole world so it doesn’t export fuel and other products” to Cuba, he said. “That’s an aberration.”

Running out of fuel and frequent breakdowns in Cuba’s aging power plants have made the island increasingly reliant on solar.

Cuba’s 144 solar parks now produce 1,418 megawatts of energy, or about a fifth of total national electric generation, President Miguel Díaz-Canel told state radio last month. In addition, the private sector now produces 20% of its own energy needs.

Trade flow

$650 million

The value of goods shipped to Cuba from US ports so far this year, almost half from Port Everglades in Florida.

Energy progress

“Despite the blackouts, this is an area where we’ve made great strides.”

President Miguel Díaz-Canel

Cuba’s leader commented on progress being made on energy self-sufficiency to state radio last month.

EU maps out COP priorities

By John Ainger, Ewa Krukowska and Frances Schwartzkopff

The European Union will push for a so-called “mitigation package” at the COP31 climate summit next month after a recent United Nations report said the world would breach the key 1.5C temperature goal laid out by the Paris Agreement.

The EU has struggled over the past couple of years to get the world to agree on a faster pace of emissions cuts, or implement a commitment made in 2023 to transition away from fossil fuels. Instead the bloc has become bogged down in issues of finance and trade, and has lost a key ally in the US after President Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement.

COP31 signage near the Antalya Expo venue in Antalya, Turkey on Sept. 30.

At November’s COP31 summit in Antalya, Turkey, the EU will double down on its push to cut emissions globally. Negotiators want to prolong a key “Mitigation Work Programme” negotiating track — a forum for discussing how to best cut emissions — until at least 2040, and lay the groundwork for the key Global Stocktake in 2028, according to a draft document seen by Bloomberg.

The former’s mandate runs until COP31, and the latter is set to track progress that’s been made and outline further steps needed to curb temperature rises this century.

At the same time, “there is no scope” for new climate finance commitments at COP31 and the focus should remain on implementing existing decisions, the EU document says.

This year’s summit isn’t expected to deliver a single major outcome. Instead of an overarching political agreement, the EU will focus on a small number of “tangible priorities,” according to the document.

Turkey, the president of COP31, has announced its ambition to boost global electrification of final energy consumption to 35% by 2035. The EU will weigh whether such a goal is sufficient, or should be predicated on making sure electricity should come from clean sources, the draft document said.

Separately, BBVA SA has warned that bankers heading to COP31 face difficult talks over how to scale green projects in ways that appeal to a larger group of investors.

“We need to mobilize capital at a much greater scale,” Javier Rodríguez Soler, global head of sustainability and corporate and investment banking at BBVA, said by email. “The challenge is not simply finding capital; it is creating enough bankable, scalable and replicable opportunities for that capital to invest in.”

Rodríguez Soler is also co-chair of the COP31 Climate Finance and Investments Working Group, which operates alongside the talks in Turkey to offer recommendations to the summit’s presidency.

“We are increasingly seeing sustainability driven not only by climate objectives, but by competitiveness, energy security, resilience, technology and supply-chain security,” he said. “These are structural economic trends.”

A $561 billion resilience market

By Sofia Gerace and Chloe Meley

Europe’s worsening heat waves, wildfires and floods are prompting governments to increase spending on climate-resilient infrastructure, opening a lucrative new market for industrial companies.

Industrial equipment makers including Schneider Electric SE, ABB Ltd., and Siemens AG stand to benefit from a rush to harden buildings and grids against increasingly extreme weather. EU and UK government investment specifically to make infrastructure more resilient is expected to total about €500 billion ($561 billion) over the next decade, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

Demand for cooling, electrical and grid equipment has been driven by data-center construction in recent years. Climate adaptation is set to provide another growth driver, with investment targeting many of the same technologies used in data centers, including electrical resilience, grid reinforcement and systems to automate building energy use.

“Industrials have done phenomenally well from AI-related demand, and there are murmurings about whether that demand is slightly tempering out,” BI analyst Grace Osborne said in an interview. “Climate adaptation adds a layer of demand.”

Green

Rising Water Bills Have Added to the Squeeze on American Households

Water costs increased by 62% over the past decade, outpacing overall inflation and grocery prices, according to new research by Food & Water Watch.

Australia Climate Ruling to Test $49 Billion Coal Export Sector

Australia’s highest court ruled planning authorities weighing coal mine projects should consider climate change impacts triggered by the use of the fuel, potentially adding challenges for an export sector that generates A$70 billion ($49 billion).

EU Wants to Track Potential Rogue Efforts to Block Out Sun

The European Union has launched a €35 million ($39.4 million) tender to fund research and coordination on, among other things, detecting rogue efforts to alter the earth’s atmosphere by blocking out the sun.

Wildfire Haze Shuts Malaysia Schools and Looms Over Singapore F1

Worsening air pollution driven by wildfires in Indonesia prompted Malaysia to temporarily shut schools in one of its most populated states, just as a major Formula One race in neighboring Singapore approaches.

India’s Richest State Rations Water After Worst Monsoon in Years

Maharashtra, India’s wealthiest state, will cut water supplies to homes by at least 10% after a powerful El Niño left the country with its weakest monsoon in more than a decade.

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