Leaders from the eight countries of the Amazon river basin have signed the Belém Declaration – an agreement to work together to conserve the world’s largest rainforest, the New York Times reports. The document emerged from a “groundbreaking” meeting convened by Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the city in northern Brazil, which is also set to host the COP30 climate summit in 2025, the newspaper notes. The agreement “sets the groundwork” for coordination between Amazon countries on law enforcement to combat illegal mining and logging, “as well as between banks assigned to pool development funds for conservation and sustainable employment for the region’s inhabitants”. It also includes the creation of an Amazon-specific climate-focused scientific panel. The Guardian quotes Lula’s remarks at the start at the summit in which he vowed to haul the Amazon out of centuries of violence, economic “plundering” and environmental devastation – including that led by his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro – and into “a new Amazon dream”. However, as BBC News reports, the meeting failed to persuade leaders to unite behind a common policy of ending deforestation by 2030, a goal that has already been adopted by Brazil and Colombia. Reuters adds that “fellow Amazon countries also rebuffed Colombia’s leftist president Gustavo Petro’s ongoing campaign to end new oil development in the Amazon”. Lula himself has “refrained from taking a definitive stance on oil” as Brazil’s state-run Petrobras company seeks to explore for it near the mouth of the Amazon River, according to the Associated Press. Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reports that the Brazilian mining and energy minister Alexandre Silveira “denied the scientific consensus” that new fossil-fuel investments must stop to meet the Paris Agreement target of limiting warming to 1.5C, when asked about it at a press conference. Folha de S.Paulo, which says it had access to a draft copy of the Belém Declaration, also reports that it contained a “message to the EU”. Specifically, the document includes an imperative to “condemn the proliferation of unilateral trade measures that, based on environmental requirements and standards, translate into trade barriers and affect mainly small producers in developing countries”. (Presumably, this refers to the EU’s move to ban the import of products linked with deforestation.)

July has been confirmed as the hottest month on record for the planet by the EU’s Earth observation scheme Copernicus, the Times reports. Heatwaves across southern Europe, China and the US meant the global average temperature reached 16.95C in July, a “staggering” 0.33C warmer than the agency’s previous monthly temperature record, which was set in July 2019, the newspaper continues. Politico says last month also saw a new record for the world’s hottest day, as temperatures on 6 July reached 17.08C – and every day between 3-31 July broke the previous 16.80C record set in August 2016. It adds that the findings “validate earlier estimates” that have also been widely reported by the press. As the Financial Times explains, ​​Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) had already predicted the month would exceed the highest recorded temperatures. According to Copernicus researchers, 2023 is on track to be the third warmest year to date, at 0.43C above the recent average, with the average global temperature in July at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, the Guardian reports. (Carbon Brief’s latest “state of the climate” analysis recently said that 2023 is now likely to be the hottest year on record.) Le Monde emphasises the role of climate change, stating: “About 1.2C of global warming since the late 1800s, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, has made heatwaves hotter, longer and more frequent.” According to the Daily Mail, the Copernicus data shows that it is not just air surface temperatures that set records, noting it has “already revealed that the global average temperatures for the world’s oceans hit their highest ever on 31 July”. Dr Samantha Burgess, deputy director at Copernicus, is quoted in the Independent saying: “These records have dire consequences for both people and the planet exposed to ever more frequent and intense extreme events.”

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that millions of people in parts of Portugal and Spain “opted to stay inside on Tuesday” during the second day of a heatwave that has swept the Iberian peninsula. It says the temperatures, which have hit amid peak tourist season, have spurred the spread of wildfires. The Independent reports that more than 1,400 people have been evacuated from Portuguese wildfires and temperatures have reached 46.4C in the city of Santarém. In a separate story, Politico notes that the number of firefighters in the EU is declining – with 2,800 fewer employed last year than in 2021 – even as the bloc “faces more wildfires as a result of climate change”.

There is further coverage of new research into recent extremes across Antarctica, which the lead author, Prof Martin Siegert of Exeter University, tells New Scientist has left him “shocked”. In its report on the findings, Channel 4 News notes that Antarctica has seen its “lowest ever recorded levels of sea ice this year and last year”. Siegert also appears in an interview on Channel 4 News to discuss the findings and, specifically, the impact of melting sea ice in the region, noting that Antarctica acts as a massive store of ice which has the potential to raise sea levels considerably if it melts. The Guardian reports on a separate study that concludes the hole in the ozone layer has “begun to form early this year”, leading to warnings that a larger-than-average hole may further warm the Southern Ocean at a time when the level of Antarctic sea ice is at a record low.

Australia has prioritised climate action and job creation in the Pacific in its new foreign aid policy as “part of an effort to woo back island nations that have fallen under China’s deep-pocketed influence”, the Washington Post reports. Prime minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor government has announced it will direct at least half of all investments valued over $2m to climate-focused projects by June 2025, rising to 80% of investments by 2029, the newspaper continues. The Sydney Morning Herald describes the move as an attempt at “an appealing alternative to Beijing’s controversial Belt and Road infrastructure initiative and so-called ‘debt-trap’ model of diplomacy”. At the same time, the newspaper cites “senior Labor sources” who say the party’s commitment to spend 0.5% of gross domestic income on foreign aid was “not achievable” in the near future and was “not a priority for the government”. ABC News says “Australia’s foreign aid budget in 2023-24 amounts to AUD$4.7bn ($3.1bn) and is set to grow in years ahead, but the new strategy comes with no new funding commitments”. It also notes that “as much as a fifth of public debt in the Pacific was owed to China as of the middle of last year”. An article in the South China Morning Post is headlined: “Australia’s bid to become a ‘multilateral player’ in Indo-Pacific at risk over lack of funding.” Writing in the Conversation, Melissa Conley Tyler, an honorary fellow in the Asia Institute of the University of Melbourne, says the funding for the Pacific “is presented as responding to the calls of our region and evidence of the accelerating climate crisis by increasing our climate investments and better addressing climate risks”.

NBC reports that the “summer in China so far has been a season of extremes, with the country lurching between stifling, unrelenting heat and heavy, monsoonal rainfall”. It continues that the majority of China’s agricultural areas have been impacted by the monsoon and, according to farmers, the situation is deteriorating due to the “increasing frequency of extreme weather occurrences”. The Economic Daily, a Chinese financial outlet, says that “the cessation of heavy rainfall does not mean that flood control and flood prevention alerts can be lifted”.

Meanwhile, Reuters says that China’s coal imports “remained elevated in July after overseas purchases nearly doubled in the first half of 2023”, as utilities continued to bring in “cheaper supplies” to meet peak summer power demand. China’s General Administration of Customs is quoted by the outlet saying that the world’s top coal consumer imported 39m metric tons of coal last month.

Separately, the Chinese online outlet Dianlianxinmei carries the views of experts on China’s new policy for “green [electricity] certificates”. The state news agency Xinhua reports that China has released a guideline on the “industry standard for hydrogen energy”. Another Xinhua article says that, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), retail sales of “new energy [electric] vehicles” in China increased 32% year on year in July. 

In other news, Asia Financial writes that, if the world fails to reduce carbon emissions and address the economic consequences of climate change, numerous countries will experience increased costs in servicing their debts, including China, the US and India. State owned media China Daily carries a comment piece by Tang Wei and Wang Mengxue from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. They write: “Climate cooperation should be based on extensive consultation on an equal footing for win-win results, instead of a framework where the US sets the rules and China acts as an outlier.” Another comment piece in China Daily is written by Wu Hao from Beijing Foreign Studies University who says: “To strengthen Sino-Japanese third-party market cooperation in the context of carbon neutrality, carbon neutrality should be set as a general goal for the third-party country’s green development plan.” Finally, a state-backed news site China.org has a comment piece by Tom Fowdy, a British columnist working for Chinese state broadcaster CGTN, titled: “China takes the lead on renewable energy push.” 

The Edison Electric Institute (EEI), a major utility trade group, has asked the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to revise its proposed power plant standards, which rely on the widespread commercial availability of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and low-emissions green hydrogen, Reuters reports. The group argues that the plan to cut emissions relies too heavily on “costly technologies that are not yet proven at scale”, according to the newswire. “Proposed in May, the EPA plan would for the first time limit how much CO2 power plants can emit, after previous efforts were struck down in court,” the article continues. Bloomberg also covers the story, noting that the comments have been filed with the federal government even as environmental groups have issued similar feedback calling on the EPA to go further.

The UK’s right-leaning press continues its coverage focused on undermining the country’s suite of net-zero policies. The Daily Telegraph reports that, following its own frontpage story and “a backlash from Conservative MPs”, government sources have suggested that a 2026 ban on new oil boilers in off-grid homes “could be watered down”. It says boilers may be allowed, “as long as they run on greener fuels” with “an acceptance within the government that heat pumps will not be suitable for all homes”. The newspaper quotes George Eustice, the former environment secretary, who has described “forcing” households to switch from boilers to electric heat pumps would be like a “rural Ulez” – referring to the controversial measures in London intended to discourage use of fossil-fuelled vehicles and, thus, cut toxic air pollution. In its coverage, the Daily Mail [not yet online] says prime minister Rishi Sunak faces a “revolt” from Conservative MPs on the issue, noting that “more than 30” of them wrote a letter to him about it in February. (It does not say that these MPs form a small, organised cluster of climate-sceptic MPs.) The Times says the Countryside Alliance says the oil boiler ban will have a “disproportionate impact” in rural areas, adding that “nearly half of Conservative constituencies have a higher than average number of off-grid households”. The newspaper also notes that “Tories on the party’s right have put pressure on the prime minister to weaken green commitments to win back voters”. BusinessGreen has a piece summarising the unfolding oil boiler debate.

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail devotes more than a page of its “Money Mail” section – which it promotes on its frontcover – to a piece on “why the heat pump hard sell is a load of hot air”. In order to “investigate” this topic, it solely seeks advice from Mike Foster, chief executive of energy trade association the Energy and Utilities Alliance, who is a lobbyist for gas boilers and, therefore, unsurprisingly, comes down on the side of gas boilers over heat pumps. 

The Sun reports that the opposition Labour party is “under mounting pressure” to cut ties with an aspiring MP, Alistair Strathern, who has been revealed by the newspaper to be an “eco-zealot”. This refers to a protest he took part in with Greenpeace – dressed as a zombie – against the government’s recent Public Order Act, which restricts the right to protest. Strathern has been selected to fight the Mid-Bedfordshire seat when it is vacated by Tory MP Nadine Dorries, but Conservative party chair Greg Hands has written to Labour leader Keir Starmer, demanding his party “formally confirm that people with links to disruptive eco-zealot groups will not be permitted to stand for election as Labour candidates”, according to the newspaper. The Financial Times has published a related article titled: “Tory attacks on Labour show election campaigning has begun.” It reports that “Starmer’s allies say he will soon make it clear that he will not support the creation of similar Ulez schemes in other cities”. This follows a backlash over a by-election loss in Uxbridge to the Conservatives, supposedly resulting from Labour’s support for the Ulez.

Adam Bell, former head of energy at the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, tells City AM the government will have to be “brave” in the face of local opposition to its electrification plans, which include hundreds of miles of new pylons. Another City AM story quotes Orrai Nadjari, founder and former chief executive of BritishVolt, who says the UK government lacks “innovative thinking” and a “joined up industrial strategy” to support the UK’s electric vehicle industry. Amid all of this, BusinessGreen reports on new polling from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), which finds that 70% of the public support the government’s net-zero goal, with just 18% opposed.

Finally, with a striking frontpage featuring the planet on fire behind the words “who will stop the planet burning”, the Evening Standard has an “exclusive” interview with Jim Skea, the new chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).  In it, he says political leaders have a “particular responsibility” as the “ringmasters or ringmistresses” to lead the fight against climate change.

The Daily Telegraph has an editorial once again taking aim at the UK’s net-zero policies and suggesting they should be scrapped altogether. It says the government is “facing an uprising in its own Tory heartlands against a key element of its net-zero climate policy”. This refers to a pushback against plans to scrap new oil boilers – which are currently used by only around 5% of the population – from 2026 and introduce electric heat pumps instead. “The dilemma facing ministers is that they are bound by statute to meet certain carbon reduction targets and are searching around for ways to do so,” the editorial states, referring to the Climate Change Act and the legally binding net-zero target. “If Tory MPs want the government to push the deadline for boilers back or abandon the prohibition altogether, then ministers could be obliged to find the carbon savings elsewhere. The only answer would be to amend or repeal the legislation,” it concludes. [The terms of the act allowing this are very restrictive.]

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail has an editorial pressuring Labour to abandon aspiring MP Alistair Strathern as its candidate for an upcoming by-election, on the grounds that he participated in a protest with Greenpeace. It says keeping him on suggests Labour “tacitly condones the methods” used by climate groups such as Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil. Writing in the Sun, the climate-sceptic commentator Douglas Murray writes that “something is shifting” as he feels the consensus on climate action is starting to break down in the UK. “When it comes to climate policy the fantasy is finally meeting reality. People are indeed starting to boil. But it is with rage at the costs being imposed on us,” he writes.

Financial Times columnist Pilita Clark reflects on China’s rise to dominance in low-carbon technologies and its lessons for other countries. She says when she visited the country in 2014 she found policymakers there were divided on climate policy. “China had climate sceptics, too, with one big difference. They claimed climate change was a capitalist plot to stop developing countries industrialising. Western sceptics said it was a socialist hoax designed to undermine capitalism,” she writes. However, she adds that, subsequently, China “embraced a sweeping green growth strategy” with “a leader in the manufacture and deployment of renewables, batteries and electric vehicles, with a grip on many critical minerals these technologies need”. Clark says that the US, EU and others have entered the race to scale up such technologies, “but not the UK”. She concludes: “The long-term dangers of falling behind in the global economy of the future have never been so apparent.”

A new study deems the simultaneous drought and heatwave in 2022 “unprecedented” in the modern record for large parts of Northern Italy, Iberian Peninsula and western France. The authors estimated the return period of the event, a measure of how often a similar size event is expected to occur, and found return periods of 354, 420 and 280 years, respectively. The authors note that hot and dry weather earlier in the year intensified the drought and heatwave by causing the soil to lose moisture. Global warming will increase the risk of “compound” events, with implications for crop damage, water shortages and wildfires, the paper concludes.