Flooding and landslides have killed at least 24 people in Ivory Coast’s largest city of Abidjan, following a week of heavy rains that was “four times the usual volume in some cases”, the Associated Press reports. It says: “Flood-related deaths are not uncommon in the west African nation during the rainy season, but according to the Ivorian meteorological agency, the recent rainfall was particularly violent with more than 200mm (8 inches) in some districts, four times the usual amount in a day. Informal settlements are particularly vulnerable because of poor storm drainage among homes often built quickly without zoning regulations.”

In the US, at least two people have been killed in ongoing flooding in the midwest, National Public Radio (NPR) reports. It adds that the floods “sent a river surging around a dam and forced evacuations and rescues”. In central Oregon, gusty winds have helped a large wildfire spread, forcing evacuations, the Associated Press says. In New Mexico, at least eight people are still missing following a wildfire, CNN reports. Reuters says that, according to Booking.com data, US citizens are seeking out cooler parts of the country for 4 July celebrations as much of the nation remains under heat warnings. Puerto Rico has issued an island-wide heat warning for the first time and is suffering power outages amid high temperatures, the Associated Press adds.

In the UK, a frontpage story in the Daily Telegraph says that the country’s National Health Service (NHS) has warned patients to expect “major disruption” as a heatwave coincides with junior doctor strikes. “England’s top doctor said the five-day walkout, which begins on Thursday morning, would be ‘very hard’ because of the impact of soaring temperatures on the elderly and vulnerable,” the newspaper says. BBC News says that much of England is under yellow heat-health alerts amid the strikes.

Finally, in Pakistan, doctors are treating “thousands of heatstroke victims” amid a “days-long heatwave” affecting the south of the country, especially its largest city Karachi, the Associated Press says. And New Zealand’s east coast has been hit by floods, forcing evacuations, Reuters says.

The UK Labour party will increase focus on net-zero “with a dedicated team of officials working to eliminate carbon emissions” if it wins the election, Sky News reports in an “exclusive”. It continues: “The party’s transition team, led by Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Sue Gray, is considering setting up an Office for Net Zero if it forms the next government, sources said, with a focus on delivering its aim for clean power as laid out in its manifesto. It is not yet clear whether the new office would sit within the Cabinet Office – one of the key control centres in government alongside Number 10 and the Treasury – or under the existing Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Desnez).” Politico reports that Labour has pledged to deliver on the UK’s climate finance commitment for 2021-26, despite the current government falling behind. The Financial Times speaks to clean energy entrepreneur and Labour funder Dale Vince, who says Labour’s plan for a state-owned energy company called GB Energy could lead the way in developing new technologies. The i newspaper has a story “inside Labour’s battle to hold on to Bristol Central and see off the Greens”.

In other UK news, several publications including the Times cover the news that the head of Stellantis UK, which owns Vauxhall, has said the company could stop production at its Luton and Ellesmere Port van factories “unless a future government provides cash and tax incentives to stimulate demand for electric vehicles”. The Times says: “Closing Ellesmere Port and Luton, which together employ 2,500 people in Cheshire and Bedfordshire, would end 120 years of vehicle production in the UK, mostly under the Vauxhall brand.” The Daily Telegraph puts the story on its frontpage. The Daily Telegraph also reports that the head of Barclays bank has said it is “unrealistic” to abandon oil and gas. And Politico has a feature on former prime minister Theresa May’s decision to make net-zero her legacy five years ago.

State news agency Xinhua covers Chinese premier Li Qiang’s comments that “China is committed to addressing climate change and has been proactively developing green industries such as new energy” at the World Economic Forum’s summer Davos meetings. Another Xinhua article quotes Li saying that “the green transition itself holds immense potential for development” and that all nations should “create more growth drivers for the green economy”. Li also said that the “regressive actions of decoupling” would “drag the world into a destructive spiral”, according to Bloomberg. Reuters says that Li “used his address…to hit back at accusations” from the US and EU that “cheap green technologies” from China are “flooding their markets”, arguing instead that China’s production of the green goods “first met our domestic demand, but also enrich[es] global supply”. State-run newspaper China Daily publishes a commentary by Chen Liming, Greater China chair at the World Economic Forum arguing that “China, thanks to its emphasis on innovation, has improved energy efficiency, cut the cost of renewable energy, and reduced its reliance on fossil fuels”. Chinese president Xi Jinping has set out a “sweeping vision…to build China into a strong nation in science and technology by 2035”, according to China Daily. [The goal is a pre-existing pledge.] Xinhua publishes the full text of Xi’s speech, in which he pointed to China’s development of “the world’s first fourth-generation nuclear power plant”, Chinese electric vehicles “add[ing] new momentum to the global automotive industry” and “green and low-carbon technologies contribut[ing] to the construction of…a beautiful China” as examples of the importance the Chinese government places on science and technology. Separately, Reuters reports that Canada, “inspired” by the EU and the US, announced “it was considering whether to impose tariffs on China-made electric vehicles”. Chinese economic newspaper Cailian Press calls the move “another unjustified crackdown”.

Meanwhile, as widespread high temperatures sweep across China, “the peak electricity consumption load across the country” will grow more than 100 gigawatts year-on-year during “this summer’s peak period”, which will put “some pressure on ensuring power supply”, China Securities Journal reports. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reports that Beijing has issued its “third-highest heat warning”, with many other parts of northern China also “suffering from heatwaves and droughts”. Xinhua reports that “China’s flood control efforts have entered a critical phase, with 33 rivers nationwide exceeding warning levels by Monday”, adding that “torrential rain” will continue to lash parts of southern China. The Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily carries an article by Wei Ke, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Science’s Institute of Atmospheric Physics, saying that global warming is the “fundamental cause of the increasing frequency of extreme weather events” and a “warning to human society”. In an opinion article in China Daily, Zhang Yongxiang, deputy director of the Climate Change Strategy Research Division and chief researcher of the National Climate Centre, argues that the world needs to face climate change “together” as it is a “common global challenge”.

In Paris on Friday, India’s prime minister Modi said that the country “will achieve most of [its] COP21 climate change goals set for 2030 in the next one-and-a-half years,” Press Trust of India reports. It continues: “In his address to the Indian community at the UNESCO headquarters here, Modi said there was a lot of talk about dangers of climate change,but action was not evident.” The article notes that at COP21 in Paris, “India made four commitments, including reducing greenhouse gas emission intensity of its GDP by 33-35% below 2005 levels by 2030….It also pledged that 40% of India’s power capacity would be based on non-fossil fuel sources and that the country will create an additional ‘carbon sink’ of 2.5 to 3bn tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030”. At the same time, the Scientific American reports on the Indian government’s plans to build “a massive transhipment terminal” on the island of Great Nicobar that will “fell close to a million primeval rainforest trees in its initial phase alone” while endangering the Shompen Indigenous tribe. 

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Delhi’s education minister, Aatishi Marlena was admitted to hospital following a five-day hunger strike to protest a “water crisis” in the capital that she alleges has been brought on by the neighbouring state of Haryana “reduc[ing] its water supply to the capital by 100m gallons per day”, BBC News reports. It adds that The Haryana government “accused Delhi of mismanagement” and blamed state authorities for creating the crisis. According to analysis by nonprofit Climate Central, “warm nights in Indian cities leapfrogged 32% during last decade due to climate change”, Down to Earth reports. Rating agency Moody’s said in a report that “India’s growing water shortage amid its rapid economic growth is detrimental to its credit health as well as industries that heavily consume water, such as coal power generators and steel manufacturing”, Business Standard writes. It adds that “increases in the frequency, severity or duration of extreme climate events, stemming from climate change” could “exacerbate the situation”, given India’s dependence on the monsoon for water supply. In an interview with the Indian Express, the World Meteorological Organisation’s secretary general Prof Celeste Saulo said that the “mortality and the economic cost of heatwaves [are] widely under-reported”, with recent heatwaves in India not only having “a major impact on human health but also education, water resources, agriculture, energy and labour productivity”.

In other news, nearly half of 6,615 rice and wheat farmers surveyed across 20 Indian states “reported crop loss due to the last extreme weather event to hit them”, Hindustan Times reports, “with 50% losing at least half their standing rice crop during the event, while 42% lost at least half of their standing wheat crop”. Covering the same report, Scroll.in writes that “rain-related events were hurting India’s marginal farmers more significantly than other adverse weather conditions”, including extreme heat. Context.News, meanwhile, reports on the “race [e] to develop and distribute a broad range of climate-resilient wheat varieties that could prove vital to shoring up food security for [India’s] 1.4bn people”. While the New York Times looks at solutions to “beat the heat”, such as a “tiny new insurance program that acts as a safety net on days of dangerous heat”, experts told Mongabay that “India’s experience with parametric insurance is still a work-in-progress” and that “it must complement existing climate adaptation strategies, and not replace them”.

The Guardian speaks to John Podesta, senior adviser to Joe Biden on international climate policy, about its role in providing climate finance, its gas expansion and how the US election could affect climate negotiations. Podesta tells the Guardian: “The US is in a position to be a leader in the effort [to supply climate finance to the poorer world]. We intend to continue the leadership and be very aggressive in the negotiations during the course of this year.” On US gas expansion, Podesta tells the Guardian: “The US is now the number one producer of oil and gas in the world, the number one exporter of natural gas, and that’s a good thing, because following the illegal invasion of Ukraine, and the need that Europe had to rely on different sources rather than Russia fossils, it was important that the US could step up and supply a good deal of that need. But over time, the science is clear, we’ve got to transition away and begin to replace those resources with both zero-carbon electricity and renewable resources.” Podesta would not be drawn on a timeframe for transitioning away from fossil fuels, the Guardian adds.

A story trailed on the frontpage of the Financial Times says that Denmark is introducing the world’s first carbon tax on agriculture, “with cattle farmers set to be charged almost €100 a year for the greenhouse gas emissions from each of their cows”. It continues: “After months of fraught negotiations with trade bodies and environmental groups, Denmark’s ruling coalition on Monday night agreed an effective tax rate of DKr120 (€16) per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions from livestock, including cows and pigs…Countries around the world are struggling to cut emissions from food production – which accounts for almost a quarter of global emissions including land use changes – while maintaining food security.”

UN chief Antonio Guterres has unveiled a set of principles aimed at stopping the spread of online misinformation, disinformation and hate speech, Business Standard reports. The initiative is “aimed to prioritise human rights and support sustainable development, climate action, democracy, and peace” Guterres said, according to the newspaper. Addressing advertisers and the public relations industry, Guterres “pointed [to the] climate crisis as a particular concern, noting that coordinated disinformation campaigns are undermining climate action”, the outlet adds. It continues: “He advised creatives not to use their talents to greenwash and urged PR agencies to seek clients who do not mislead people or harm the planet.”

The Financial Times has a special report on the energy transition. It includes an article on why global investment in clean energy is now at twice the spending on fossil fuels but still far below what is needed to reach climate goals. It also includes articles titled “Big Oil under pressure to recalibrate green transition goals”; “12 start-ups tackling the energy transition”; “Strategic interests galvanise Gulf’s renewables spending”; “Coal push damps hopes of China’s climate ambition” and “Energy poverty and funding hurdles hold back Africa’s green transition”.

Elsewhere, the FT has a column by science journalist Anjana Ahuja on whether geoengineering could help Earth tackle climate change.

The Sun publishes another editorial criticising Labour’s climate policies, urging Labour leader Keir Starmer to abandon them. It says: “How long before the next government wakes up and changes course on net-zero? A week? A year? Two? Make no mistake, it has to happen. As it stands, Keir Starmer will be in power in nine days. And while for now he may be swallowing Ed Miliband’s mad eco zealotry, even a big Labour majority will not overcome reality.” [The Sun was one of several right-leaning newspapers to appear to “change its mind” on climate change around the time of COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, launching a “green team” to cover the latest in climate news.] The Daily Telegraph has a column on how the UK’s ban on the sale of new petrol cars risks “devastating Britain’s auto industry”.

The Chinese government has employed economic incentives to offset the financial impact of green energy transition, but “these measures may not fully address the underlying issue of climate apathy, wherein individuals prioritise immediate interests over long-term climate concerns”, a new study says. Surveying 4,700 Chinese adults each year for three years, the study investigates the connection between income poverty and climate policy support. The findings reveal that “income poverty results in lower climate policy support, with climate apathy explaining 38.29% of this effect, while economic burden accounts for only 8%”. (Here, economic burden refers to “the forfeiture of personal benefits”.) The authors add: “Moreover, compared to economic burden, climate apathy has a stronger impact on policy support in regions with different levels of economic development.”