The “dangerous and extremely powerful” Hurricane Beryl has made landfall on the Caribbean island of Carriacou, one of the islands of Grenada, the Associated Press reports. According to the newswire, Beryl brought winds of up to 150mph and was “just shy” of a category five storm. It continues: “Hurricane warnings remained in effect for Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines as thousands of people hunkered down in homes and shelters. The last strong hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada. NBC Radio in St Vincent and the Grenadines said it received reports of roofs being torn off churches and schools as communications began collapsing across the southeast Caribbean.” The newswire quotes the US National Hurricane Centre calling the event “an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation”. The Washington Post says that there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries, but carries a warning from the Grenadian prime minister Dickon Mitchell, who said “that may change quickly…In half an hour, Carriacou was flattened.” It continues: “Beryl shattered records as it strengthened in unusually warm waters. On Sunday, it became the Atlantic’s first storm on record to reach Category 4 intensity in June, and then Monday it surpassed Hurricane Dennis as the strongest Atlantic hurricane to form so early in a year…And Beryl is the strongest hurricane to hit the southernmost Windward Islands in about 174 years of record-keeping, meteorologists said.” The newspaper reports that in a live-streamed media briefing, Mitchell said that in Carriacou and neighbouring Petite Martinique, there was “no electricity, limited communication and reports of extensive destruction of roofs and damage to buildings”. He also said that on the island of Grenada, a hospital and a police station were among the buildings damaged, it notes. It continues: “It’s still too early to say which landmass is next in line to be struck by Beryl after the Lesser Antilles, but Jamaica, Cuba and Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula in particular are at risk. The odds of Beryl entering the Gulf of Mexico as a hurricane are low, but not zero, though that possibility would not arise until the weekend. The risk to the US is very low.” NowGrenada reports that around 3,000 people sought refuge in shelters. The Guardian reports that Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, has “decried a lack of political will in western Europe and the US to tackle global climate crisis” in the aftermath of the hurricane. The paper adds: “Torrential rain and gale-force winds downed power lines, smashed vehicles and forced thousands into shelters. Videos posted on social media showed aluminium roofing sheets gliding through the air. In a statement late Monday, Gonsalves said that on Union Island, 90% of houses had lost their roofs or been severely damaged.”

Separately, BBC News explains how climate change is impacting hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones. It explains: “Globally, the frequency of tropical cyclones has not increased, and in fact the number may have fallen, although long-term data is limited in some regions. But it is ‘likely’ that a higher proportion of tropical cyclones across the globe are reaching category three or above, meaning they reach the highest wind speeds, according to the UN’s climate body, the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change].” The Washington Post reports on a team of researchers using sediment cores from lake beds to study ancient hurricanes, under the subheading “their work suggests oceans are capable of producing hurricane seasons far more relentless than anything modern society has seen so far”.

Ahead of Thursday’s general election, the opposition Labour party’s shadow energy security and net-zero secretary Ed Miliband has promised to restore UK leadership on climate action, in a frontpage interview with the Guardian. The newspaper reports: “Miliband says the party would put climate front and centre of its plans in government, promising to reverse the ban on onshore wind in the immediate days after parliament returns after the election. He said it was also a chance to fundamentally change course on climate and to make that case on the world stage. ‘We have taken the manifesto position we have because we think it is the right thing now,’ he said in an interview with the Guardian. ‘But it is also right that we fill the vacuum of leadership on this issue. We now have a government that is explicitly going along with the climate delayers. We have to change course as a country and as a world. And this election is an opportunity for us to change course.’” The newspaper adds: “Miliband is to become one of the most influential figures in the expected next Labour government and one of very few with direct cabinet experience.” It continues: “Miliband said his experience from the 2015 election taught him not to believe the polls – and that in seats with wafer-thin majorities a vote for small parties would risk allowing the Conservatives back in. ‘Do not vote Green and wake up with a Tory government,’ he said. And he also said he would not defend the actions of climate protesters like Just Stop Oil, accusing them of being part of breaking the consensus on climate and being ‘deeply counterproductive’.” In an interview with the Daily Mail, meanwhile, Conservative energy secretary Claire Coutinho “said Labour’s race to decarbonise the electricity system by 2030 would push up bills and risk energy blackouts”. [Analysis by consultancy Aurora, which Coutinho has repeatedly cited in the past, found bills would be lower under Labour’s 2030 target than the government’s own 2035 goal.] Coutinho “warned that [Labour’s] plan to ban new exploration in the North Sea would jeopardise energy security and cost jobs – and end up having to be reversed”, according to the newspaper. It adds that she said: “[Miliband] was one of four people in the East Surrey Socialists and you can see those instincts in his fanatical approach to net-zero – they’ll be clapping as the lights go out in Britain.” Politico reports that before Miliband can oversee “Labour’s ambitious push to back clean energy projects like solar and wind farms all over the country”, he “first has to deal with voters rebelling over a proposed solar development” in his own constituency of Doncaster North. Separately, BBC News reports that plans for a 30-acre solar farm in Herefordshire have “taken a step forward”. 

In other UK news, the Press Association reports that Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has said that GB Energy’s investments in infrastructure for the renewables industry could one day provide funding for local services. A poll by BusinessGreen “reveals significant support for Labour’s net-zero plans, and opposition to Reform’s attacks on climate action”. The Guardian talks about the importance of a transition plan for the oil and gas fields in the North Seam under the subheading “unlikely alliance of unions and climate groups call for ‘clear and funded’ transition plan for communities reliant on dwindling industry”. Finally, BBC News reports: “The scale of efforts by oil companies and public bodies to protect their premises from environmental protesters can be revealed in new BBC analysis. More than 400 demonstrators are named in court orders that restrict protests at more than 1,200 locations, the data gathered by File on 4 shows.”

US climate envoy John Podesta tells the Financial Times that the US is examining a system of carbon pricing on imports among a “range of options” to combat Chinese industrial competition and cut emissions. The paper continues: “John Podesta said the US would fight against ‘freeriding’ by foreign producers of carbon-intensive industrial imports, in an interview with the Financial Times in London. ‘We’re not going to just give up our industrial base to people who are dumping carbon and freeriding on a system that doesn’t account for, and in fact, kind of subsidises the dumping of high carbon production cost into open markets,’ he said…’The global trading system doesn’t properly take into account the embodied carbon in tradable goods,’ he said. ‘So we’re undertaking a review of that, trying to deepen the data that we are going to need to implement a policy framework for that.’ Podesta, who announced a task force for climate and trade in April, said the data it gathered would be factored into the policy considerations.”

A federal judge has ruled that the Biden administration must resume issuing permits for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities, the New York Times reports. According to the newspaper, the administration paused the process of issuing new permits in January “to analyse how those exports affect climate change, the economy and national security”. The paper continues: “The decision, from the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, comes in response to a lawsuit from 16 Republican state attorneys general, who argued that the pause amounted to a ban that harmed their states’ economies. Many of those states, including Louisiana, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming, produce significant amounts of natural gas…Energy secretary Jennifer Granholm has said that she expects that the analysis of LNG exports, which is being conducted by her agency, would be completed late this year. But Judge Cain agreed with the attorneys general that the states were being harmed.” Bloomberg Law says that the decision is “unlikely to immediately jump start approvals”. The Washington Post reports that the US Department of Energy said it disagrees with the court’s ruling and is evaluating its next steps. “The White House also voiced disappointment,” it adds. It continues: “The ruling comes just days after a federal commission approved what would be the nation’s largest export terminal for liquefied natural gas.” Separately, the Washington Post calls the decision “another legal blow to the president’s ambitious climate agenda”, which “represents the latest example of how the judiciary is increasingly constraining President Biden’s climate goals at the behest of conservative and corporate challengers”. Elsewhere, two lawyers have told Reuters that last week’s decision to overturn the decades-old US legal principle of Chevron deference, which required judges to defer to reasonable federal agency interpretations of US laws deemed to be ambiguous, could “undermine president Joe Biden’s effort to cut tailpipe emissions from the nation’s vehicle fleet”.

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that the US National Weather Service has warned of “dangerously hot conditions” over California this week, with temperatures likely to exceed 100F (38C). It adds: “Alongside scorching temperatures, officials are warning this week of elevated fire conditions, particularly the first half of this week with strong winds and low humidity expected.” Separately, the Guardian reports that the “brutal” heat will coincide with the annual fourth of July celebrations. The Washington Post reports that more than 60 million people were under heat alerts on Monday. Separately, the newspaper reports that “heat is the deadliest form of extreme weather”, and outlines why fatalities are “so hard to track”. 

In other US news, Inside Climate News reports that “environmental justice communities across California rejoiced last week when the oil industry, at the eleventh hour, withdrew its controversial effort to overturn a historic law aimed at curbing the deadly effects of neighbourhood oil drilling”. The Associated Press reports that lawmakers in California have said they “plan to put two bond measures on the ballot in November, one that would ask voter approval to borrow $10bn for climate programs and another that would borrow $10bn to build or repair public schools”. And Reuters reports that the governor of Texas “will seek to expand the Texas Energy Fund program to $10bn to build more natural gas plants to meet the state’s growing demand for electricity”.

Reuters reports that China is “setting up a new entity that groups national oil producers and other state firms to search for ultra-deep oil and gas reserves and tackle harder-to-extract non-conventional resources”. The newswire adds that such a move is “in answer to” Chinese president Xi Jinping’s call for the sector to “have ‘new productive forces’ that will contribute to the country’s energy security”. Another Reuters report says that China has stopped publishing data on usage rates by generation source, including hydro, thermal, nuclear, wind and solar generation. The change came “after recent data showed declining utilisation at renewable power plants, a trend that was expected to continue”, adds the newswire. 

Meanwhile, shares in Chinese rare earths producers “jumped” after the government revealed a “regulatory overhaul” of the industry, which could “squeeze supplies and lift languishing prices” of the critical minerals that were controlled mostly by China, Bloomberg reports. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) says that Chinese firms are “ramping up their acquisition of major copper, cobalt and lithium mining projects in Africa”, as Beijing seeks to dominate the critical minerals market and “lead the global green energy transition”.

In domestic news, China Energy Net carries a report from the China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA), saying that by the end of 2023, the production capacity for silicon wafers in mainland China reached 953 gigawatt (GW), accounting for nearly 98% of the world’s total. Chinese economic news outlet Yicai reports that the world’s largest sodium-ion battery energy storage project, with “a total annual capacity of 100 megawatt/200 MW-hours”, has become “operational” in China’s Hubei province. Economic news outlet Jiemian reports that the rapid growth of AI and computing power, which consumes significant amounts of electricity, is leading data centres in China to face the issue of low-carbon transition.

Elsewhere, an editorial in the state-controlled newspaper Global Times argues that “the importance of climate issues ranks far lower on the US political spectrum than economic, diplomatic, or even China-related issues”. The editorial adds that the EU has “room for improvement” in addressing climate change. It concludes: “Global climate change is a common enemy of all humanity. Countries around the world must work together, share responsibilities and take positive and effective actions. This is not only to protect our planet but also for the well-being of future generations. Only through global cooperation can we make substantial progress in addressing climate change, which especially requires developed countries to broaden their mind and take pragmatic actions.”

State-run media Economic Daily cites a report from the UN, saying that government determination and policy support are “key to driving the development” of the renewable energy sector. SCMP cites a new study saying that an underground crude oil “pipeline mega project” between Russia and China is “degrading large areas of permafrost” gradually and “increasing geohazard risks”. Finally, state broadcaster CGTN reports that on Saturday, China’s Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorological Administration issued “red alerts, the most severe in its four-tier weather warning system, for mountain torrents and rainstorms in some eastern and southern regions”. An SCMP report says that as the country continues to “battle heavy rainfall and drought”, China “has boosted central leadership in emergency response…with more extreme weather forecast in the coming months”.

The owner of the Port Talbot steelworks, Tata Steel, has cancelled plans to begin shutting down both of the plant’s blast furnaces this week, after the Unite union called off strike action, the Guardian reports. The paper continues: “Members of the union were scheduled to begin industrial action on 8 July, days after Indian-owned Tata began a wind-down process that will ultimately end more than 70 years of making steel from scratch at the plant. On Monday, however, Unite confirmed it had cancelled its strike plans after Rajesh Nair, the UK boss of Tata Steel, wrote to unions over the weekend to offer a further round of discussions about future investments at the south Wales site. Unite said Tata had confirmed that ‘it was now prepared to enter into negotiations about future investment for its operations and not just redundancies’.” The Times quotes Sharon Graham, Unite’s general secretary: “Investment from Labour secured by Unite will be key to the future of the site. It is essential that these talks progress swiftly and in good faith, with the focus on fresh investment and ensuring the long-term continuation of steelmaking in south Wales.” In other UK news, BBC News reports that “motorists who currently benefit from a hefty discount for driving zero-emissions vehicles in London’s congestion zones will have to pay the standard charge from the end of next year”. It adds: “The move has been criticised by environmental groups and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) but is supported by the Green Party.” Separately, BBC News reports that “staff at Toyota’s factory in Derbyshire have been part of a team that have designed and developed a new hydrogen-powered pick up truck”. In other news on EVs, CNN reports that a British startup, Nybolt, “has developed a new 35kWh lithium-ion battery that was charged from 10% to 80% in just over four and a half minutes in its first live demonstration last week”.

Meanwhile, BBC News reports that the price cap for domestic energy bills in Great Britain dropped yesterday by £122 per year, bringing down the annual bill for a household using a typical amount of gas and electricity to £1,568 a year. According to the outlet, this is the lowest level for two years. However, it adds that forecasters expect bills to “rise again in the run-up to winter, more than reversing the latest drop”. It continues: “Leading consultancy Cornwall Insight predicts that a typical household’s annual bill will be back up to £1,723 in October, a £155, or 10%, increase from now.” The Guardian notes that “bills are still more than £500 a year higher than they were before Russia’s war on Ukraine upended global energy prices”, adding that around 5.6 million households will face fuel poverty this summer, despite the lower prices. The Press Association, Forbes and the Daily Mail also cover the story. BusinessGreen covers analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, which notes that “households typically use less than 10% of their annual gas consumption and just 20% of electricity consumption during the summer months”. This means that “the reduction in the energy price cap from an annual cost of £1,690 to £1,568 for an average home equates to just £17 of savings for each home over the summer”, it finds. The Press Association adds that the “latest energy debt figures from Ofgem show levels now stand at a record £3.1bn”. Elsewhere, the Daily Telegraph reports that the world’s transition to net-zero will add 1.6 percentage points to inflation annually for the next decade, according to a large investment firm, under the headline “Net-zero ‘to fuel a decade of global inflation’”. However, the subheading of the piece notes that “inaction on climate change would stoke even worse price rises, investment firm warns”.

Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has warned his country faces a dangerous summer for wildfires, with a prolonged drought and unusually strong winds contributing to tinderbox conditions, reports Reuters. It covers comments to his cabinet, in which Mitsotakis said: “It is a summer which is expected to be particularly dangerous…The most difficult times are still ahead of us…We had a very difficult June in terms of weather conditions with high drought and unusually high gusts of wind for the season.” The newswire adds: “This weekend, dozens of fires broke out across Greece, including two close to the capital, Athens. More than 100 firefighters assisted by 11 aircraft and five helicopters were trying to put out blazes on the islands of Kos and Chios on Monday.” The Independent also covers the story, noting that “wildfires are common in the Mediterranean country, but hotter, drier and windier weather that scientists link to the effects of climate change has increased their frequency and intensity”. The MailOnline reports on the “apocalyptic” scenes amid the fires. 

In other wildfire news, Reuters reports that two Russian regions declared a state of emergency yesterday as summer wildfires spread amid intense heat. The Moscow Times reports that 75 people died and 2,200 were evacuated from more than 500 active wildfires across the country in the past week. It adds: “Over two-thirds of these fires have been recorded in 18 regions in Russia’s far east.” Finally, BBC News reports that around 40 firefighters have been tackling an extensive forest and heath fire at Boveridge Heath, at the north end of Ringwood Forest near Verwood in the UK.

In a lengthy retrospective, BusinessGreen editor-in-chief James Murray looks back at the past 14 years, writing that “the Conservative government has been better for the green economy than its many critics will accept, which makes the failures and scandals of the past decade even more frustrating”. He says: “ Emissions have more than halved since 1990 and as Carbon Brief reported recently, UK emissions are at their lowest level since 1879…The UK is still firmly among the leading pack of decarbonising economies. Every carbon budget to date has been hit. The government arguably deserves more credit than it has been getting.” He goes on to outline the positive actions taken by prime ministers from David Cameron to Rishi Sunak, and to highlight some of the government’s “multiple green policy successes”. However, he notes that the government has also “got a lot of things wrong”. For example, he says: “According to a regularly updated analysis from Carbon Brief, the green crap package of reforms has landed the UK economy with costs totalling £22bn thanks to the increased reliance on gas imports that was the inevitable consequence of Cameron’s short-sightedness.” He also highlights the “de facto ban on new onshore wind farms in England”, the “ chronic underfunding of insulation programmes” and the “missed tree-planting targets”. 

Meanwhile, an editorial in the Daily Mail says that “extremism is on the rise again” in Europe, arguing that “discontent over mass migration, high taxes, and the headlong charge towards net-zero has seen huge electoral gains for the hard-Right”. An editorial in the Daily Express, calling Reform UK “the worst of both worlds”, quotes a comment for the Daily Express by Conservative business secretary Kemi Badenoch, who says the government has “sensibly slowed the move to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars to 2035”. Badenoch criticises the opposition Labour party for pledging to reverse this by reverting to the original 2030 date.

In other comment, the Financial Times Lex column highlights Lufthansa’s new compulsory “environmental cost surcharge” on flights from EU countries, the UK, Norway or Switzerland, which will come into effect from the start of 2025. The column continues: “A host of environmental regulations are to blame, says Lufthansa. It cites EU requirements for airline fuel to include a blend of at least 2 per cent Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) from next year, plus changes to emissions trading schemes (ETS) in Europe.” The column argues that “mandatory green surcharges” will become more popular. Separately, Christopher Arnott, a PhD candidate at Griffith University, writes in the Conversation that in a year of global elections, “prebunking” will be key to stop the spread of misinformation. He says: “An example of this updating is climate change. In 2012, 64% of Australians surveyed accepted climate change as real. In 2021, that figure grew to 81%. Over time, the Australian population has updated its views on climate change. This is likely due, at least in part, to a mixture of both prebunking and debunking.” Judith Brett, a professor at La Trobe University, writes in the Conversation that “with its nuclear energy policy, [Australian opposition leader] Peter Dutton seems to have forgotten the Liberal Party’s core beliefs” And Sven Teske, a research director at Sydney’s University of Technology, writes in the Conversation that if the Coalition’s nuclear strategy is implemented, “over the next decade, the renewables transition would stall and coal and gas emissions would rise – possibly leading to a 40% blowout in Australia’s carbon budget”.

Seaweed farming could make a meaningful contribution to emissions reduction efforts in some temperate regions, according to research conducted in coastal British Columbia, Canada. The research explores the feasibility of climate change mitigation from seaweed farming by constructing five scenarios spanning a range of industry development in coastal British Columbia. Depending on growth rates and the fate of farmed seaweed, seaweed cultivation sequestered or avoided 0.2-8.2m tonnes of CO2 equivalent each year, equivalent to 0.3% and 13% of annual greenhouse gas emissions in BC, respectively, the research says. The authors add: “Realisation of climate benefits required seaweed-based products to replace existing, more emissions-intensive products, as marine sequestration was relatively inefficient. Such products were also key to reducing the monetary cost of climate benefits, with product values exceeding production costs in only one of the scenarios we examined.”

Climate change could drive Southern Ocean pelagic fish, fish that swim in the middle of the water column in the open ocean, further towards the poles, new research finds. The study uses modelling to project the distribution of suitable habitats for 10 pelagic fish species, including dusty rockcod, Electron subantarctic lanternfish and Antarctic toothfish, in the Southern Ocean under a moderate (RCP4.5) and high (RCP8.5) greenhouse gas emissions scenario. The authors say: “Model predictions showed that eight out of ten pelagic fish species are likely to face a significant reduction in their ranges of suitable habitats under the RCP8.5 scenario by the 2100 s. Except for [one species], all of the other nine species were predicted to migrate toward the South Pole by the 2100s.”