The premier of the Canadian province of British Columbia has declared a state of emergency, saying authorities there were “facing the worst wildfire season ever”, as thousands were evacuated from cities east of Vancouver, reports the Guardian. On Friday night, premier David Eby said: “Over the past 24 hours, the situation has evolved rapidly and we are in for an extremely challenging situation in the days ahead.” The paper continues: “Firefighters are battling the out of control McDougall Creek wildfire which has raged across 10,500 hectares amid gusty conditions in the hills and mountains above the city of West Kelowna, forcing thousands of evacuations…Evacuations were also being carried out in nearby Kelowna, a city with a population of about 150,000 that lies across Okanagan Lake from West Kelowna. It came as authorities further north in the Northwest Territories region said more than 19,000 people are believed to have evacuated from the wildfires threatening the city of Yellowknife.” Shane Thompson, the territory’s minister of environment and climate change, said the wildfire situation remained critical and the non-emergency personnel who stayed were endangering themselves and others, reports the Daily Mirror. “Please get out now,” he said. The expanse of fires and disruption to life and land “underscore the severity of this year’s worst-on-record Canadian wildfire season, with more than 1,000 active fires burning across the country”, notes Reuters. The Hill says 35,000 residents in total have been placed under an evacuation order in British Columbia. Axios reports that the wildfires have forced over 50% of people living in the Northwest Territories to evacuate this week. Prime minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday that the government is sending armed forces to help tackle the fires, reports another Reuters article. 

The Guardian says that official estimates of fires across Canada suggest more than 14m hectares (34.6m acres) already burned – “roughly the size of Greece and almost twice the area of the last record of 7.3m hectares”. The article adds that “four people have died so far”. David Phillips, a senior climatologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, told ABC News that there was “no question” that climate change was contributing to the rise in the larger fires. He said: “It’s almost impossible for nature alone to do these things…This wildfire season has been ramped up. These fires are bigger and badder.” An analysis piece in the i newspaper looks at how “colonialism, logging and climate change are making the wildfires worse”. Dr Jennifer Francis, senior scientist at Woodwell Climate Research Center, told the Financial Times that “I’ve stopped calling them wildfires because there’s such a human fingerprint in the increase of these fires, that they’re not wild anymore”. The Washington Post, New York Times, BBC News, Al Jazeera, Sky News, Evening Standard and Le Monde all report on the fires.

Meanwhile, Politico says that as president Joe Biden prepares to visit Maui, the Hawaiian island devastated by the deadliest wildfire in US modern history, he is under pressure from climate activists and members of Congress “to declare a national emergency over climate change”. The outlet notes that “it isn’t the first time the White House has faced calls to take this step”. An editorial in the Los Angeles Times says: “If the president is serious about fighting the climate crisis, why not declare it an emergency for real?” The Independent reports that the death toll from the Maui fires has hit 114. The New York Times says that utility firm Hawaiian Electric was warned that it needed to upgrade its equipment, but did not make changes that could have reduced the risk of igniting fires in windy or stormy conditions. Axios says that events in Hawaii are a stark reminder that the “US electric grid is outdated and overtaxed, and it’s only growing more vulnerable under the pressures of soaring demand, extreme weather and climate change“. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal says that “one culprit that seems to be emerging is the local utility that had to navigate between power grid safety and the government-mandated green energy transition”. A guest essay in the New York Times by two researchers asks “why didn’t Hawaii evacuate sooner during the fires?”. The Guardian has a piece on residents and tourists “mourning” the destruction of the historic town of Lahaina. Hawaii governor Josh Green said on Friday that the seaside town “will rise again”, reports Politico. He added: “Let me be clear…Lahaina belongs to its people and we are committed to rebuilding and restoring it the way they want.” And DeSmog reports on a climate liability lawsuit brought by Honolulu against fossil fuel companies, where oil majors such as ExxonMobil and Chevron have asked the case to be dismissed.

In other extreme weather in the region, Axios reports that a “dangerous”, intensifying heatwave was forecast to bring numerous daily high record temperatures in the central and south-east US from Friday and expand to much of the Lower 48 states this week. Politico reports on how “extreme temperatures across the US have put the elderly, outdoors workers and people with no access to cool air at greatest risk of severe heat-related illnesses or even death”. The Associated Press says “the heatwave causing misery this weekend is just the latest to punish the US this year”. And Bloomberg reports on how “global warming makes hurricanes, floods and droughts worse”.

In Europe, the Guardian reports that a wildfire in Tenerife that forced thousands to flee was started deliberately. As of Saturday night, the blaze had burned through more than 8,400 hectares (20,800 acres) of pine forest, about 4% of Tenerife’s surface area, the paper notes. Le Monde also has the story.

Tropical storm Hilary “unleashed furious flash floods east and west of Los Angeles on Sunday as the system made its historic arrival in California after barrelling through Mexico’s Baja California peninsula with deadly force”, reports Reuters. One person died in Mexico amid reports of flash flooding, the newswire says, while California governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for much of southern California. Hilary is the first tropical storm to hit Los Angeles County since 1939”, the article says, triggering “serious flooding in the San Gabriel Mountains east of the city and coastal areas to the north-west in Ventura County”. Axios says that the storm is “dumping two years or more worth of rain in California’s desert areas. It’s also bringing tropical rainfall rates, which can be torrential, to areas that have rarely, if ever, experienced them”. BBC News reports the comments of Nancy Ward, director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, who said Hilary could be one of the worst storms to hit the state in more than a decade. She warned: “Make no mistake…This is a very, very dangerous and significant storm.” The article adds: “Experts say recent abnormal weather events that have plagued the US – and several areas across the globe – have been influenced by human-caused climate change.” Evacuations are underway in many areas, says the Guardian, including Baja California and in the mountains and foothills of San Bernardino county, in California. The Independent reports that “meteorologists have warned that heavy rainfall could potentially turn Death Valley National Park into a massive lake”. Hilary could also dump more than a year’s worth of rain in parts of Nevada and Arizona, notes CNN. Nevada governor Joe Lombardo has declared a state of emergency for the “imminent impact” of Hilary on the state, says the Hill. Storm Hilary was previously classed as a Category 4 hurricane, but weakened as it approached the Mexican coast, Sky News notes. The New York Times has live updates on the storm.

The New York Times says that “California’s year of extremes grinds on”, noting: “After winter storms broke rain and snow records, flash floods in southern California would mark another milestone for the drought-weary state.” One climatologist tells the paper that, while different atmospheric mechanisms are at play in each of these extreme events, “the unrelenting nature of these compounding events sure seems to reflect something deeper than the individual events, by which I imply climate change unchained”. Inside Climate News notes that “a lack of data from the eastern Pacific Ocean makes it hard to project whether global warming will increase tropical storm risks in southern California”. The Los Angeles Times says that cool ocean temperatures and the prevailing winds usually provide a natural defence to hurricanes in California. However, it says, “an unusual set of weather patterns and warm Pacific Ocean waters” this year have “short-circuited these normally reliable safeguards and allowed Hurricane Hilary to make its hell-for-leather dash for southern California”. 

Over in the Atlantic Ocean, tropical storm Franklin has become the second named storm to form on Sunday, just hours after tropical storm Emily developed, the New York Times reports. It adds: “Franklin is forecast to approach Hispaniola late on Tuesday and move across the island on Wednesday as a tropical storm, bringing a risk of life-threatening flooding, heavy rainfall, strong winds and dangerous waves along the coast…The storm is also expected to bring heavy rainfall across parts of Puerto Rico through the middle of the week, raising the risk of flooding and mudslides.”

The threat of strikes in Australia that could cause disruption to the world’s gas supplies “moved a step closer after unions warned that there could be a walkout at offshore gas platforms at the start of next month”, reports the Times. It continues: “An organisation acting for two unions said members had ‘unanimously endorsed’ giving Woodside Energy seven working days’ notice of industrial action if demands over pay and conditions at one of the country’s main liquefied natural gas [LNG] operations ‘are not resolved’ by the close of business on Wednesday.” The strikes could start as early as 2 September. Woodside’s and Chevron’s facilities together supply about 10% of the global LNG market, notes Reuters, which adds: “Concerns about a strike have spurred volatility in European gas prices over fears the move would fuel competition between Asian and European buyers for cargoes.” The Guardian adds that “while liquified gas from the affected projects does not ship directly to Europe, any disruption to supplies would impact a global market already scrambling to replace Russian supplies”.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the Financial Times reports that the EU has hit its target to have its gas storage 90% full more than two months ahead of schedule, but analysts warn that a cold winter could lead to volatile prices and Europe scrambling for energy”. And in the UK, City AM reports that “the Treasury’s latest attempts to lure lenders back to the North Sea this week [are] likely to fall on deaf ears”. It says: “The Treasury has invited some of the world’s major banks to a meeting this Friday including multiple lenders, including British lenders such as Barclays, NatWest and Lloyds, alongside European banks such as BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, DNB, ING and Societe Generale and US financial institution Wells Fargo. However, only a handful are expected to attend the meeting, with dozens of banks already pulling out of investing in domestic fossil fuels due to concerns over the UK’s poor investment climate and growing pressure to fulfil ESG obligations.”

German chancellor Olaf Scholz has “categorically” rejected any calls for the construction of new nuclear power plants, arguing that “anyone who demands this is misjudging the construction time of 15 years, the costs of €‎15-20bn and electricity prices that are double or triple what we have to pay for the renewables”, reports Die Zeit. However, Scholz faces opposition on this issue from rival parties the CDU and AfD, and coalition partner FDP, who are calling for the extended use of nuclear energy, notes the outlet. Golem reports that Bavaria’s prime minister Markus Söder had also announced that he wants to build a new reactor for “research into nuclear fusion”. In addition, Scholz’s party, the SPD, is increasing pressure on him to introduce lower industrial electricity prices in Germany, reports Stern. But the chancellor recently rejected a state-financed price reduction, as had finance minister Christian Lindner arguing that it substantially distorts competition. Manager Magazin says that an alliance of trade unions and industry associations warns that energy-intensive companies will leave the country without introducing electricity subsidies. 

Meanwhile, Tagesspiegel reports that soils are getting drier in Germany despite an overall rise in annual rainfall compared to 1881, which “climate sceptics use to downplay drought concerns”. The newspaper explains that this increase is primarily in winter, while summer precipitation has fallen around 5% since 1881. The outlet also reports that soil moisture has significantly decreased since 1961, with recent rains helping surface soil, but not within deeper layers in many regions.

Separately, Table.Media has an interview with German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock, who “aims to convince” emerging and developing countries that aligning their climate interests with the EU is more beneficial than with China. Baerbock is quoted saying: “The climate crisis is no longer a matter of [negotiating] blocs…We can only tackle the climate crisis together as a world or not at all.” For this to happen, she says, fulfilling the promise to raise $100bn of climate finance annually is “in our own interest”. Finally, Der Spiegel’s cover story this week is an in-depth feature about the “Last Generation” climate protesters who have been attracting a lot of media attention in Germany over recent months.

The China Beijing Green Exchange says that “all market participants” are now allowed to open accounts for registration and trading at the China Certified Emission Reductions (CCER) “in the new system”, reports Jiemian. The Chinese outlet quotes Song Yutong, a carbon analyst from Refinitiv, saying that “according to the ‘new emission quota’ policy this year, the national carbon market should achieve a 95% compliance rate by 15 November”. The Chinese online outlet Energy Magazine picks a study by Wang Honggang from the State Grid, focusing on the pathways of electricity consumption’s impact on the fluctuations of national carbon market trading price and the associated risks. 

Meanwhile, Reuters carries an infographic article explaining “how heavy” the rainfall in northern China’s Beijing and Hebei provinces was between 29 July and 1 August. It shows the rainfall was the “heaviest rainfall in 140 years” in the region. The piece adds that although research has not yet been conducted to directly “attribute the Chinese floods to climate change”, prior studies have demonstrated a correlation between rising temperatures and the heightened intensity of rainstorms. 

Separately, the state news agency Xinhua reports president Xi Jinping addressed at a meeting last Thursday that China is “currently in the flooding peak season, with many regions across the country still experiencing high occurrences of disasters such as heavy rainfall, floods, and typhoons”. It adds that “some river basins still face the risk of flood”. The party-backed newspaper China Youth Daily reports that, according to the National Climate Center, during the period from 16 July to 15 August, China experienced “concentrated and intense heavy rain in certain regions”. The authority adds that across the county, there were “a total of seven instances of heavy rain events, while precipitation in Beijing was the third-highest for the same period since 1961”. State news agency Xinhua carries the views of three experts, including Chao Qingchen, director general of the National Climate Center, on forecasting extreme weather.

China’s export restriction on gallium came in force last week (see China Briefing 13 July 2023). British technology news website the Register reports that the price of gallium has reportedly “surged to its highest in ten months” due to “export restrictions” imposed by China in early August as a reaction to western sanctions on the sale of “advanced technology” to China. Bloomberg says that the price of gallium in Rotterdam has “surged more than 50%”. China Daily reports that the Chinese Ministry of Commerce last Thursday said that “China’s implementation of export controls is cautious and moderate, aiming to safeguard national security and fulfil international obligations more effectively”. 

Chinese media outlet Jiemian reports that six solar companies, including Canadian Solar, Risen Energy, and LONGI, have reached an agreement on the standard size of solar panels, saying that the “standardisation of dimensions will enhance production efficiency, reduce supply chain costs, and facilitate the scaled development of the [solar] industry”. 

In other news, the state-run newspaper China Great Wall Securities says that the competition in the upcoming phase of new energy vehicles (NEV) in China will become “even more intense”. The Securities Times, a national financial newspaper, quotes Lin Weibin, director of the energy policy research office at the China Energy Research Society, a non-profit organisation. He says that China’s hydrogen energy industry has entered a phase of “accelerated development, with hydrogen fuel cells emerging as a new driving force within the new energy vehicle sector”. 

Finally, the Chinese outlet Caixin carries an interview with Xu Fangda, a member of the Singapore parliament, who stresses that “multilateralism is needed in the face of climate change”. The Chinese outlet Economic Daily has a comment piece by officials from the State Council, who writes that within the framework of the G20, in the areas of food and energy, BRICS countries are “collectively addressing pressing needs of developing nations”.

One of the UK’s biggest unions has warned Labour leader Keir Starmer that voters will not accept “economic destruction” to achieve net-zero, reports the Sunday Express. Speaking to the paper, Gary Smith, the general secretary of the GMB union, said politicians had been “fundamentally dishonest” about how complex and expensive a transition to a zero-carbon society would be. Smith said he believes achieving net-zero emissions is right, but warns without a credible plan and a national conversation it “is going to be scuppered”, the paper reports. For example, Smith expects fossil fuels will be “with us for many decades to come” and insists the UK must not depend on foreign imports. He said: “Allowing oil and gas to wither will be a disaster for national security. It’s a disaster for the economy and jobs and the only winners are going to be despots and dictators.” Smith warned Starmer that “a botched energy policy would be a ‘disaster’ for the country and signalled it could torpedo Labour’s election chances”, the paper says. In an editorial, the Sunday Express says that “Smith is right to warn politicians against heaping extra costs on hard-pressed households through green policies. This is an all-too-rare example of a leader on the left standing up for working people.” It adds: “Instead of virtue-signalling, political leaders should prioritise protecting our security and prosperity while putting Britain at the forefront of a clean energy revolution which generates excellent jobs.” The Daily Telegraph reports on the interview.

Gradually adopting a road miles charge can “support [tax] revenues and target congestion”,  says an editorial in the Financial Times. The newspaper says: “The switch to electric vehicles [EVs] – which are exempt from the tax – means fuel duty revenue has been falling. Last year, EVs accounted for around one in six car sales. Alongside the UK’s plans to ban the sale of new petrol-and-diesel cars from 2030, as part of its net-zero goals, the revenue stream is set to disappear.” The FT continues: “Fuel duty exists in part as a charge for the broader societal costs of using a vehicle which are not reflected in the purchase price – particularly its greenhouse gas emissions. Even if EVs are not gas guzzlers, they still impose a cost. This includes road wear and tear, accidents and congestion.” The editorial suggests that fuel duty “is not well targeted to tackle congestion” and so “a charge on EV use will be important to incentivise more efficient road use and to offset the lost revenues from fuel duty”. The article argues that “Britain should gradually adopt road pricing”, adding: “A flat-rate per mile road use charge for EVs – with non-EVs continuing to face the fuel duty – is a sensible starting point.” However, it notes, “this must not discourage the transition to EVs. As the upfront cost of going electric is still high, the initial road pricing charge should kick-in with a delay and then be slowly raised as the EV sector matures. Initial free-miles allowances could play a role”.

Meanwhile, in another editorial, the Financial Times comments on prominent authors pulling out of Edinburgh International Book Festival events because of “greenwashing”. The newspaper cautions against “the arts world burning itself up in its own piety”, which would “[do] nothing to meaningfully help the cause of net-zero”. In the Times, columnist Ed Conway warns that “Britain is shutting down its only remaining Haber-Bosch plant”, which means “for the first time in a century, this country will become entirely dependent on nitrogen fertiliser imported from abroad”. In City AM, Chris Hayward – policy chair of the City of London Corporation – writes that “given London is the leading global centre for green finance, a key part of the solution to tackling climate change is to upskill the workforce. The City, industry and government must all engage in this”. And in Nature, NASA climate scientist Dr Kimberley Miner explains how she is handling “climate grief”. She writes: “For me, healing comes in the form of spending my time outside work enjoying the world around me, rewilding hard-to-access land, writing letters to congresspeople and protecting migrating birds. I’ve spoken to many others who have planted gardens for native pollinators, eaten from local farms and advocated for change with local policymakers. Although small actions might not solve the climate crisis, they remind us that we are intrinsic parts of the world and its ecosystems.” 

In the UK’s right-leaning press, climate sceptic columnist Dominic Lawson writes in the Daily Mail that “most people support the idea of net-zero, until they’re faced with the prospect of giant turbines or an army of pylons wrecking their views”. Daily Mail columnist Dan Hodges urges prime minister Rishi Sunak not to “get sucked into culture wars” and to focus on “a strategy of basic competence and service delivery”. He quotes one Tory MP as saying: “I’ve got a lot of members in my association who are quite strong on green issues. They take their lead from their grandkids. They may not be sitting in the road with Just Stop Oil, but they’re worried about the climate crisis and expect us to do something about it.” However, writes Hodges, “whatever the dangers of climate change, a small number of eco-zealots cannot be allowed to unilaterally usurp the law, and hold the rest of the nation to ransom”. In the Daily Telegraph, independent energy consultant Kathryn Porter argues that “electric cars are made of pollution and human misery”. Also in the Daily Telegraph, Enock Chikava – interim director of agricultural development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – writes that “climate change is happening – Africa must adapt to it to survive”.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Spectator, Jim Skea – newly elected head of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – says that “one of the messages we were keen to get across is that the human race has agency over its future”. He says: “There are things we can do – we know there are options, there are technologies, there’s enough money in the world to address these problems. So we wanted to pick up much more of the solution message, which is not the same as saying we should be complacent about the risks. But we should be positive.” On the 1.5C warming limit, Skea says it “is not an abrupt threshold where you move from one state of the world to another. The risks escalate gradually as the warming goes up. Suppose we reach 1.5C – we would not transition into a new world. It’s an incremental change in risk…Every fraction of a degree makes a difference – the warmer it gets, the more risks that we expose ourselves to”. Nevertheless, he warns that the world is still moving towards “very unknown territory…You are also looking – and this is moving more to the 2050 time period – at real risks for small islands and coastal areas. Sea level rise will be such that it will make some places uninhabitable. They will disappear”. Asked about the “political flashpoint” of the planned expansion to low-emission zones in UK cities, Skea cautions that “the key issue around that is it’s really important to keep people engaged with the process and not pass it top-down”. He adds: “We need to be conscious about the economic effects that any measures have on different groups within society, because we know that people on lower incomes tend to drive older cars that are going to be hit by low-emission zones. Electric cars cost money that people on lower incomes can’t necessarily find the capital to pay. All of these issues need to be taken into consideration when you are developing policy, and explained and consulted all the way along.” The Daily Telegraph reports on Skea’s comments, focusing on low-emission zones.

The frequency of “monsoonal precipitation extremes” in central India declined over 2005-20, according to a new study. The paper finds that “the Atlantic Zonal Mode seems to be a potential large-scale climate driver for the less frequent central Indian extreme rainfall events”. The authors add that over 2005-20, the frequency of “low and moderate” monsoonal events increased. This is in part due to a depletion in moisture transport to central India via cross-equatorial flow and the low-level Somali jet, they say.