The UK has reached its highest ever recorded temperature, soaring above 40C for the first time in a development that has shocked climate scientists, according to the Guardian. It notes that the 40.2C recorded at Heathrow is 1.5C higher than the previous record of 38.7C recorded in 2019 in Cambridge. (This has since been surpassed by a temperature of 40.3C recorded at Coningsby in Lincolnshire.) The newspaper reports that researchers are “increasingly concerned that extreme heatwaves in Europe are occurring more rapidly than models had suggested, indicating that the climate crisis on the European continent may be even worse than feared”. Associated Press notes that a “huge chunk of England, from London in the south to Manchester and Leeds in the north”, remained under the country’s first “red” extreme heat warning on Tuesday, indicating danger of death even for healthy people.

The Independent reports that fire services declared major incidents in London, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire “after exceptional heat left much of the country tinder-dry” and fire destroyed several homes in the village of Wennington, east London. Reuters reports that authorities in London has declared a “major incident” in response to the surge in fires. Another Independent story reports that at least 10 people have died after getting into difficulty in water during the heatwave, after the record-breaking temperatures prompted the declaration of the UK’s first-ever national heat emergency. According to the Times, “railways cracked and roads melted”, and transport secretary Grant Shapps said that it would be decades until UK infrastructure could cope with such high temperatures. According to the i newspaper, butterfly numbers could crash in the UK due to the high temperatures. New Scientist reports that some companies were being forced to turn off high-powered computers to prevent overheating. The Daily Telegraph says that the weather was “too hot” for solar panels on Tuesday, as solar panels become less efficient when temperatures rise above 25C. In the Conversation, engineer Kiran Tota-Maharaj has written a piece titled, “Britain isn’t built to withstand 40C – here is where infrastructure is most likely to fail”. The Big Issue has an article about how the UK is not prepared for more wildfires that are likely to come as temperatures increase.

The Press Association notes that, according to scientists, temperatures of 40C in the UK would be “virtually impossible” without climate change. It adds that Met Office research from 2020 suggests that if current climate pledges to cut emissions were enacted, 40C summers would still be rare but could occur every 15 years by 2100. (See Carbon Brief‘s coverage of the study at the time.) Rolling Stone has an interview with climate scientist Dr Fredi Otto, who, in response to the extreme heat in the UK, says: “I’m not surprised at all. We have known that these temperatures are now possible in the UK and that 40C in London is really not something that extreme anymore.” Writing in the i newspaper, Tom Chivers explains that despite the surge in excess deaths that accompanies extreme heat, cold weather remains “a much bigger killer in the UK than warm weather”. Nevertheless, he adds that due to the sharp increase in deaths linked with heatwaves, “if climate change leads to more frequent heatwaves – which seems likely – then that trend may not continue”. Meanwhile, the Guardian reports on new research that finds people of colour are four times more likely to live in areas at high risk from heatwaves in the UK.

ITV News reports that Prince Charles has said that the heatwave vindicates his view that tackling climate change is “utterly essential” and national commitments to reach net-zero have never been more vitally important”. Meanwhile, speaking on climate change as he delivered the Nelson Mandela International Day keynote speech at the UN headquarters in New York, Prince Harry told attendees “the world is on fire, again”, according to the Daily Mirror.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Extinction Rebellion protestors have smashed windows at News UK’s London Bridge offices – the city’s headquarters of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire – protesting the company’s coverage of the UK’s hot weather. The Guardian notes they also put up posters reading “tell the truth” and “40 degrees = death” next to the entrance used by journalists at the Sun and the Times.

The Financial Times reports that the heatwave currently gripping much of Europe is “heaping further strain on the continent’s energy system”, placing upward pressure on electricity prices and “heightening the risk of serious gas supply shortfalls this winter”. It notes that the heat has increased demand for cooling and affected electricity generation from nuclear, hydro and coal sources at a time when nations should be trying to move away from their reliance on Russian gas. Meanwhile, Reuters reports on draft European Commission plans that show a proposed target for EU countries to cut their gas demand ahead of winter, and which could make the goal legally binding in a supply emergency.

Reuters also reports on the effects of the heatwave and resulting fires across much of Europe, noting that southern and western Germany and Belgium were also braced for potentially record-breaking temperatures. The New York Times says that while the European heatwave’s effects “cascaded from Greece to Scotland, the greatest damage was in fire-ravaged France”. It notes that the temperature in Paris reached 40.5C on Tuesday, only the third time it had ever surpassed 40C. According to Reuters, the EU’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service has revealed that wildfires in Spain and Morocco have produced more carbon emissions in June and July this year than in the same period of any year since 2003. Reuters also reports that across Europe, hot night-time temperatures have been hindering firefighting responses and worsening health conditions “as bedtime fails to provide a cooling reprieve”. Bloomberg reports that in Europe, “about 14 ½ inches of water are now all that’s preventing parts of the continent from being effectively cut-off from supplies of vital commodities”, referring to a point on the Rhine in western Germany where barges pass through and the water level has dropped considerably. Politico has an article about the front line workers across Europe facing the heatwave. “From Portugal to Belgium and into Central Europe, those unable to decamp to air-conditioned offices sweltered in buses and bakeries, on fields and construction sites as a brutal heat wave gripped the continent,” it says. Another Reuters piece reports that the World Meteorological Organization has declared that Europe’s heatwave looks set to peak on Tuesday, although temperatures may remain above normal into the middle of next week.

Meanwhile, EurActiv reports that a new European Commission report finds that just under half of the EU’s territory is at risk of severe and prolonged drought, “amid warnings this unprecedented heatwave may negate gains in food production supposed to help plug the gap left by the Ukraine war”.

Finally, extreme conditions are not confined to Europe, as Reuters reports that, in north-eastern Uganda, more than 200 people have died from hunger this month due to a prolonged drought that have left more than half a million facing starvation.

Heat alerts have been in place in more than 20 US states across the Southern Plains and parts of the north-east yesterday and today, reports CNN, as temperatures soar above 100F (38C) for “60 million people over the next week”. The National Weather Service has warned that “dangerous heat will continue to impact a large portion of the US this week, with now more than 100 million people under excessive heat warnings or heat advisories”. This means that “one-third of the US population is under heat advisories and excessive heat warnings, and more than 80% of the US population (around 265 million Americans) will see a high above 90F [32C] over the next seven days”, CNN says. The Guardian reports that 85 major wildfires are burning in 13 US states, “scorching more than 3m acres”. It adds: “Officials said on Tuesday that 14 new large fires were reported: seven in Texas, two in Alaska and two in Washington, as well as one each in Arizona, California and Idaho. More than 6,800 wild-land firefighters, and other support staff, were deployed to fires across the US.” Reuters also reports on the US heatwave, while Forbes reports that the Canadian village of Lytton – which mostly burned to the ground after setting a Canadian record high of 49.6C (121F) in the summer of 2021 – is “evacuating again as another summer wildfire is destroying homes on the outskirts”.

US president Joe Biden is considering whether to declare a “national climate emergency” in the coming weeks, following the collapse of his climate agenda, the Washington Post reports. This comes after Democrat senator Joe Manchin told party leaders that would join Republicans in refusing to support Biden’s large economic package that includes billions of dollars to address global warming, the newspaper says. In response, it adds that Biden has pledged to take action if Congress did not, and is reportedly considering invoking presidential emergency powers, which he could use to cut emissions. According to the New York Times, such a move would give Biden the ability to halt new federal oil drilling and ramp up wind, solar and other clean energy projects. Associated Press reports that while Biden is visiting a coal-turned-wind power plant in Massachusetts to promote new climate efforts, he will not yet declare an emergency “that would unlock federal resources to deal with the issue”. Nevertheless, the Guardian notes that, according to reports, a decision could come as soon as this week. A White House official told Reuters that “we are considering all options and no decision has been made”. The Independent reports that Manchin refused to answer its questions about what he thought of the idea being floated by Biden.

Labour’s Ed Miliband, the shadow climate minister, has said that the remaining candidates for Conservative party leader had only accepted the UK’s net-zero by 2050 target through “gritted teeth”, while proposing tax and energy policies that showed they were not “serious about the situation”, BBC News reports. He added that Rishi Sunak had been a “foot-dragger” on net-zero while chancellor, Penny Mordaunt had promised to scrap green levies and Liz Truss wanted to restart fracking, it continues. The intervention comes as Kemi Badenoch, who has since been eliminated from the race to be prime minister of the UK, performed what the Guardian described as a “double climate U-turn” – first stating that she backed net-zero, despite being “thought to be the most sceptical of climate measures”, and then later suggesting that the target could be “moved…to 2060 or 2070”. And in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, current leadership frontrunner Rishi Sunak pledged to keep the ban on building any new onshore wind farms if he wins the race to become the next prime minister. He said: “Wind energy will be an important part of our strategy, but I want to reassure communities that as prime minister I would scrap plans to relax the ban on onshore wind in England, instead focusing on building more turbines offshore.” Sunak also said he would introduce an “ambitious new plan to make the UK energy independent” by 2045 by overseeing a massive expansion in offshore wind. Confirming that he is “committed to net-zero by 2050”, Sunak also pledged to re-establish the separate Department of Energy, which was subsumed into the Department of Business in 2016, the paper notes. Reuters also covers the “energy sovereignty” element of the story.

Meanwhile, following the verdict by the high court that the UK’s current net-zero strategy is unlawful, New Scientist reports that this poses a problem for the next prime minister, who will have to sign off on a new net-zero strategy. BusinessGreen also reports on this development, noting that “the in-tray awaiting the next prime minister just got even more daunting”.

Finally, in one of the Guardian’s many articles documenting the effects of the heatwave gripping the UK, it quotes the Met Office’s chief of science, Prof Stephen Belcher, who warns: “If we continue under a high emissions scenario we could see temperatures like these every three years…The only way that we can stabilise the climate is by achieving net-zero…soon”. The i newspaper reports on comments by Sir Andy Haines, professor of environmental change and public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who says that the heatwave demands “rapid and decisive action” to address climate change, and the UK, which last year hosted the COP26 climate summit, has a “potentially powerful voice if it wishes to exert that influence”.

The UK government has said its “jet zero” strategy for cutting aviation emissions will mean people in the country “can fly guilt-free”, ministers have said, claiming future emissions will not rise above pre-pandemic levels in 2019, according to the Independent. Among the government’s plans are targets for domestic aviation to reach net-zero by 2040, for “sustainable aviation fuel” to account for 10% of jet fuel by 2030, and for the creation of five plants making these fuels, it continues. However, the plans have been met with strong pushback from “a coalition of leading environmental groups”, who have pointed to the Climate Change Committee’s (CCCC) recent progress report to parliament, which highlighted government proposals for the aviation sector as “insufficient” for meeting the UK’s net-zero goals. A comment piece in the Guardian by Leo Murray from the NGO Possible expands on this point, highlighting the complete lack of focus on cutting demand for flights in the UK – something proposed by the CCC. “Today the government ignored their warning, in favour of a fantasy of unlimited growth on a finite planet that’s close to its limits,” Murray writes.

An article in Associated Press considers come of the problems that come with decarbonising aviation, reporting from the Farnborough International Airshow in the UK , where it says “discussion about climate change replaced much of the usual buzz over big airplane orders”.

China’s environment minister, Huang Runqiu, made a “rare visit” to the US last week, reports the South China Morning Post, as Beijing “pushes green cooperation to mend ties with Washington”. The visit came a week after Beijing and Washington “agreed to step up cooperation on climate change” during talks between Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and US secretary of state Antony Blinken early this month in Bali, the outlet says. Huang is quoted saying: “The two countries have opened up their markets for technical services and products related to addressing climate change and ecological and environmental protection,” adding that China “strongly supported low-carbon energy transition and improving the quality of the environment and ecology for a ‘win-win’”.

Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) spokesman and chief engineer Tian Yulong, 1.3m new vehicle charging and switching facilities were built in the first half of the year, an increase of 3.8 times year-on-year, of which 920,000 were private and 380,000 were public, reports China Energy News. The added value of the mining industry grew by 9.5% year-on-year, with the coal industry growing at more than double-digit rates, the state-run industry newspaper notes.

Finally, according to the “relevant person in charge” of the National Energy Administration (NEA), the development of pumped storage hydro is “significant” for the promotion of new energy at a “large-scale and high proportion” and improving the level of “safe and stable operation of the power system”, China Energy News writes in a separate report. Under the 14th five-year plan, an installed capacity of 270 gigawatts (GW), with a total investment of 1.6tn yuan, will be approved, the newspaper notes, according to “the person in charge” of the NEA.

Finally, Reuters reports on findings from Greenpeace that China approved the construction of 8.63 gigawatts (GW) of coal power in the first quarter of this year, nearly half the total amount seen in 2021, “as energy security trumps climate concerns”.

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has rejected the notion of cutting back on climate change targets, despite the energy and food security crisis, speaking at the end of the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin on Tuesday, reports Deutsche Welle. Baerbock is quoted saying that “the climate crisis cannot be overshadowed by other crises since it acts like a catalyst. Even though other crises might seem more important than climate change right now, we can’t delay climate action”. German chancellor Olaf Scholz is also quoted as saying: “No one can be happy with the fact that the share of coal-fired electricity generation is rising, with us as well”. Der Spiegel reports that the eastern half of Germany will face temperatures of 34-40C today, according to the German Weather Service.

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that Germans “are fretting about the coming winter freeze” even while Europe “sweats in record temperatures”, amid uncertainty over whether a complete stopping of Russian gas deliveries would force energy rationing on private households as well as industry. It adds that Germany still heavily relies on Nord Stream 1, which was closed for 10 days since 1 July due to scheduled maintenance works. Financial Times explains that under current EU rules, “private households and critical infrastructure such as hospitals and old people’s homes are protected from gas shut-offs, while the industry is not”. But, it notes, business leaders are pushing back: “If it comes to a gas shortage, everyone will have to reduce their consumption, and that includes residential customers”, Karl Haeusgen, the German mechanical engineering lobby, tells the FT.

Finally, Bloomberg reports that Elon Musk’s Tesla was hit by a lawsuit in Germany over “potential privacy concerns linked to its car surveillance cameras and claims that buying its vehicles helps cut CO2 emissions”. The article explains that Tesla sells emission certificates to other carmakers, giving them the right to emit more carbon dioxide (CO2). The car’s sentry mode, which records its surroundings, also violates data protection laws, says Reuters.

The Australian government says it will adopt a new target of protecting 30% of Australia’s land by 2030, after the latest State of the Environment report found the country’s environment was in a “poor and deteriorating state”, reports ABC News. The five-yearly report outlines a “litany of problems”, the outlet says, including “climate change, mining, pollution, invasive species and habitat loss”. Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek blamed the previous Coalition government for a “decade of government inaction and wilful ignorance”. The report was handed to the Morrison government in December last year, but former environment minister Sussan Ley did not release it before the election, the outlet notes. The report’s lead author, Prof Emma Johnston, said the biggest difference between this report and the previous one from 2016 was how climate change was now damaging the environment. She warned: “In previous reports, we’ve been largely talking about the impacts of climate in the future tense…In this report there’s a stark contrast, because we are now documenting widespread impacts of climate change.” The report documents that “Australia has already lost more mammal species than any other continent in the past 200 years…and continues to have one of the highest rates of species decline among developed countries”, says the Washington Post. Johnston and her co-authors have penned a piece in the Conversation in which they note that “climate change is exacerbating pressures on every Australian ecosystem and Australia now has more foreign plant species than native”. And Guardian Australia’s climate and environment editor Adam Morton writes that “protection of Australia’s environment has been drastically, disastrously underfunded”, adding: “Plibersek herself noted estimates that it would cost more than $1bn a year to restore landscapes and prevent further degradation. Rebuilding the environment department will also come at a price. It is all going to have to come from somewhere.”

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that Felicity Wade – former Wilderness Society campaigner and head of the Labor Environment Action Network (LEAN) – “has warned the Greens will fracture the consensus for climate action in the community if the party sinks Labor’s 43% emissions reduction target”.

An editorial in the Times says that “once again” the damage caused by the heatwave and wildfires in the UK has highlighted “the urgent need to adapt to climate change”. It says adaptation is key because, while the UK is not facing the devastation seen in some parts of the world, “even if the world succeeds in cutting future net emissions to zero, this rise in temperatures will persist”. It lists better protections for homes against extreme heat, improved agricultural resilience and more resources for emergency services among the measures that will be required. It concludes: “None of this should detract from the urgent task of cutting emissions to mitigate the risk of even more extreme climate change…Adapting to climate change will carry costs. Mitigating the damage may yet yield significant rewards.” A Daily Mirror editorial also highlights the link between the heatwave and climate change, noting the pain of “living in an oven and trying to work in a sauna is unpleasant” and stating that “scientists warn this could worsen if we don’t save our planet”. It continues: “Fools who ignored incontrovertible evidence of what is happening, must be called out and exposed when they are partly to blame for misleading public opinion and slowing the change that was vitally needed”. The Daily Express has an editorial headlined “a chilling call to action” in which is emphasises the need to prepare for extremes in weather – not only heatwaves but also the “cold months ahead” as energy bills climb higher. It does not mention climate change.

According to a Guardian editorial, this summer’s extreme heat “should be a tipping point” in public attitudes to global warming, and says “visionary leadership” is needed to lead the country in efforts to address the challenge. It says: “The energy landscape must be upended, and fossil fuels downgraded. There is no reason to think that the public in the UK, or anywhere else, are not ready for a greener future. Clearly, the dangerous heat has the potential to nudge us in a safer direction. What we need is for it to become a tipping point.” On a related point, science communicator Anjana Ahuja has a piece in the Financial Times arguing that climate targets should be central to the ongoing Conservative leadership contest. “That critical targets are seen as negotiable by potential future leaders shows that climate scepticism and even denialism has not been fully exorcised from the corridors of power,” she writes. An editorial in the Sun speaks in favour of Kemi Badenoch, the most recently ousted contender in the Conservative leadership race, and one of those who has spoken most critically of climate action. The newspaper says “we share her no-nonsense instincts…on net-zero’s costs”. Further down in the same editorial, it takes aim at those who it sees as overreacting during the heatwave: “For the vast majority of us it was merely uncomfortable. So it is depressing that so much of the workforce used it as an excuse to shut up shop – and that Britain thinks this is OK.” It concludes by stating that “we need a sober debate, free from the extremists’ juvenile panic, on how we inch towards net-zero in decades to come without imposing monstrous costs and forcing families into hardship”. Responding to arguments from the candidates about the high cost of climate action, in an essay for the New York Times about the heatwave, journalist Moya Lothian-McLean writes that “according to one estimate, climate adaptation is up to 10 times as cost-efficient as inaction. Doing nothing makes neither human nor economic sense”.

Meanwhile, an opinion piece by columnist Suzanne Moore in the Daily Telegraph declares – perhaps optimistically – that “climate change denial is melting before our very eyes”. Mika Minio-Paluello, policy officer for climate and industry at the Trades Union Congress, writes in the Guardian about the dangers of working in such extreme temperatures: “Builders, postal workers and street cleaners who spend long periods outside in high temperatures are at serious risk of sunstroke, heat stress and skin cancer. Other workers doing physical labour in indoor heat, like packing in a hot warehouse, can also suffer heat stress, respiratory problems and even heart failure”. Not everyone appears to have appreciated these threats, however. Responding to guidance about how to prepare for extreme heat, Times columnist Matthew Parris says he will “not have my wardrobe choices dictated to me by official bodies”. And Anna van Praagh – chief content officer at the Evening Standard – says “come on, London, can’t we enjoy the sun?”

A couple of opinion pieces respond to the comparisons made – often in parts of the right-leaning press – with the heatwave that struck the UK in 1976. One is by climate scientist Dr Ella Gilbert in the Guardian, who says the “extreme heat we’re experiencing globally has no precedent”, and the other is by New York Times journalist Stephen Castle.

Several US opinion pieces focus on the current state of US climate policy, following Democrat joe Manchin’s refusal to get behind president Joe Biden’s climate agenda. “Biden and other Democratic leaders need to act quickly while they still have power. Biden recognised this reality, saying Friday that he was prepared to take strong executive action where negotiations with Manchin had failed. That’s good. Because Manchin has made it clear he cannot be trusted to deliver something as basic as a single vote to protect people from the ravages of an overheating planet,” the Los Angeles Times says in an editorial. And Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell notes that Manchin was not alone in curtailing climate efforts. “There is an entire political party — the GOP [Republicans] — that has shown roughly zero interest in addressing climate change,” she writes.

Reductions in aerosols were responsible for one-third of the increase in wildfire risk over August-November 2020 in the western US, according to new research. The authors used an Earth system model and observations to investigate the effects of the emissions reductions during the pandemic on fire weather in 2020. They find that aerosol emission reductions – driven by Covid-19 lockdowns – led to an increase in surface air temperature, and a decrease in precipitation and relative humidity.