Ecuadorian citizens have voted to halt the development of all new oil wells in the Yasuní national park in the Amazon – one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet – the Guardian reports. More than 58% of people voted in favour of halting oil drilling while 41% voted against the measure, the newspaper says. It continues: “The move will keep about 726m barrels of oil underground in the Yasuní national park, which is also home to the Tagaeri and Taromenane people, two of the world’s last ‘uncontacted’ Indigenous communities living in voluntary isolation.” Axios reports that the referendum “will require Ecuador’s national oil company, Petroecuador, to close all of its active oil wells and remove all infrastructure from a portion of Yasuní National Park within a year”. It adds: “Hundreds of thousands of distinct species inhabit the 2.5 million-acre area, including at least three that have not been found anywhere else around the world.” The Hill says: “The vote is also a significant blow to President Guillermo Lasso, who has supported oil drilling efforts, noting that its revenue is important to the country’s economy. Petroecuador produces nearly 60,000 barrels a day in the Yasuni National Park, and Block 43 alone contributes $1.2bn to the country’s annual federal budget.” Climate Home News reports that “crude oil remains Ecuador’s biggest export, but its contribution to the country’s gross domestic product declined by nearly a third between 2011 and 2021”. It adds: “Efforts to keep Yasuní oil in the ground date back to 2007 when then-president Rafael Correa appealed to wealthy countries for $3.6bn in exchange for not going ahead with drilling in the area. But six years later, as international donors failed to deliver the money required to offset lost revenue, Correa scrapped the initiative and gave the green light to oil operations in the Amazon rainforest.” The referendum was part of a snap general election on Sunday, Al Jazeera reports. Reuters says that citizens also voted on Sunday to block gold mining in the Chocó Andino forest near Quito.

The Ecuadorian outlet El Mercurio reports that election day was “safe”, as 82% of Ecuadorian voters headed to the polls. Spain’s El País reports that the decision means the country must suspend current exploitation and not sign new contracts for oil extraction. An attorney of Yasunidos group, the citizen organisation that pushed for 10 years for the referendum to be held, tells El País that there are “technical problems”, such as the construction of pipelines and roads, which may delay the restoration of the area. According to the Ecuadorian news website La Hora, Petroecuador and Ecuador’s Central Bank have warned that the decision would lead the state to lose between $14bn and $16bn in the next 20 years, as well as a reduction of jobs and economic growth; however, citizens prioritised the defence of a biodiverse zone. La Hora adds that the state will have one year to dismantle oil block 43, which lies in Yasuní, but authorities point out that the deadline is impossible to meet and would cost up to $600m. Environmentalists propose that a wealth tax could offset oil revenues drop, notes Ecuador’s El Diario. Some citizens have criticised that the referendum’s question was confusing since it could have been easier to respond no to oil exploration, Brazil’s Folha de Sao Paulo reports. The outlet adds that Brazilian civil-society organisations celebrated the result and expect their country to follow Ecuador’s example to “keep oil in the ground” and support a fossil fuel phase-out. Ethnic groups Waorani, Kichwa and Shuar considered the referendum a victory and campaigners say that “this is the first time that a country has decided to defend life and leave the oil in the ground”, Climática added.

Tropical storm Hilary has cut off the desert city of Palm Springs after dropping a year’s worth of rain in southern California, BBC News reports. According to the outlet, “major roads in and out of Palm Springs were temporarily closed on Monday by flooding after it was drenched with 3.18in (8cm) of rain”. It adds that Hilary is the first tropical storm to hit southern California in 84 years. According to the Hill, the storm broke “virtually all” daily rainfall records in Los Angeles on Monday. The Guardian says the storm has weakened, adding that “officials celebrated that damage had been less severe than feared”. However, the Daily Telegraph reports that, on Monday, millions of people faced flash flooding and mudslides. The New York Times reports that “after three of the driest years in California history, much of the state is currently free of drought conditions”. Separately, the Guardian and Associated Press discuss the link between climate change and tropical storms. The Independent reports that the storm “is now bringing much-needed rain over the wildfires raging in Washington state”. 

Elsewhere, the New York Times reports that US president Joe Biden has toured the remains of Lahaina – a coastal town on the Hawaiian island of Maui – in his first visit since wildfires hit the island. The paper quotes Biden saying: “We will be respectful of the sacred grounds and the traditions and rebuild the way the people of Maui want to build, not the way others want to build.” The Guardian reports that 850 people are still missing following the fires. “Hawaiian resident and activist Kaniela Ing is among those urging the president to declare an official ‘climate emergency’,” according to E&E News. The New York Times says wildfire experts and residents on Maui had been warned about the high fire risk, but, when the fire struck, “systems that had been put in place to sound the alarm and bring people to safety collapsed”. It adds: “​​As President Biden arrives in Hawaii on Monday to tour the scene of the deadliest American wildfire in a century, the initial shock and grief are giving way to anger and questions about the government’s planning and response, most significantly why communications around Lahaina failed so badly, and whether earlier, more aggressive evacuation measures could have prevented some of the deaths.” Elizabeth Kolbert – the veteran environment writer at the New Yorker – has penned a comment piece arguing that climate change and vegetation changes contributed to the fires. 

Separately, the Independent reports that 35,000 people have been evacuated from British Columbia in Canada amid intense wildfires, forcing the federal government to deploy the military to help with the relief efforts.

China has witnessed a “steady increase in the newly installed capacity of clean energy” from January to July 2023, reports Xinhua. The state news agency adds that, according to the data released by the National Energy Administration (NEA), the country’s top energy regulator, the newly installed capacity of solar power grew 43% year-on-year to 490 gigawatts (GW). It says that the newly installed capacity of wind power reached about 39GW, a year-on-year growth of 14%. The article highlights that China has strengthened its renewable energy investment in recent years as part of its efforts to promote “green development”. 

Meanwhile, analysis of China’s hydrogen sector by the South China Morning Post says “strong growth” in the industry is expected, driven by the “ambitious plans of local governments to generate gas quantities that surpass the national target”. It adds that “China aims to have at least 50,000 hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (HFCEVs) on the road and wants to be producing 100,000 to 200,000 tonnes of ‘green hydrogen’ – hydrogen produced by splitting water through the electrolysis process – annually by 2025”. It highlights that the hydrogen industry could face risks of “overcapacity” due to “major” hurdles, such as “slow growth in infrastructure and consumption demand”. 

In other China news, the state-run industry newspaper China Energy News has an “exclusive interview” with Xu Chunrong, an official from the Chinese ministry of information and technology (MIIT). Xu says that China’s clean energy equipment industry – “represented by wind power, nuclear power and others” – has “achieved rapid development, providing a strong impetus for the high-quality development” of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The website Energy Monitor has published an article by data journalist Polly Bindman, who writes that investments by China in “metals and mining abroad through the BRI” are set to reach an “all-time peak” this year, according to new research by Fudan University in Shanghai. Bloomberg says that China is sending “mixed” signals about the steel industry as it attempts to “cool production” while overseeing an economy that is experiencing setbacks. The Chinese outlet Caixin carries an analysis by journalists You Xiaoying and Zhao Xuan. They write that “new guidelines for ‘green power’ trading” issued by Beijing Power Exchange Centre, a subsidiary of the State Grid, aims to “drive interprovincial transactions of renewable energy” across most parts of China.

Elsewhere, the Tokyo-based newspaper Nikkei Asia quotes Andrew Bowie, the UK minister for nuclear and networks, who says that the UK government is “absolutely committed” to enhancing nuclear power as a “key energy source”, while ensuring national security is “paramount” due to concerns arising from Chinese investment in new plants.

In a comment piece for the Guardian, the US senator Bernie Sanders, a Democrat, argues that the US and China must work together on tackling climate change. He says that “recent years have seen long-overdue steps to transition the global economy away from fossil fuels into more efficient and renewable energy sources,” highlighting the US Inflation Reduction Act and China’s spending on renewable energy. However, he says “we are still falling well short of the kinds of investments needed to deal with this crisis”. He continues: “Let’s be clear: since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the US has put more carbon into the atmosphere, by far, than any other country. While the new technologies sustained by fossil fuels improved our standard of living, we laid the groundwork for the climate calamity the planet is now experiencing. In recent years, the rapidly growing Chinese economy has eclipsed the US as the world’s major carbon emitter…It is no great secret the Chinese government is undertaking many policies that we and the international community should oppose. They are cruelly repressing and interning the Uyghurs, threatening Taiwan and stifling freedom of expression in Tibet and Hong Kong. China has bullied its neighbours, abused the global trading system, stolen technology and is building out a dystopian surveillance state. The US is rightly organising its allies to press Beijing on these and other issues. But organising most of our national effort around a zero-sum global confrontation with China is unlikely to change Chinese behaviour and will alienate allies and partners. Most importantly, it could doom our planet by making climate cooperation impossible between the world’s two largest greenhouse emitters. We need to move in a bold new direction.” He concludes: “In recent years, both the US and China have greatly increased their military budgets… Instead of spending enormous amounts of money planning for a war against each other, the US and China should come to an agreement to mutually cut their military budgets and use the savings to move aggressively to improve energy efficiency, move toward sustainable energy and end our reliance on fossil fuels. They should also provide increased support for developing countries who are suffering from the climate crisis through no fault of their own.”

In other US comment, climate scientist and communicator Dr Kate Marvel writes for MSNBC that it is “misguided” to argue that humans can “just adapt” to climate change. She says: “It’s hard to deny what’s going on, but there’s still money to be made in delaying climate action. Thus, the denier narrative has shifted from saying climate change isn’t real to saying climate change is real, but we’ll just adapt to it. The ‘just’ is the part that worries me. Clearly, we need to adapt. Our society was built for a climate that no longer exists, and we have no choice but to change. But we should never pretend adaptation is the easy way out…Adaptation is harder than the ‘we’ll just adapt’ crowd suggests, because the climate keeps changing. When people say ‘adapt,’ I always wonder: Adapt to what?”

Abdoulie Ceesay – the deputy majority leader of the Gambia’s National Assembly, wh0 will represent the Gambian government at COP28 – has written a comment piece in Newsweek arguing that “Niger’s coup, like those in neighbouring countries, is a ‘climate coup’”. Ceesay writes: “While Western academics in their ivory towers disagree over whether Sahel conflicts are due to climate change, we on the ground know the facts. In two decades, Niger has suffered nine droughts and five floods, destroying its rural heartlands. Water shortages trigger a food crisis every four years. As a recent International Monetary Fund study revealed, decades of climate change in Niger are behind food shocks driving devastating levels of rural poverty. Combined with rapid population growth, mounting economic dissatisfaction, weak governance, and scant services, these conditions create a perfect storm for extremism to flourish. Conflicts over land and resources become normal. Those with greater firepower use it to their advantage. Is the resulting violence due to climate change, or is it due to poverty, tribal tensions, or failing political institutions? This is an irrelevant question based on false premises. It is all of these.” He outlines some of the important measures taken by the presidency of COP28, adding: “Perhaps the most consequential is the COP28 presidency’s efforts in recent months at the UN Security Council to get the Council to integrate climate change into policymaking around security, peace, and conflict at the highest levels. Unsurprisingly, this is being especially resisted by major carbon polluters like China and Russia, who are eager to benefit from the decline in Western influence in West Africa. That’s why I believe that world leaders should use the upcoming COP summit to move toward global agreements on both climate security and finance.”

Meanwhile, Mahmoud Mohieldin –  the facilitator for the Green Climate Fund’s second replenishment – argues in the Financial Times that, if developing countries are to deliver on their Paris goals, the fund “needs urgent replenishment”. He says: “Globally, now is not the easiest time to garner new finance, but so far the prognosis is good. In recent weeks, I’ve had many positive conversations with current and potential contributors.” And Ndileka Mandela – a writer, social activist, and the head of one of South Africa’s most prominent rural upliftment organisations – has penned a comment in the Independent arguing that “Anti-COP28 backlash is endangering Africa”. Mandela says: “While it is not ideal that climate talks will be overseen by an oil magnate, we owe a responsibility to more vulnerable nations to see that they go ahead… We cannot demand perfection at the expense of progress.”

Dana M Bergstrom – an honorary senior fellow at the University of Wollongong – has penned a comment piece in the Conversation. She writes that amid “disturbing changes” in Antarctica’s climate and ecosystems, hundreds of international scientists called for an urgent expansion of Southern Ocean science. She continues: “I’ve spent 40 years in Antarctic and subantarctic research. Some 22 of those were spent at the federal government’s Australian Antarctic Division; my final day there was last Thursday. No longer a public servant, I feel compelled, as a private citizen now, to publicly stand up for the icy continent and the benefit of Antarctic science to society.”

Elsewhere, Alan Rusbridger, the editor of Prospect magazine (and former Guardian editor) writes that “today’s climate appeasers – in politics, in government, in the media, all over the internet – similarly appear utterly unable to grasp the starkest truth about the age we’re living in, and of what it’s going to take to mitigate the utterly foreseeable effects of rising temperatures”. Elsewhere, an editorial in the Times says “the return of the sail raises hopes for a greener future for sea trade”, highlighting an initiative to retrofit existing cargo ships with metal sails that is expected to reduce vessels’ life-time emissions by 30%. And the Times’s climate-sceptic columnist Melanie Phillips writes that “having fewer babies is no way to save humanity”.

A new research paper uses multiple lines of evidence to show that the scenarios put forward by the world’s leading climate science authority, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), “ can be used to assist both climate justice and postcolonial justice, but also to forewarn how IPCC scenarios can also be used to deepen injustice”. The authors explain: “The interaction between climate justice and postcolonial justice raises many important questions about the interconnectedness and common causes of coloniality and anthropogenic climate change. We recognise a dynamic interaction, and that it is a feature of necropolitics causing both coloniality and anthropogenic climate change.”