US treasury secretary Janet Yellen has said the world needs $3tn a year in financing every year to 2050 to hit global climate goals, Reuters reports, adding that she described filling this gap as “the single-greatest economic opportunity of the 21st century”. The newswire says: “Yellen said in Belem, Brazil’s Amazon gateway city, that reaching net-zero emissions goals remained a top priority for the Biden-Harris administration and this would require leadership far beyond US borders.” It quotes Yellen saying in a speech after attending a G20 finance leaders meeting in Rio de Janeiro: “Neglecting to address climate change and the loss of nature and biodiversity is not just bad environmental policy. It is bad economic policy.” Bloomberg also reports Yellen’s speech: “US treasury secretary Janet Yellen travelled Saturday to the mouth of the Amazon River, pitching the idea that fighting climate change would bolster economic growth in the region and across the globe.” It adds: “The event was organised by the Inter-American Development Bank as part of its Amazonia Forever initiative that seeks to support carbon reduction, wildlife protection and biodiversity while protecting jobs and economic activity across eight South American countries. The initiative is also part of a shift pushed by Yellen at global development banks to take on multi-country projects. The World Bank and its regional counterparts have traditionally concentrated on single-country development efforts.” Politico also has the story. Another Reuters story says Yellen launched “a new effort with Amazon basin governments to disrupt illicit finance that fuels nature crimes, including illegal harvesting of trees and other plants, minerals and wildlife”.

In related news, the Observer reports: “Proposals to slap a wealth tax on the world’s super-rich could yield $250bn (£200bn) a year to tackle the climate crisis and address poverty and inequality, but would affect only a small number of billionaire families, Brazil’s climate chief has said. Ministers from the G20 group of the world’s biggest developed and emerging economies are meeting in Rio de Janeiro this weekend, where Brazil’s proposal for a 2% wealth tax on those with assets worth more than $1bn is near the top of the agenda.” The newspaper quotes Ana Toni, Brazilian national secretary for climate change: “‘Our feeling is that, morally, nobody’s against,’ she told the Observer in an interview. ‘But the level of support from some countries is bigger than others.’” It continues: “However, the lack of overt opposition does not mean the tax proposal is likely to be approved. Many governments are privately sceptical but unwilling to publicly criticise a plan that would shave a tiny amount from the rapidly accumulating wealth of the planet’s richest few, and raise money to address the pressing global climate emergency.”

The UK will “honour a pledge of £11.6bn in overseas aid for the climate crisis”, the Guardian reports, saying energy and climate secretary Ed Miliband affirmed the commitment at “an unusual meeting of COP presidents past and present on Friday, as he sought to re-establish the UK at the heart of international climate discussions”. It quotes Miliband telling the meeting: “We are almost at the halfway point in this critical decade to halt climate change, and the case for urgent and unified global action is greater than ever. We must lead by example with action starting at home – which is what we are doing through our bold 2030 clean power mission, our commitment not to issue new oil, gas or coal licences, and our £11.6bn commitment to international climate finance, sending a powerful signal to the world that we are serious about the leadership role the UK can play in driving global climate action.”

The “Park Fire” in California, burning 90 miles north of Sacramento, quickly became one of the largest wildfires in the state’s history, USA Today reports, adding that it had burned more than 350,000 acres as of Saturday afternoon. It says: “Triple-digit temperatures, low humidity and gusty winds contributed to the Park Fire’s rapid growth, officials say…The Park Fire has scorched a relatively remote area that hasn’t had a recent fire history, according to Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. The fire has spread across from grasslands in the west, toward the Central Valley, to dense forest, including logging, east into the Sierras. At the same time, this month has been the region’s hottest on record, Swain said. It hasn’t been a particularly dry year, nor has severe drought affected the area. But the heat quickly dried foliage to help fuel the fire in under three days, he said…Warmer temperatures and dry conditions caused by climate change are helping fuel massive wildfires. More than that, Swain said, fires are burning more readily through the night, along with fires creating their own weather patterns with winds that can reinforce flames. This allows events like the Park Fire to move much more quickly.” A Washington Post feature is titled: “Extreme heat is wilting and burning forests, making it harder to curb climate change.” Another Washington Post feature explains how and why wildfires spread: “Dry weather is a simple requirement for wildfires. When the air is dry, it helps cure, or dry out, vegetation. High temperatures do the same thing. The hotter the air, the more moisture it can evaporate from the ground. That desiccates the landscape, and plants, leaving it ripe to burn. The hot, dry conditions conducive to fast-spreading fires are expected to increase because of human-caused climate change.” The Associated Press reports on a range of wildfires burning across the west of the US.

Meanwhile, an article in the Guardian reports on the trauma for Californians that survived a previous wildfire in 2018, as they experience a new blaze. The Washington Post says another “major heat wave will build across the US” this week. And a third Washington Post article looks at the command centre that coordinates US firefighting efforts.

About 300 gigawatts (GW) of solar and wind power capacity are expected to be added to China’s power grid this year – “a touch higher than the 293GW a year earlier”, reports the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP), citing data from the China Electricity Council. The outlet adds the new construction will mean wind and solar account for more than 40% of China’s total installed power generation capacity. Business news outlet Caixin reports that wind and solar power capacity has “eclipsed its coal power capacity for the first time, in a landmark moment for the country’s energy transition”. This moment further “cements the country’s leading position in the global renewable energy sector”, says state-run newspaper China Daily. 

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that, despite China “dominating” the global solar market, its domestic market is “in trouble” with the stock prices of its five biggest solar manufacturers “halving in the past 12 months”. Economic news outlet Jiemian quotes Qian Jing, vice president of Jinko Solar, a Chinese solar panel manufacturer, saying that the country’s solar industry needs to shift from “passive overseas expansion” to “proactive global manufacturing”. 

Bloomberg reports that China’s EV manufacturers are “teaming up with local industry” in the EU to “blunt the impact of tariffs”. Another Bloomberg report says that Chinese EV companies are welcoming double subsidies for car “trade-ins”, but analysts say the move shows China still faces “challenges of sluggish domestic consumption”. The Financial Times says that Indonesia is aiming to “reduce Chinese investment in new nickel mining” – a key ingredient for EV batteries – as “Jakarta wants to help its industry qualify” for US EV tax credits. Reuters reports that Chinese companies in Indonesia are also in talks “to reduce their stakes” in nickel mining, as, in order to be eligible for the tax cut, their supply for materials for an EV or batteries must be less than 25%.  

Elsewhere, Nikkei Asia reports that the Pakistani government is now under pressure to “iron out agreements with power producers, especially Chinese companies, to bring down its energy bill”. A report from the state-supporting newspaper Global Times says that Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni will visit China from 27-31 July, “in light of the trade dispute between China and the EU regarding tariffs on EVs”.

Finally, SCMP reports that China plans to build “the world’s first molten salt reactor power station next year” in the Gobi Desert. A Reuters report says that, according to a new study, climate change is “driving changes in rainfall patterns across the world… which could also be intensifying typhoons and other tropical storms”, adding China, Taiwan and the Philippines have been battered by “the year’s most powerful typhoon this week”.

US home insurers have suffered their worst underwriting loss this century, the Financial Times reports, citing “a toxic mix of natural disasters, inflation and population growth in at-risk areas”. It continues: “The report identified rising populations in those regions most susceptible to natural disasters as a significant factor – citing census figures showing that six states prone to severe weather, including California and Texas, accounted for half of the country’s population growth in the 2010s…Last year was relatively quiet for hurricanes, but a particularly bad year for severe rainfall and other extreme weather events judged by the insurance sector as ‘secondary’, with a record 37 separate events globally that left more than $1bn in insured losses, and most of those in the US. Most insurance experts argue that global warming is making storms, floods and wildfires more extreme.” A Los Angeles Times feature looks at the options to solve “California’s soaring insurance prices due to wildfire risk”.

There is widespread coverage over the weekend in the UK media of what the i newspaper calls the “£20bn black hole in public spending”, due to be set out by chancellor Rachel Reeves today. The newspaper says changes to fuel duty, which has been frozen in real terms for more than a decade, is among the options being considered to help plug the gap: “Reeves will not reveal any plans to fund the black hole until the next budget which is likely to take place in October. But sources familiar with the chancellor’s thinking believe the options for tax increases could include ending the fuel duty freeze – raising up to £4bn – limits on pension tax relief, higher capital gains tax and tweaks to the VAT regime. Fuel duty has been frozen in nominal terms since 2011, making it much lower than it was when adjusted for inflation, and was cut by another 5p at the height of the cost of living crisis. A former Treasury aide said: ‘There is a feeling within the Treasury that you should increase fuel duty, because it goes down in real terms – but the politics gets in the way.’” Similarly, the Daily Mail reports: “[Reeves] is expected to look at allowing the 5p fuel duty cut to expire next March. The 5p a litre fuel duty cut was introduced in March 2022 by then Tory chancellor Rishi Sunak to ease the cost-of-living burden on families amid soaring oil prices. But prices at the petrol pumps have since fallen significantly and Treasury officials believe it is time to hike the motoring tax, it is understood.”

In other UK news, the Press Association says “six out of seven schools had temperatures above a recommended maximum of 26C during a recent heatwave”. The Financial Times reports: “Europe’s largest oil and gas supplier has said its plan to electrify extraction operations at the Rosebank oil and gasfield in the North Sea will be more ‘challenging’ under UK Labour’s tax proposals.” A feature in the Times says the car industry is “look[ing] to Labour for new sense of direction”. It adds: “Policy u-turns by the previous government left the EV industry, which had pumped time, effort and money into plans to hit the strict deadlines, in shock.” Separately, the Times reports that power company Drax “demands a quick decision on biomass subsidies”. The newspaper continues: “Power generator says it is unclear whether wholesale electricity prices will be high enough for it to continue running without financial support after 2027.” The Daily Mail says Drax shares “jumped on Friday morning after the company posted a huge increase in first-half profits.” The Guardian also reports on Drax profits: “The owner of the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire will give shareholders a £300m windfall after a sharp rise in taxpayer subsidies boosted its profits for the first half of the year to more than £500m. The power station, which receives hefty subsidies from burning biomass wood chips, mainly shipped from North America, generated almost a third more electricity over the first half of this year compared with the same months last year.” An Associated Press feature is titled: “Wood pellets production boomed to feed EU demand. It’s come at a cost for Black people in the South [of the US].”

Separately, BusinessGreen reports that Royal Mail plans to “add thousands more electric vans to its fleet over the coming year”. The Press Association says a West Yorkshire moor has been “found to store more than a million tonnes of carbon”. The Sunday Times interviews the family of one of the Just Stop Oil protestors sentenced to jail for their role in planning protests on London’s M25 orbital motorway, who “say they are shocked at the punishment but back her fight against climate change”. A BBC News feature is titled: “Why Just Stop Oil’s long jail sentences could embolden some activists.” The Daily Mail reports: “Just Stop Oil activists jailed for disrupting thousands of hardworking people by scaling the M25 gantry have spoken of the ‘injustice of what has been done to us’.”

Finally, a Daily Telegraph feature on airlines introducing environmental levies to cover the cost of “sustainable aviation fuel” is headlined: “Middle income families ‘will be priced out of flying’ by 2050.” The Daily Telegraph reports: “Climate change protesters to target National Trust over its use of Barclays.” And in an interview with the Sunday Times, the head of aircraft maker Airbus, Guillaume Faury, “insists [the aviation industry becoming carbon neutral by 2050] is possible”. The newspaper quotes him saying: “We are in the fourth revolution of aviation. The first one was to make machines fly, the second to make it safe, the third to make it cheap, and the fourth is to decarbonise it. The 2050 plan is credible. It will take energy, money, investment and time. We have to take our share and we will. But it will come.”

Australian Bank Macquarie has become the sole owner of Britain’s national gas pipeline network after buying the remaining stake in National Gas, the Times reports. It says: “National Gas owns and operates Britain’s 4,700 miles of gas transmission pipes, which transport gas at high pressure around the country. Thereafter gas is distributed to homes and businesses via lower-pressure regional pipeline networks, such as those owned by Cadent Gas, also part-owned by a Macquarie-led consortium.” The newspaper adds: “The record of the Australian investor has come under renewed scrutiny as Thames Water struggles with debts that grew under Macquarie’s ownership between 2006 and 2017.” Reuters also has the story. The Daily Telegraph reports on the high cost of maintaining the UK’s network of gas pipelines, which will fall on a shrinking number of households as more homes are electrified: “Households that delay getting a heat pump risk being saddled with a £2,000 jump in their energy bill, as the shift to net-zero triggers an exodus from the gas network…But with heat pump numbers forecast to rise, the energy watchdog Ofgem has predicted the bills paid by those who stick with their gas boilers risk spiralling. This is because the cost of maintaining the gas network’s 174,000 miles of pipes and pumps will be spread across ever-fewer customers.”

The new Labour government’s plan for clean power by 2030 will need greater ambition on renewables, the Guardian reports, citing “senior executives”. The newspaper says: “The offshore wind industry has said there will not be enough time to develop the projects needed to create a net-zero electricity system by the end of the decade unless ministers increase the ambition and funding of the government’s upcoming ‘make or break’ subsidy auctions.” It continues: “Nathan Bennett, the head of communications at RenewableUK, said more than 10GW [gigawatts]-worth of new offshore wind was eligible for bids in this summer’s auction, but the current funding available would only be enough for half this capacity. He said the green energy trade body was urging ministers to raise the budget to allow for more winning bids to ‘make up lost ground’ from last year’s auction and create the substantial pipeline of projects needed to accelerate supply chain investment and growth in the UK.” The Press Association reports energy minister Michael Shanks saying the government will not be “passing the buck” on building renewable infrastructure to future generations. It adds: “Shanks also told MPs that some areas will have to host ‘nationally significant’ power infrastructure such as solar farms in response to concerns expressed about the ‘detrimental impacts’ on communities.” 

A “big read” in the i newspaper says Miliband will “shortly rule on whether an eight-square-mile solar farm capable of powering 180,000 homes should get the go-ahead”, saying of the decision on the 600 megawatt (MW) Cottam solar project: “Plan for UK’s biggest solar farm will be biggest test of government’s anti-nimby drive.” Separately, BBC News says a planned £22m, 27MW solar farm has been approved in Hampshire. The Observer says: “Prince William could overturn king’s windfarm ban as he orders renewable energy review for estate.” The Daily Telegraph reports: “Solar panel installations dropped 25% in the first half of 2024, as falling energy prices made them less appealing.” Meanwhile, BBC News reports: “National Grid have said a 114-mile (180km) line of pylons across three counties is the only viable way of carrying electricity from offshore windfarms…Speaking on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme, National Grid’s deputy external affairs director Tom McGarry said: ‘If it was cheaper and quicker to deliver it off-shore, then that’s what we would be proposing, but it is not.’” The Guardian reports: “Labour will seek to persuade people living near proposed pylon routes and other renewable energy infrastructure that the developments are critical to bring down bills and tackle carbon emissions, the energy secretary said. Ed Miliband promised to consider new benefits for communities affected by the construction of renewable energy infrastructure, and community ownership of the assets, which could include onshore windfarms and solar farms.”

Finally, the Press Association reports that energy regulator Ofgem “is hoping flexible energy use could drive savings of between around £30bn and £70bn by 2050, which would cut household power bills”. The Press Association also reports: “ScottishPower’s boss has said he hopes to double the firm’s investments in UK energy projects to as much as £24bn if Labour’s policy changes pay off.” The Daily Telegraph reports that energy secretary Ed Miliband has “admitted” that domestic energy bills will rise this autumn – as they have been forecast to do for months – and that savings from the government’s net-zero plans “will take time”. The Daily Telegraph has another article on Labour’s energy plans and its pre-election pledge to cut bills by shifting to clean energy, quoting Miliband saying: “As we build new onshore wind, new solar, we’ll start to see the effect on bills…but there are lots of things going on here. So our exposure to gas prices, which are set internationally, is something I don’t control.”

German economy minister Robert Habeck has allocated €4.6bn to 22 hydrogen projects, as the government outlines a hydrogen strategy, reports Handelsblatt. In addition, it notes that Shell has announced a final investment decision for a 100 megawatt (MW) electrolyser in Rheinland, while Siemens Energy has received an order for a 280MW electrolysis plant in Lower Saxony. However, with Germany needing to import up to 70% of its hydrogen by 2030, the strategy’s “adequacy” is being questioned, says the outlet. Merkur details that bilateral hydrogen cooperations already exist between Germany and countries such as Australia, Chile, Namibia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. Meanwhile, German tabloid Bild reports on the controversy surrounding a German hydrogen project in Namibia, with accusations of “energy colonialism”. The project, a €10bn German investment, aims to produce “green hydrogen” to support Germany’s energy transition, says Bild. It adds that the project is being planned for near Namibia’s Lüderitz, in part of the diamond-rich “Sperrgebiet” restricted area, where it faces opposition from Namibia’s environmental organisation NCE, which warns of potential biodiversity damage in Namibian national park. The Namibian government, however, has tendered and awarded the project to the German company Enertrag with assurances of environmental protection, Bild notes. 

Meanwhile, Tagesspiegel reports that Unesco has criticised Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands for extracting oil, gas and salt in the Wadden Sea, which has been a Unesco world natural heritage site since 2009.  The outlet quotes the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union, the organisation which filed the complaint: “More than 10m shore and waterbirds depend on an intact nature on the coast…Liquified natural gas terminals overbuild valuable coastal biotopes and cable routes, hydrogen and CO2 pipelines cut through this unique natural area.” Finally, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports that climate activists from the Last Generation group, who blocked Frankfurt airport last Thursday, are facing compensation claims from Lufthansa airlines “amounting to millions of euros” due to significant flight cancellations and operational disruptions. 

The amount of gas flared by Azerbaijan “hit a decade high in 2023”, the Financial Times reports, citing analysis by Global Witness. It explains: “The analysis of satellite data undertaken by Global Witness, the non-profit organisation, found the volume of gas flared at oil and gas installations in Azerbaijan had increased by 10.5% since 2018, the last year the country had reported its greenhouse gas emissions.” It adds: “The activity in Azerbaijan had ‘gone largely unnoticed’ because the country ‘hasn’t bothered to report its emissions in six years’, said Patrick Galey, a senior investigator at Global Witness…Azerbaijan’s ministry of ecology said there had been a delay with reporting its emissions because of the Covid-19 pandemic and other factors, but it expected to submit its data by the end of the year.”

Meanwhile, a feature for the National says: “Can Baku, one of the birthplaces of oil, confound doubters and deliver an ambitious climate outcome for the world?” It quotes Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev speaking on Saturday: “It is a unique chance for us to step into a higher league…We work with developing countries to build bridges between the global south and global north.” The outlet says Aliyev told a three-hour question and answer session: “We all understand 1.5C plus is a disaster, but, at the same time, many uncertainties still exist…For me, frankly, it is not yet clear.”

In a comment for Climate Home News, global climate lead for WWF and COP20 president Manuel Pulgar-Vidal writes that COP29 host nation Azerbaijan “needs to ramp up action for an ambitious outcome in Baku”. He continues: “In its recent letter to parties, the COP29 presidency outlined some of its processes leading to Baku. It said its two pillars are to ‘enhance ambition, enable action’.  It has pursued a raft of initiatives, but these will not pave the way for the systems change that is required.” Instead, Pulgar-Vidal writes that the world needs “a just and equitable transition away from fossil fuels” and “strong climate finance goal to deliver on this”, as well as “countries to submit ambitious nationally determined contributions (NDCs) that respond to the global stocktake and robustly adhere to the science”. He concludes: “Azerbaijan’s role as the host of COP29 places it in a position of significant responsibility and opportunity not only to advance the negotiations but build a legacy for the climate regime and future generations. Setting clear timelines, leveraging expert advice, intensifying finance talks and keeping pressure on countries to deliver can all result in a successful COP.”

In the Sunday Times, Sky News economics editor Ed Conway writes that “cheaper electricity is at the heart of Labour’s energy strategy”, adding: “If only Britain had thought of it sooner.” He continues: “[T]he most striking thing about Keir Starmer’s speech at Thursday’s launch of Great British Energy was how many times he mentioned the climate – which is to say, not once. Instead, he said net-zero was really about energy security and not having to rely on the Middle East or Russia for oil and gas. It was about trying to rebuild our industries along the way…Until now, Britain had pursued a very different version of net-zero. The objective was, above all, to reduce our carbon footprint – even if we had to offshore industry and buy all the kit from overseas.” Conway notes: “[I]n its first few weeks Labour has sketched out a vision and a set of energy institutions that is far more coherent than anything the Conservative party threw at the sector in 14 years. If only we’d had these conversations in 2019, when net-zero actually became law.”

In other UK comment, an editorial in the Daily Mail criticises the Labour government, saying its “tax raid will kill growth in a trice”. (Labour has yet to announce any tax changes since entering office.) The editorial continues: “After apparently discovering a £20bn funding shortfall, the chancellor is set to delay flagship hospital and road-building projects and will consider clobbering motorists by hiking fuel duty. Wouldn’t it [be] more sensible to plug the gap by cutting – or, better, scrapping – ruinously expensive net-zero schemes and the swollen foreign aid budget?” A second editorial in the Daily Mail says the newspaper is a “passionate defender of free speech” and that “no one has been more critical than this newspaper of the dangerous and disruptive stunts carried out by Just Stop Oil.” It continues: “But in the name of debate we today publish a letter by the cult’s leader, Roger Hallam, jailed for five years for his part in immobilising the M25. He denounces the trial judge as a ‘fanatic’ for not letting him spout climate hysteria to the jury. But that was legally irrelevant…Every second of his stiff sentence is thoroughly deserved.” In the letter published by the Daily Mail, Just Stop Oil co-founder Roger Hallam writes: “During my sentencing, I was called a fanatic by Judge Hehir. This word was published on the front pages of the national press. I think I have a right to respond. For over two decades, I was a farmer in Wales, supplied my community with vegetables, and lived a family life. I worked very hard, paid my taxes, and was no harm to anyone. I was doing my job. But the politicians were not doing their job. Along with millions of other farmers, I was forced out of business by extreme weather events – months without rain, months with nothing but rain. These are now yearly events.”

In the Daily Telegraph, new Conservative MP Nick Timothy, who once described the UK’s Climate Change Act as a “unilateral and monstrous act of self-harm”, criticises the Labour government’s “ideological” energy and climate plans. He writes: “There are other choices, too. Labour’s ideological approach to energy and climate-change policy – led by the fanatical Ed Miliband – will lay on costs for taxpayers and customers. Despite the government suspending, for example, the hospital-building programme and proposals to reopen old railway lines, it has recommitted to spending £11.6bn in ‘overseas climate aid’. It still intends to decarbonise the power grid by 2030 – an objective said by some experts to be impossible – but has no plan to pay for it, and seemingly little consideration of the costs involved for consumers. And while the new government will not grant new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, it is creating an £8.3bn nationalised company to fund renewable technologies not backed by the market. In other words, what Labour plans is based on a double dishonesty.” [Timothy fails to note that, as explained by Carbon Brief last month, electricity sector investment is predominantly from the private sector and that independent analysts Aurora said consumer bills would be lower under Labour’s 2030 plan than the outgoing Conservative target of 2035.] The Daily Telegraph continues to publish a steady stream of commentary attacking climate action, including columnist Matthew Lynn on electric cars and Andy Meyer of free-market thinktank the Institute of Economic Affairs on heat pumps.

In a comment for the Financial Times, the newspaper’s architecture and design critic Edwin Heathcote says that the shift in Paris of “swapping the car for the tree has not been a universally popular strategy”. He writes: “Mayor Anne Hidalgo is using the Olympics to radically realign the city towards a greener future, promising to plant 170,000 trees by 2026 and, by 2030, to have half the city’s area covered by planted spaces becoming, in the process, Europe’s greenest capital. The green transition hasn’t been entirely smooth. Motorists, a coalition of wealthier and poorer residents from the edges of the city, deride Hidalgo as a ‘bobo’, or bourgeois bohemian, creating a city for wealthy hipsters.” Heathcote concludes: “There is no doubt that swapping cars for trees can make the city a more pleasant place to live and to visit. The question is whether Hidalgo can somehow reconcile the citizens with the saplings to pull off a remarkable transformation.” In the New York Times, meanwhile, Madeleine Orr, assistant professor of sport ecology at the University of Toronto, writes under the headline: “The climate is changing. The Olympics need to change, too.” She writes: “The organisers of the Paris Olympic Games have outdone their predecessors in trying to make the Games the most sustainable in the decades since climate change became a concern. But with an estimated 11 million tourists converging on the City of Light for the Olympics, including 1.5 million from abroad, the Games can only be so green.” 

“Precipitation variability” has increased over 75% of the planet’s land area as a result of human-caused warming, a new study finds. The authors analyse global records of daily precipitation. They find that daily precipitation variability has increased by 1.2% over the past 10 years – particularly over Europe, Australia, and eastern North America. This increase is mainly driven by “thermodynamics linked to atmospheric moistening”, and also linked to “circulation changes”, the paper finds.