The International Energy Agency (IEA) says that global oil demand has hit a record and may rise further in August, reports the Financial Times. The paper continues: “Demand reached an all-time high of 103m barrels a day in June driven by better than expected economic growth in OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] countries, strong summer air travel and surging oil consumption in China, particularly for petrochemical production, the IEA said in its monthly oil report. The data shows that global efforts to cut carbon emissions are yet to completely halt the rise in oil demand, even as record temperatures and wildfires, simultaneously with severe flooding, have hit the globe.” The IEA also said that it expects annual oil demand to average a record 102.2m barrels per day this year, says the Times –  “an increase of 2.2m barrels per day on last year, with China accounting for more than 70% of the growth”. Demand is expected to keep growing next year, but by less than expected previously, the paper notes. It quotes the IEA, which said: “With the post-pandemic rebound running out of steam and as lacklustre economic conditions, tighter efficiency standards and new electric vehicles weigh on use, growth is forecast to slow to one million barrels per day in 2024.” The Daily Telegraph says the slowing growth  “will be a blow to both Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is using oil and gas revenues to fund his war in Ukraine, and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose oil profits are driving the country’s economic diversification”. In the meantime, however, “world markets are tightening, leaving oil inventories in developed nations about 115m barrels below their five-year average”, notes Bloomberg. It adds: “Global stockpiles are set to deplete by a hefty 1.7m barrels a day in the second half of the year and preliminary data appears to confirm declines in July and August, the IEA said.” Reuters, CityAM and Foreign Policy also have the story.

At least 93 people have died in wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui, as authorities battle to control what has become the US’s deadliest wildfire outbreak in more than a century, reports the Financial Times. The paper continues: “Firefighters had contained one fire near southern Kihei in the island’s south-west, but continued to fight blazes in western Maui and inland, the Maui county government said in a statement published on Saturday. The fires began on Tuesday, engulfing the historical town of Lahaina as it was fanned by strong winds from Hurricane Dora, which passed hundreds of miles south of Hawaii, a popular tourist destination.” Green said that the fires were “the largest natural disaster we’ve ever experienced…It’s also going to be a natural disaster that takes an incredible amount of time to recover from”, the paper reports. He added: “The world has changed. A storm now can be a hurricane-fire or a fire-hurricane…That’s what we experienced. That’s why we’re looking into these policies, to find out how we can best protect our people.” Green also warned that the death toll could rise “significantly”, reports BBC News. 

The Economist looks at why the fires have been so destructive, picking out drought, land-use change and high winds. One expert tells the outlet that the recent conditions on Maui meet the criteria of a “flash drought”, described as “periods in which dryness increases very quickly because low or no rainfall coincides with sunlight, winds and air temperature, driving evaporation from the soil and water loss through plants into top gear”. The outlet says that “two lessons stand out”: “One is that as the world continues to get hotter, flash droughts are likely to become more common. That has implications both for farmers and for fire management. The second is that even cities that have survived for centuries should not feel safe”. The Guardian quotes climate scientist Prof Katharine Hayhoe, who also noted that rising temperatures were causing vegetation to dry out, priming it as fuel for an outbreak of fire. She said: “Climate change doesn’t usually start the fires; but it intensifies them, increasing the area they burn and making them much more dangerous.” The New York Times reports on how “invasive plants caused the Maui fires to rage”. BBC News, Axios, Bloomberg, Inside Climate News, the Hill, Washington Post and New York Times all look at the causes of the fires and the role of climate change. Writing in the Washington Post, Dr Jennifer Balch, a researcher on fire ecology, warns that “our wildfire problem is growing beyond our ability to tame it”.

Reuters reports on estimates that suggest the total insured loss from the fires is expected to be the second largest in Hawaii’s history. The New York Times says that the fires “come at a time of upheaval for the insurance industry, in a place that had not been considered very risky by underwriters”. Another Reuters article says the “scale of the damage came into sharper focus four days after a fast-moving blaze levelled [Lahaina], obliterating buildings and melting cars”. The Guardian reports on the “unfathomable losses”, while BBC News carries drone footage showing the extent of the devastation. The Daily Telegraph reports that Hawaii congresswoman Jill Tokuda said that officials in Hawaii “underestimated the lethality, the quickness of fire”. She said: “It’s not like hurricane force winds are unknown to Hawaii, or dry brush, or red flag conditions.” BBC News reports that “residents say they had no official warning before they fled for their lives”. The Independent and Sky News also report on the fires.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports on new projections that suggest “record-setting wildfires in Canada could potentially continue burning at an abnormally high rate for several more weeks, though the spread of blazes is likely to start diminishing in September”.

New figures suggest that UK households are making more green energy upgrades than ever before after installing a record number of solar panels and heat pumps in the first half of the year, reports the Guardian. The industry’s accreditation body, MCS, said that, on average, more than 20,000 households installed solar panels every month this year, while the number of homes installing heat pumps reached 3,000 a month for the first time, the paper reports. It adds: “Each month of 2023 was a record month for battery technologies, as installation figures consistently surpassed the month before, bringing the total number of batteries installed in homes and businesses across the UK to more than 1,000 in 2023 so far.” Overall, 2022 is on track to surpass 2012 for household renewable energy installed, when many raced to install solar panels before government subsidies were reduced, the paper explains. It quotes MCS chief executive, Ian Rippin, who said: “As the cost of energy continues to grow, we are seeing more people turn to renewable technology to generate their own energy and heat at home.” Sky News also has the story.

Meanwhile, the Times reports that government plans to promote heat pumps have been attacked by an industry group as a “stealth tax” on families that will harm UK manufacturers while opening the door to Chinese imports. The Energy and Utilities Alliance, which represents boiler and heat pump manufacturers, said the high initial cost of heat pumps and their higher running costs mean there was not the demand to support sales at the government’s target levels, the paper explains. The group warns that if fines are imposed on boiler manufacturers for not fitting enough heat pumps, this “could add up to £200 to the cost of each boiler next year, and £300 in 2025”, the paper says. It quotes Carbon Brief deputy editor Dr Simon Evans, who said: “Overwhelming evidence says that heat pumps are the central technology for decarbonising home heating. If people want to criticise this scheme, it’s incumbent on them to set out a viable alternative that would still keep us on track for our climate goals. Arguably people lobbying against this policy are creating uncertainty, which is not helpful for businesses deciding whether to invest in the UK.” The Times also has a Q&A on why the UK is “falling behind on the switch to heat pumps”, while CityAM reports on energy firms that are “defend[ing] heat pumps amid backlash to oil boiler ban”. 

Finally, the Sunday Telegraph and MailOnline report that Chris Stark, head of the Climate Change Committee, does not yet have a heat pump in his Glasgow flat. Appearing before the House of Commons environmental audit committee last month, Stark said: “I have a gas boiler. I wish I didn’t, but I live in a flat and heat pumps are a very difficult thing to put in there.”

The Financial Times reports that “pressure is mounting” on the UK government to obtain assurances from the United Arab Emirates that Britons who stage protests in Dubai around the COP28 UN climate summit from late November to December will not face arrest. The newspaper continues: “British human-rights barristers wrote to foreign secretary James Cleverly this week demanding he seek an undertaking from the Emirati authorities affirming the rights and safety of UK citizens travelling to the UAE to engage in peaceful demonstrations. Campaigners have warned the Gulf state’s restrictions on freedom of expression could curb the ability of activists to stage meaningful protests at the summit and leave them at risk of detention.” While the UAE pledged in a joint statement with the UN this month that it would make space for peaceful protests, “human rights groups reacted with scepticism”, the article says. The letter notes that “speakers at a climate and health conference held in the Gulf state in April, were told not to protest or ‘criticise corporations’ in a warning that cited the UAE’s laws”. In response to the story, “the Foreign Office pointed to its published travel advice for visiting the UAE, which does not mention COP28”, the FT says.

The FT also reports that “a state-owned company in the UAE has hired a team of lobbyists to defend the country’s work in hosting this year’s UN climate summit after criticism from environmentalists and politicians”. The newspaper continues: “Public relations firm First International Resources will receive a monthly retainer of £100,000 for six months to strengthen the UAE’s reputation among ‘western audiences’, according to a copy of its contract filed with the US Department of Justice under lobbying rules for foreign agents, which was published by the DoJ this month…First International’s goal is to ‘inoculate’ COP28 and Jaber from ‘any potential criticism’ and drum up support from ‘politically influential individuals’, the contract said.”

The US government is granting $1.2bn to two direct air capture projects that “aim to strip carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere” in what the newspaper describes is “a bet on a nascent technology that it hopes will play a big role in achieving its net-zero goals”. It continues: “The US Department of Energy said on Friday that it had chosen two ‘direct air capture’ hub developments in Texas and Louisiana as recipients for the funding, one of which is being built by oil company Occidental Petroleum. The projects will be the biggest of their kind. The White House hopes the grants will help to commercialise the air capture process, driving down costs and spurring a buildout across the country as President Joe Biden looks to decarbonise the world’s biggest economy by mid-century.” Jennifer Granholm, US energy secretary, said “these hubs are going to help us prove out the potential of this game-changing technology so that others can follow in their footsteps”, according to the FT. Reuters says the projects will aim to “remove more than 2m tonnes of carbon emissions per year”. The New York Times describes direct air capture as “a nascent technology that some scientists say could be a breakthrough in the fight against global warming, but that others fear is an extravagant boondoggle”. The Guardian, DeSmog, CNN, Bloomberg, Deutsche Welle and the Washington Post all have the story.

The president of the German Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, has announced a reform proposal aimed at reducing electricity fees for regions with substantial wind power capacity, reports Der Spiegel referring to Müller’s interview with Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. The outlet explains that regions that heavily rely on wind power “face a disproportionate financial burden”, while Müller thinks that “we [the German government] should reward the expansion of renewables” instead. However, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) notes that “while the north, which is rich in wind power, welcomes the proposal, there is resistance to the concept of electricity price zones in Bavaria”. FAZ quotes a representative of the opposition party, CSU’s Martin Huber, writing that “electricity price zones are the outrageous attempt of the [ruling] coalition to severely weaken the south structurally”. In the same interview, Müller stated that “despite well-filled gas storage facilities, the Federal Network Agency sees remaining risks for energy supply in the coming winter – and intends to call for conservation efforts once again”, reports Manager Magazin. 

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that German chancellor Olaf Scholz sees upcoming green tech investments in Germany as an opportunity to help “revive growth in Europe’s largest economy”. Spending on renewable energy sources, hydrogen production, as well as related networks will “have an impact on the entire economy”, Scholz said Sunday in an interview with German broadcaster ZDF. Finally, the German tabloid Bild has a story criticising the German government’s decision to close remaining nuclear power plants. The outlet notes that “Germany has never bought so much electricity from abroad and that has its price: €469m in July”.

China’s carbon price keeps rising, reaching a new peak last Friday as the government “pushes power generators to secure enough permits for the year”, writes Bloomberg. The cost of emission allowances on the national exchange surged to nearly 70 yuan ($9.7) per ton on Friday, bringing the weekly gain to around 6%, the outlet adds.

Meanwhile, the Guardian writes that the British government is considering stricter regulations regarding investments in China in response to new US measures on Chinese technology. It adds that UK foreign secretary James Cleverly has said the UK “would seek to protect itself by limiting national security threats posed by China while engaging in areas such as trade, investment and the climate crisis”. The Politico carries a comment piece by Ann Mettler, a former director-general of the European Commission, who writes that: “The complexity and multitude of challenges Europe’s wind industry is confronted with [by China] can’t, and won’t, be solved without greater policy intervention.”

Separately, the state newswire China News reports that the construction of the first integrated project for the “combined use of solar, storage, hydrogen and heat” in northwestern China has been completed. The state news agency Xinhua reports that, according to the latest data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers,  China’s production and sales of new energy vehicles in July reached 805,000 units and 780,000 units, respectively, marking year-on-year increases of 30.6% and 31.6%. Additionally, Reuters says that “a patriotic call by China’s best selling automaker” BYD urging the Chinese auto industry to “demolish the old legends of the global market and achieve new world-class brands” has gone viral. The Chinese outlet Caixin has published “energy insider”, which highlights that China has expanded its “‘green electricity’ certificate program” and that Chinese provinces have received “2023 renewable energy targets”. The South China Morning Post has published a comment by Kenyan journalist Jevans Nyabiage under the title: “Why Chinese electric vehicle brands could ‘take a lead’ in Africa.” The Financial Times writes that China is pushing to assert its “dominance” in the trading of lithium carbonate futures. The outlet adds that the move comes as China seeks to shift control of the financial infrastructure associated with “metals vital for the clean energy revolution away from the western dollar-based financial system”.

Elsewhere, Xinhua says that Xi’s “inspection trips” across the country since the beginning of 2023 have made stops at tech companies, research institutes and nature reserves (including one in the site of a new energy vehicle producer), which indicate “focal points crucial for achieving high-quality development”. Finally, the party-backed newspaper Guangming Daily carries a comment piece by Zheng Yan, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. She writes that the severe floods in central China in July 2021, as well as this year’s heavy rainfall in Beijing, have revealed certain “deficiencies” in urban emergency management.

UK prime minister Rishi Sunak is “facing a backlash from blue wall Tory MPs who have said that he will cost them their seats at the next election if he panders to the right of the party on climate change and human rights commitments”, reports the Times. The Conservative Environment Network, which has the backing of more than 150 Tory parliamentarians and 400 councillors, has told Sunak to ignore the “siren voices” of those pressing him to water down net-zero targets, the paper says, noting that “Downing Street has signalled that the government is looking at scaling down its push for net-zero because of the financial pressure on households during the cost of living crisis”. Chris Skidmore, MP for Kingswood and former net-zero tsar, tells the paper: “Net-zero is no longer just about the environment, critical though that is. The vital importance of net-zero is whether you understand the economies of the future and want the UK to lead and succeed in these, or be condemned to following, to missing out, on these opportunities and costing the UK and local communities jobs and economic growth.” The Times also reports that a government adviser and former Shell economist has warned UK politicians against making climate change action into a “wedge issue”. Steven Fries, an American who was recently appointed to the Climate Change Committee, the government’s statutory adviser, said that it would be a mistake if emissions-cutting policies were to become part of the culture wars. He said: “The UK has done a very good job in keeping climate change and decarbonisation to be a cross-party issue…My home country has lost its way on this particular issue and decided that climate change for some reason is part of the culture wars. The physics of climate change couldn’t care less what political persuasion you are. It’s very important that all political parties in the UK and elsewhere resist going down the path of turning this into a wedge issue or a divisive issue for society.”

Elsewhere, the Observer reports that Andy Street, the mayor of the West Midlands and “most powerful Conservative outside London”, has said the party needed to “hold our nerve” in its commitment to tackling climate change, which he described as the “defining issue of our time”. In an interview with the paper, Street said: “Are we going to be the party that guides this country through addressing climate change? It’s the right thing to do. The thinking voter will see that. The problem is, it’s been defined as a choice, but there isn’t a choice to stand still. Actually, the win-win of going with the change has not been sufficiently well described. So that’s what we’ve got to step up to do.” The i newspaper reports that the billionaire former Conservative donor Guy Hands has criticised Rishi Sunak for “rowing back” on the government’s commitment to fighting climate change. Writing for the outlet, he said: “The prime minister is not doing nearly enough. The UK should be taking a global lead on climate change, not rowing back. Ignorance is not bliss when the world is on fire.” The Observer reports that “Sunak’s decision to intensify attacks on green groups and exploit opposition to environmental protests could rebound badly for his party at the next general election, academics have warned”. The Independent reports that Sunak has been warned that halting the UK’s progress towards net-zero could ultimately burden consumers with extra costs. It says: “The Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE), which represents more than 140 manufacturers, universities, local authorities and energy service providers working towards a green transition, has called on the prime minister to ‘go further and faster’.” The Independent also reports on new figures that show Sunak “has taken a taxpayer-funded private flight for travel in the UK once every eight days since he has been at No 10”. 

Finally, the Press Association reports that “Labour has accused the Conservatives of leaving the UK the most exposed major economy to rising energy prices”. It says: “The party said that data compiled by the Department of Energy Security and Net-Zero shows why the UK has been hit hardest by soaring energy prices following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.’

Continuing the recent trend of right-wing newspapers attacking net-zero, an editorial in the Sunday Telegraph argues that “it is hard to see” how net-zero targets “could be achieved without governments imposing serious costs on households and businesses”. It continues: “Politicians are not being honest with the voters. Their room for manoeuvre on targets such as the upcoming ban on new diesel and petrol cars or the rollout of heat pumps is limited by legislation that demands significant reductions to carbon emissions by pre-set dates. They do not explain to the public that, if they were to delay the petrol car ban, for example, they would probably have to make compensating reductions in other areas that would have their own consequences.” The newspaper concedes that “there is strong public support for the theoretical goal of decarbonisation”, but says “that is not necessarily true for the individual measures that are being introduced in order to achieve it”. It concludes: “Do pro-net-zero politicians really think that the public backs being forced to give up their cars, or would accept significant reductions in their living standards, or would be happy with limits on their ability to travel internationally? Of course not. But that is what is coming unless Britain changes course.”

Elsewhere, climate-sceptic columnist Dominic Lawson writes in the Daily Mail that the UK government is “right to cut off [engagement with] Greenpeace” after its recent protest at Sunak’s home.

New research explores the idea of “climate anger” and whether it drives engagement on climate change. Conducting surveys with more than 2,000 members of the public in Norway, the researchers asked what it was about climate change that made people angry. The most “common reason was human actions causing climate change”, they find, with respondents “frequently point[ing] to responsible agents, especially politicians”. Among those reporting anger, directing it towards human qualities or actions was “consistently and positively related to individual behaviour, policy support and activism”, the study finds, while “referring to responsible agents was not related to either”. In contrast, what the researchers refer to as “contrarian” anger, reflecting scepticism towards the threat of climate change or dissatisfaction with mitigation measures, “constituted 10% of the responses and had a negative effect on all outcomes”.