Heavy monsoon rains and flooding in the subcontinent have killed at least 33 people in southern India and five children in Pakistan over the past two days, the Associated Press reports. In India’s southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, “houses collapsed and were swept away by torrential downpours”, the newswire says, while “[o]verflowing lakes, tanks and streams have cut off some villages” and “Budameru River flood[ed] 40% of the city” of Vijayawada, leaving 275,000 people stranded. In Pakistan’s south-western Balochistan province, “flash floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains killed five children on Monday…bringing the country’s overall death toll from rain-related incidents to at least 300 since 1 July”, the newswire adds. The “heavy rains” in south India were “triggered by a depression in the Bay of Bengal” that began on 30 August and intensified, the Wire reports, with “Andhra Pradesh…receiving 27% more rainfall than its annual average in just 48 hours”. The Telangana government has urged the country’s leaders to declare the floods “a national calamity”, Al Jazeera reports, adding that while “rains cause widespread destruction every year, experts say climate change is shifting weather patterns and increasing the number of extreme weather events”. The Times of India reports that the death toll from floods in Bangladesh rose to 71 on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Business Standard reports that Kerala’s chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said his government wants to focus on the “scientific use of land and deployment of localised early warning systems” in the wake of the Wayanad landslides, as well as “strengthen” state institutions studying climate change. Separately, an Article 14 investigation looks at how the Indian government “has taken no action to hold state-run [Oil and Natural Gas Corporation]…accountable for the death of 86” after “failing to evacuate” vessels near its “offshore fields despite numerous weather forecasts about the severity of the oncoming” Cyclone Tauktae, “one of the strongest tropical cyclones to hit the western coast of India”. 

Elsewhere, in a Livemint comment article, Leena Srivastava – who serves as an independent director on Shell’s board – writes that “while we may continue to debate historical responsibilities ad nauseam, India needs to adopt a much more aggressive stance on all aspects of the climate change challenge”. She adds that “all policies and programmes should be put to a strategic environmental assessment (SEA)”, which should “reflect upon how climate responses and resilience building could become an integral part of [environmental and social impact assessment] processes in the country”. Finally, Hindustan Times, carries a commentary by actor Dia Mirza on sustainable cooling that “must protect the most vulnerable” and that “bring these benefits to all without jeopardising our climate targets and the need to decarbonise our economy”.

US climate envoy John Podesta is expected to visit China for three days from Wednesday to “bridge gaps on issues such as [climate] finance” with his counterpart Liu Zhenmin, Reuters reports – adding that “the US is also trying to push China to set more ambitious climate targets…[in its] new ‘nationally determined’ contributions”. The newswire cautions that “few analysts expect this week’s talks to deliver much progress”. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) states that “the talks are likely to be the last meeting between the climate envoys before the US election in November”. Bloomberg also covers the story. Environmental news outlet Dialogue Earth quotes Liu saying “work on a new national climate action plan is in full swing”. A commentary by Zhong Sheng, a nom de plume that signals support from the leadership, in the Communist Party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily argues that “it is necessary for China and the US to coordinate and cooperate, to show the magnanimity of great powers and to assume the roles of great powers”.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that in response to Canada’s decision to impose 100% tariffs duties on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs), China will “launch an anti-dumping probe into Canadian rapeseed imports”. An opinion article in SCMP argues that China and the EU should shift their EV negotiations from “a bilateral to a multilateral setting” to “demonstrate their commitment to upholding the rules-based liberal international economic order”. The EU is looking to tighten its rules to ensure the bloc’s funding for “hydrogen projects benefits European companies, after local industries raised concerns over cheap Chinese imports”, Reuters reports. 

Elsewhere, Bloomberg reports that China’s relationships with African countries have helped “Beijing lock down access to energy and minerals, while providing an outlet for its pent up industrial capacity”. SCMP reports that African leaders aim to “secure funding” from China “for infrastructure projects and trade deals” during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing. And Xinhua publishes an article titled: “Xi Jinping – true friend of Africa”, saying that China has “enhanced its solidarity and cooperation” with Africa under Xi’s leadership.

A joint project by the Guardian and Watershed Investigations reveals the UK’s largest methane-emitting hotspots, which include the country’s last coalmine in Wales and Selby in Yorkshire – which is home to the Drax power station as well as old landfills and farmland. The top 10 also includes power stations, oil wells and the Slough trading estate, which contains a wide range of industries, the investigation says. The analysis uses official methane emissions data from the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI), but “there is dispute over whether [it] can be relied on”, the article says. Drax “argues that the NAEI uses models to produce emissions figures that are too high”, the newspaper notes, while “NAEI’s modelling has also been criticised by academics, who argue it underplays the amount of methane being released”.

Elsewhere, there is continuing coverage of the Labour government’s first renewable energy auction. The Times notes that nine new offshore wind farms were among the record number of projects agreed in the UK’s sixth annual auction for state subsidies for renewable energy. It adds that a total of 131 new green infrastructure projects were agreed, including 20 onshore wind projects, after Labour lifted the de-facto ban on onshore wind put in place by the Conservatives. The Daily Telegraph claims that the subsidised projects agreed in the auction will add £150 to household bills. Jess Ralston, head of energy at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), explains on Twitter how this article “has already undergone hefty revisions – but remains fundamentally misleading”. The Daily Mail reports that the projects will cost bill payers an extra £50 a year, based on calculations from the Institute for Economic Affairs and Net Zero Watch, a thinktank and campaign group, respectively, that both have a history of climate change scepticism. The article also includes multiple quotes from John Constable without mentioning his connection to the campaign group.

In other UK news, BBC News reports that the headquarters for GB Energy, Labour’s flagship state-owned energy company, will be in Aberdeen. The Guardian reports that “Scottish ministers have raided a £460m green energy fund to help pay for higher than inflation pay deals that the government did not budget for”. It continues: “The cuts include cancelling a flat-rate rail fares scheme, dropping free buses for asylum seekers, allowing councils to divert money from flood schemes and nature projects, cutting green travel projects and banning non-essential recruitment.” The Scottish Greens described the decision as a “disaster for our climate”, BBC News says. The Guardian also reports that the UK government “is to slash the nature-friendly farming budget in England by £100m in order to help fill what ministers say is a £22bn Treasury shortfall”. The cut would mean at least 239,000 fewer hectares of nature-friendly farmland, according to research by the RSPB, the Guardian says. The Guardian further reports on its frontpage that prime minister Keir Starmer is to face a key test next week after agreeing to a vote on the proposal to limit winter fuel allowance to only the poorest pensioners. The Financial Times has a feature on how the UK will soon go completely coal-power free for the first time in 140 years. And the Times has a feature on Labour’s plans for a “new nuclear age”.

Former Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn stood on trial in court on Tuesday on fraud charges over the “dieselgate” scandal, “nine years after the German carmaker was found to have rigged emissions tests”, Reuters reports. It says: “Winterkorn, who was toppled from the helm of the company in September 2015 after it emerged that millions of Volkswagen cars had been manipulated to pass environmental standards, became a figurehead of the scandal, the biggest in the company’s history.” Prosecutors allege that Winterkorn, now 77-years-old, “knew about the illegal software well before the US Environmental Protection Agency announced its discovery of the violation in September 2015”, the Associated Press adds.

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph reports that an electric vehicle brand owned by Volkswagen would be “wiped out” by proposed European Union tariffs aimed at China, according to a senior executive at the company. It says: “Models in Volkswagen’s Cupra brand are designed in Spain, but include cars made in China, which would face tariffs of 21.3% under proposals from the European Commission.” The Times reports that “low electric car sales at Ford and Vauxhall have sent the market share of Britain’s historically most popular motoring brands to multi-decade lows as manufacturers struggle to meet the demands of the statutory zero-emission vehicle mandate”. The Daily Telegraph has a follow-up to its frontpage story yesterday on how manufacturers are “rationing” sales of petrol cars in order to meet the terms of the zero-emission vehicle mandate.

Lex – the “flagship investment column” of the Financial Times – says that North Sea oil and gas companies are “not crying wolf” with recent warnings that they will pull investment over uncertainty over Labour’s plans for the basin. It says: “There are several issues. First, the new Labour government confirmed in July it would add 3 percentage points to the UK’s energy profits levy…More significantly, Starmer’s government is making changes to the investment and capital allowances. Introduced by previous administrations, these were designed to ensure that, even as taxes rose, companies would still invest in production. Some of these allowances looked overly generous: from 2022 for every £100 companies invested in new projects they could receive tax relief of about £91. This autumn, the industry expects tax relief to revert to pre-2022 levels of 46%. The difference is that in 2021, profits were taxed at only 40%. Sharp cuts to capex seem a pretty obvious consequence: lobby group Offshore Energies UK estimates nearly £12bn of capital investment is at risk between 2025 and 2029.”

Elsewhere, several right-leaning newspapers with a history of climate scepticism have editorials criticising the UK’s recent record renewable energy subsidy auction. The Daily Telegraph has an editorial titled: “Green energy comes at a high price”. The Sun has an editorial titled: “Like most hysterical eco-obsessives, ideology blinds Ed Miliband to ­reason and cold reality.” The Daily Mail has an editorial striking a similar tone, saying the auction results “will delight Labour’s green lobby while impacting negatively on millions of lives”. Conversely, the Times carries a piece by business commentator Alistair Osborne that says the results are “not a cause for criticism”, but notes more will need to be done to meet Labour’s offshore wind power targets.

Elsewhere, the Daily Telegraph has comment pieces on the “fiasco” with electric cars and how “fracking has saved the west”. And the Financial Times interviews French economist Jean Pisani-Ferry about global climate policies and “green versus brown” growth.

Climate change could cause a “consistent shrinking of wetlands” in the Mediterranean, Central America and parts of South America, a new study suggests. Using a hydrological model and the output of 14 CMIP6 climate models, the researchers find that, in contrast, central Africa could see “an increase in wetlands extent, except in the Congo Basin”. The authors note that “there is significant uncertainty among models in high latitudes”, but focusing on models that are better at representing permafrost thaw, they identify “notable decreases in specific regions like the Hudson Bay and western Siberian lowlands”.