The highest ever temperature has been recorded in Delhi, India, hitting 52.3C in northwest Delhi’s Mungeshpur area on Wednesday, reports the Times of India. The temperature was recorded in the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya village 50km north of the capital, which doubles as an automatic weather station, it notes. A separate Times of India article says: “As an unrelenting heatwave engulfs northern India, several cities have witnessed temperatures soaring past the 50C mark shattering records and pushing the resilience of millions to the brink.” The extreme weather conditions that have hit the north and western parts of India have caused students to “faint in schools and drinking water taps to dry up”, reports Reuters. Streets in Mungeshpur were deserted and most shops were shut as residents avoided the heat, the newswire adds, with free cold drinks handed out in Narela after temperatures hit 49.9C on Tuesday, before continuing to climb. India’s weather bureau says temperatures have been 9C higher than expected, reports the Associated Press. Nearby states of Punjab and Haryana have also seen high temperatures, with one place in Rajasthan topping the 50C mark, it continues, noting that India declares a heatwave when temperatures are above 45C. The Indian Meteorological Department has issued a “red alert”, warning Delhi’s estimated 33 million residents to take precautions against the heat by staying indoors and remaining hydrated, reports the Times. There is a “very high likelihood of developing heat illness and heatstroke in all ages” with “extreme care needed for vulnerable people,” the department said, notes the article. The millions of people in the country’s capital city that are “packed into poorly ventilated slums and unauthorised settlements” are the most likely to suffer from the “punishing heatwave”, it adds. An editorial in the Times of India says: “India cannot escape the impact of climate change. Extended heatwaves are here to stay and water demand in urban areas will not reduce. Neither can some consequences of haphazard urban expansion, such as building over natural landscapes, be undone…Not a drop to waste…Reusing treated water is the solution.”

The record temperatures in northern India are part of a broader heatwave across much of Southeast Asia, notes the Washington Post, “which is one of multiple heat waves occurring around the world because of a combination of short-term weather patterns and long-term warming trends fueled by human-caused climate change”. Authorities in India are investigating whether a faulty sensor could have led to the record high temperature in Delhi, where it is the first time temperatures have exceeded 50C, reports the Guardian. The India Meteorological Department is examining the data and sensors at the Mungeshpur station, given the unusually large variation in temperature recorded there, it continues. Other stations around the capital recorded more consistent temperatures that were close to 50C, with Najafgarh recording 49.1C for example, the article adds. (Some scientists have confirmed that the recording at the Mungeshpur station is being viewed as an “anomaly” and now being investigated, but this should not distract from the city’s dangerously high near-50C temperatures.) This story was also covered by the Hindu, Forbes, CNN, the Daily Maverick and others. The Indian Express has an article headlined: “Not just Delhi: How temperature records are tumbling across the world.”

Wealthy countries finally met their target to deliver $100bn in climate finance to poorer countries in 2022, two years later than promised, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), reports the Financial Times. Rich nations first made the pledge to help developing countries cut emissions and adapt to climate change at the COP15 summit in Copenhagen in 2009, it notes. The amount became “frequently invoked as prime evidence of inaction and indifference by wealthier nations for the fate of those more vulnerable to the effects of global warming”, the article continues. Wealthy countries provided $115.9bn in climate finance in 2022, meeting the 2020 goal for the first time, reports Reuters. While the figure is less than is needed by developing countries to tackle emissions and adapt to changing climate, “the missing $100bn has become politically symbolic, stoking mistrust between nations at recent UN climate talks, as some developing countries argue they cannot agree to curb CO2 emissions faster if the world’s economic powers do not deliver promised financial support”, adds the article. The nearly $116bn in 2022 is a year-to-year increase of around 30%, up from $89.6bn in what was the largest jump to date, reports Climate Home News. This was driven by significant funding increases from multilateral development banks, which contributed $50.6bn, along with individual governments and private finance mobilised by using public money to reduce risk, it adds. The article quotes OECD secretary-general Mathias Cormann, a former Australian finance minister, who says “exceeding” the annual commitment was “an important and symbolic achievement which goes some way towards making up for the two-year delay” and “should help build trust”. However, climate finance analysts have criticised the quality of the finance and how it was calculated, with Harjeet Singh, a New Delhi-based COP veteran and climate activist, saying the process of providing and accounting for climate finance “is riddled with ambiguity and inadequacies”. 

Emissions reductions have provided $249bn of climate and health benefits, according to a new study covered by the Guardian. By increasing its use of renewable energy, the US has improved its air quality, yielding the hundreds of billions of dollars in benefits, as well as acting on climate change, it adds. The study, published in Cell Reports Sustainability, was based on publicly available data and focuses on the uptick in renewables in the US from 2019 to 2022, it notes. The article quotes Dev Millstein, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who says: “From 2019 through to 2022, wind and solar generation increased by about 55%. By 2022, wind and solar provided roughly 14% of total electricity needs for the US.” During this period, the country’s use of wind and solar power cut its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 900m metric tons, the study found, the equivalent of taking 71m cars off the road every year, the article adds.

In other US news, 400,000 people remain without power after hurricane-force winds and damaging hail hit the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan areas, reports the Independent. A 16-year-old construction worker was killed by the destructive storms, after a home collapsed around him, it adds. These outages follow Houston suffering power cuts as a result of bad weather two weeks ago, when a derecho – a widespread, long-lived storm – with winds up to 100mph hit the city, killing seven people, reports the Guardian. The outages come as temperatures are rising, increasing the risk of heat exhaustion or heat stroke for vulnerable people, it adds.

Chinese state news agency Xinhua reports that the State Council, the nation’s top administrative body, has issued its action plan for energy conservation and carbon reduction from 2024 to 2025. The plan sets a target of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by about 130m tonnes through energy conservation and carbon reduction measures in key industries, while working to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions per unit of GDP by about 2.5% and 3.9%, respectively, in 2024. The news agency adds that the plan “lays a solid foundation” for achieving the country’s “dual carbon” goals. Reuters also covers the story, saying that the targeted reduction in CO2 emissions is “equivalent to about 1% of the 2023 national total”. Another Xinhua article quotes Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) spokesperson Pei Xiaofei saying the MEE will soon publish a plan for establishing a “unified and standardised” carbon footprint management system.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that “China plans to invest more than 6bn yuan ($830m) in a government-led project to develop solid-state batteries”, adding that potential participants could include “battery makers CATL and Nio-backed WeLion New Energy Technology”. Bloomberg also covers the story, citing reporting by state-run newspaper China Daily that the move aims to “boost the development of a more powerful and advanced type of electric vehicle [EV] battery technology”. The Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily says that “China has made breakthroughs in technological innovation” in the energy storage sector, adding that China’s energy storage capacity has grown 210% year-on-year to total 35.3 gigawatts (GW) in March 2024.

The European Commission “may inform companies about import duties on Chinese cars” on the week of 10 June, “only after the European election”, according to Politico, citing reporting from German newspaper Der Spiegel – although it noted several trade lawyers “doubted that it was possible to delay the announcement beyond June 6” due to the clear rules on anti-subsidy investigations. Reuters reports that Chinese executives are set to “strike a deal” with the European Commission to “soften the blow for the world’s biggest EV industry” as the deadline for the EU’s decision to set “provisional tariffs” on Chinese EVs approaches. Another Reuters article says that a “majority of Europe’s chief executives believe relations between Europe and China will worsen over the next three years”, citing reasons including “Chinese industrial overcapacity” and reliance reduction on China for “critical minerals and technology”. The Financial Times reports that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised its China GDP growth forecast for 2024 to 5%, but says the country needs to “restructure” its economy “away from inefficient industrial policies supporting ‘priority sectors’ and towards those favouring domestic consumption”.

The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports that China is helping Nepal look for oil as “Beijing seeks to strengthen bilateral ties and competes with India” for regional influence. Another SCMP article says China has promised to support Equatorial Guinea to “diversify its economy away from a heavy reliance on oil and gas”. Separately, the state-supporting newspaper Global Times reports that the Kunming Biodiversity Fund, a “China-initiated fund aimed at supporting biodiversity conservation in developing countries”, was launched in Beijing on Tuesday.

Oil and gas giant ConocoPhillips is buying Marathon Oil for approximately $17.1bn, as energy prices rise and big oil companies “reap massive profits”, reports the Associated Press. The all-stock deal is valued at $22bn, when including $5.4bn in debt, it adds. The acquisition would hand Conoco a suite of assets from North Dakota to Texas “as it seeks to bolster its position in America’s prolific shale fields”, reports the Financial Times. The acquisition of the rival would be the latest in a series of “megadeals” announced over the past eight months that are reshaping the US energy sector, “as large oil companies seek to snap up the country’s best remaining shale resources and consolidate a once-fragmented sector”, it adds. This story is also covered by the New York Times, Forbes, CNBC and others. 

Elsewhere, shareholders of ExxonMobil and Chevron are gathering for the oil giants’ annual meetings “amid scrutiny from lawmakers and climate activists”, reports the Guardian. Both companies are under investigation by the Democrats for a recent dinner with Donald Trump, where he reportedly made a quid-pro-quo offer to oil bosses, it adds. Additionally, they have both come under fire for promoting doubt about global warming despite knowledge of it and reneging of previous climate pledges as gas prices have risen, the article notes. ExxonMobil has “easily rebuffed” an attempted shareholder revolt at the meeting against its board of directors, sparked by the company’s decision to sue two climate-focused investors, reports the Financial Times. 

In the UK, ExxonMobil and Shell have also announced that they are nearing a $500m (£390m) deal to offload two gas sites in the North Sea, reports the Daily Telegraph. The  Clipper and Leman Alpha installations in the southern region of the North Sea will be sold to UK-based start-up Viaro Energy, as part of an ongoing retreat from the UK’s oil basin, it adds.

Nancy Hernández, the president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, says Brazil has become a stage to indict countries over climate change, Folha de São Paulo reports. The newspaper adds that Hernández will participate in events in the country this month to “gather information and draw up guidelines on situations in which the court will be able to judge and condemn countries for climate inaction”. 

Meanwhile, Excélsior reports that, according to data from the country’s health ministry, at least 48 people have died in Mexico and 956 others been “affected” due to the “intense” heatwaves the country has been experiencing over the past two months. In another article, the newspaper says that the water supply system in central Mexico is at “28% of capacity” and has been “down for eight months”. 

In other news from Latin America, according to a study covered by the Colombian newspaper El Espectador, “26 additional days of extreme heat occurred in 2023 due to climate change”. The study examined the number of days between 1991 and 2020 that had high temperatures in countries across the region and whether those days were related to climate change. It found that the countries most affected were Suriname, Ecuador, Guyana, El Salvador and Panama. 

In a comment piece for Argentina’s La Nación, Daniel Werner, head of the nation’s foreign relations and international cooperation department, writes that climate change “increases negative effects on crop production and prices and could threaten food security in Latin America”. Werner calls for adaptation plans that incorporate climate projections and sustainable agricultural practices.

While big tech is “part in reaching net-zero targets”, its vast new data centres are run at a huge cost to the environment, argues Mariana Mazzucato, professor of economics at UCL and director of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, in the Guardian. While tech and data have enabled the use of smart meters and made solar more efficient, the environmental footprint must not be ignored, she adds. The infrastructure used by the “cloud” accounts for more global greenhouse emissions than commercial flights, for example, as well as driving demand for key minerals, using large amounts of water and diverting energy resources away from other demand, notes Mazzucato. Despite the “unprecedented wave of innovation since the 1990s, we have consistently overlooked the repercussions of technology advances on climate change”, she writes, before concluding: “As climate scientists anticipate that global heating will exceed the 1.5C target, it’s time we approach today’s grand challenges systemically, so that the solution to one problem does not exacerbate another.”

Global warming increased the intensity of rare and extreme rainfall in parts of north-east Brazil in May 2022 that led to flooding and landslides, an attribution study finds. Analysing data from 79 weather stations over the eastern north-east of Brazil since the 1970s, the researchers assess the role of human-caused climate change in seven-day and 15-day average rainfall. The findings show that the rainfall in May 2022 was “exceptionally rare”, with just a 1-in-1000 chance of the 15-day mean rainfall in this region happening in any year in today’s climate. The study further shows that human-caused warming is “at least in part” responsible for the increase in likelihood and intensity of this heavy rainfall in May 2022. For example, the study says, without this warming, the rainfall “would have been approximately a fifth less intense”.

New research finds that around three-quarters of lakes around the world have experienced a simultaneous increase in at least two extremes, such as algal blooms, since the 1980s. The scientists use satellite observations to assess how the occurrence of algal blooms, lake heatwaves and low lake levels have changed in more than 2,700 lakes since the 1980s. The findings show that the frequency of all three of these extremes increased in one-quarter of the lakes over the past four decades. Areas that experienced more agricultural fertiliser use, lake warming and a decline in water availability had the largest increase in the frequency of these extremes, the study notes.