Fossil fuel companies are running “a massive mis- and disinformation campaign” to slow down the energy transition according to the UN, reports the Guardian. It quotes Selwin Hart, the assistant secretary general of the UN, who said in a statement: “There is this prevailing narrative – and a lot of it is being pushed by the fossil fuel industry and their enablers – that climate action is too difficult, it’s too expensive. It is absolutely critical that leaders, and all of us, push back and explain to people the value of climate action, but also the consequences of climate inaction.” The newspaper says Hart contrasted the campaign with a recent survey that found 72% of people wanted a “quick transition” away from fossil fuels. It says: “Green parties and plans may have suffered reverses in some parts of the world, he said, but in others they have gained seats, and seen policies that would once have been considered radical enter the mainstream.” According to the newspaper, Hart said governments should take note of the survey findings and be more ambitious, adding: “Climate appears to be dropping down the list of priorities of leaders. But we really need leaders now to deliver maximum ambition. And we need maximum cooperation. Unfortunately, we are not seeing that at the moment.” India’s News Nine also has the story.

More than 100 houses have been damaged after a glacial lake outburst north of Alaska’s capital Juneau, “an increasingly frequent phenomenon exacerbated by climate change”, reports Reuters. The flooding began on Monday after water from began spilling out of the Suicide Basin, which is usually dammed by the retreating Mendenhall Glacier, it adds. When water from rainfall and snowmelt creates enough pressure it can force its way under or around the ice dam created, it can burst through to enter the Mendenhall Lake and eventually travel up the Mendenhall River to flood the capital, explains the Guardian. Eran Hood, a professor of environmental science at the University of Alaska Southeast told the publication that climate change “plays almost no role in the year to year variations in the volume of the flooding in Juneau”, but the publication notes that it is a “reminder of the global risk from bursting snow-and-ice dams”. Since 2011 this has happened numerous times, but this week’s flood was “unprecedented and left residents shaken”, it continues. The flooding topped a record set just last year, leaving extensive damage to homes and buildings, adds the New York Times.

Elsewhere in North America, temperatures in Canada and especially the Arctic are climbing faster than the global average, reports the Guardian, with highs of 33C. Environment Canada has classified the heat as “severe”, and warned of “significant threat to life or property”, it continues. The current heatwave marks the fourth this season, the article notes. 

According to a new study – also covered in a new in-depth piece by Carbon Brief – the “devastating wildfires that tore through the world’s biggest tropical wetland, Brazil’s Pantanal” in June, were at least four times more likely and 40% more intense due to climate change, reports the Guardian. The fires burned 440,000 hectares (1.1m acres) and are thought to have killed millions of animals and countless more plants, insects and fungi, it continues. June was the driest, hottest and windiest in the Brazilian Pantanal since observations began, creating a “vast tinderbox” that led to the extent of the destruction being 70% higher than the previous June record, it adds. According to the international team of scientists at World Weather Attribution, these conditions are expected to occur once every 35 years at the current 1.2C of warming above pre-industrial levels, the Guardian adds. In other Brazilian news, severe drought in the Amazonian river has forced a shift away from hydropower towards thermal sources and energy imports, reports Reuters. The Electric Sector Monitoring Committee (CMSE) has recommended minimising the use of hydropower in northern Brazil, where the country’s two largest hydroelectric plants are, it continues. Instead Brazil is looking to import electricity from Argentina and Uruguay and encourage large industries to shift consumption to times with lower demand, the article adds. The “historic drought” currently affecting Brazil’s Amazon region has halted grain shipments and led local Indigenous communities to “declare a climate emergency”, it says. 

Elsewhere, California’s largest wildfire of the year so far has continued to grow, with the Park Fire now having burned more than 660 square miles (1,709 square kilometres) since 24 July, reports the Associated Press. The wildfire, which started near the Sacramento Valley city of Chico and has burned northward up the western flank of the Sierra Nevada, has seen containment remain at 34% Cal Fire said, the article continues. The fire has “reawakened” this week, due to the heat and very low relative humidity levels, it adds. The fire has now destroyed around 45,000 acres of trees that formed part of California’s carbon offset programme, according to estimates by non-profit research group CarbonPlan, reports the Financial Times.

In other extreme heat news, climate scientists have warned that despite a brief respite in record-breaking temperatures, the world is continuing to warm, reports the Guardian. On Wednesday the European climate agency Copernicus announced that the 13-month string of record temperatures came to an end in July as the natural El Niño climate pattern ebbed, it continues. However, this “changes nothing about the threat posed by the climate crisis”, the article states. It quotes Copernicus’s deputy director, Samantha Burgess, who said in a statement that “the overall context hasn’t changed. Our climate continues to warm.”

The Drax biomass power station was responsible for four times more carbon emissions than the UK’s last remaining coal-fired power plant last year, according to a new report from climate thinktank Ember, reports the Guardian. This is despite the North Yorkshire power plant, which burns wood pellets mainly imported from North America, receiving more than £0.5bn in clean-energy subsidies in 2023, it continues. Drax was responsible for 11.5m tonnes of CO2 in 2023, or nearly 3% of the UK’s total carbon emissions, it notes. As such, it produced four times the emissions of the country’s last coal-fired power plant Ratcliffe-on-Soar, which is set to close in September, the article notes. It quotes Frankie Mayo, an analyst at Ember, who said: “Burning wood pellets can be as bad for the environment as coal; supporting biomass with subsidies is a costly mistake.” The Guardian quotes a spokesperson for Drax saying Ember’s findings were “flawed” and accusing the authors of ignoring its “widely accepted and internationally recognised approach to carbon accounting”. 

In related news, 22 climate campaigners have been arrested at a protest at the North Yorkshire power plant, reports ITV News. The outlet says campaign group Reclaim the Power said its members were setting up camp for six days at Drax due to the claims that the plant is the UK’s largest single source of emissions, but the protest has been cancelled following the arrests by North Yorkshire Police. The arrests were made due to public order offences, including conspiracy to interfere with key national infrastructure, the article notes. Several items which would “be associated with large scale protest” have also been seized, reports BBC News. Protesters have subsequently staged a sit-in outside a York police station, following the arrests in connection with planned action at Drax, reports the York Press.

State news agency Xinhua reports that China has issued a plan to “standardise carbon emission calculations across key sectors” to help achieve its goal of reducing carbon emissions. The “formulation of national carbon footprint standards” for electric vehicles (EVs), solar products and lithium-ion batteries – known as the “new three” – will also accelerate, the news agency adds. Energy news outlet International Energy Net also covers the story, saying that the plan aims to introduce “70 national standards on carbon accounting, footprint, reduction, capture, utilisation and storage” by the end of this year and “a standardised calculation and evaluation system” with “key sectors and products meeting world-leading benchmarks for energy consumption control” in 2025. China Energy News carries an article saying that China’s national carbon market, with its “vast scale”, has “significantly” influenced “global carbon pricing and… carbon trading mechanisms”, according to Lü Lianhong, an engineer at the Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences. It quotes Lü saying that China’s “method of quota allocation, based on carbon emission intensity control targets” contributes a “Chinese solution” to the global carbon market. 

Meanwhile, another Xinhua report says that China’s 18,000-kilometre mainland coastline provides a “vast potential for marine PV development” (offshore solar projects). The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post cites a report from Xinhua on Wednesday, saying that China “has confirmed the discovery of a major gas field in the South China Sea”. 

Finally, Reuters reports that “at least two people have died from heat-stroke” in Shenzhen and “many more have fallen ill” in China as “temperatures hovered around 40C… for the eighth day on the eastern seaboard”. A Bloomberg newsletter says that China’s “policy pendulum” is now “swinging back” towards climate after “Beijing leaned heavily on fossil fuels” during the past few years, in fear of “economically harmful power shortages and a global energy crisis”. Citing analysis from Carbon Brief, the outlet adds that a number of policies have been announced in the past week to “maintain its record pace of renewable installations, potentially paving the way for an early peak in emissions”. However, it adds that coal will still play a role in the country’s energy strategy, as China plans to “extend the life of some power plants that burn the fuel by reducing their pollution”.

Germany’s energy transition is progressing, with renewables making up nearly 60% of the electricity mix in early 2024, while conventional sources such as coal and gas dropped to 41%, reports the Frankfurter Rundschau. However, the newspaper notes that the increased use of wind and solar energy has led to challenges, particularly with excess solar power generation that can, at times, exceed demand. Limited storage capacities force network operators to sell this surplus electricity at low prices, explains the outlet, resulting in “significant costs” for operators and the state. Die Welt adds that grid operators are obligated by the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) to accept “these worthless kilowatt-hours”, pay for them and then market them on the electricity exchange. Michael Kruse, the energy policy spokesperson for the Free Democrats in the German parliament, is quoted saying: “The fact that the record of 301 hours of ‘negative’ electricity prices from 2023 was already broken in July shows how significant the disincentives of the blind EEG funding are…[Economics and climate minister] Robert Habeck’s blind approach to renewables must be replaced by a system that prioritises grid and storage expansion before further renewable expansion.”

Meanwhile, Die Zeit reports that German energy company Uniper has announced that it will repay more than €3.4bn to the German government next spring after “being rescued” with state aid during the energy crisis and having been temporarily owned by the German government since 2022. The EU now requires the government to reduce its stake to a maximum of “25% plus one share” by 2028, adds the outlet. Reuters also covers the story.

The new Labour government has made “a fast start in mobilising Britain’s most obvious natural asset” argues the Guardian in an editorial focused on wind energy, which says that big challenges remain. It continues by saying that “huge investment” is going to be needed if the UK is to meet its goals of fully decarbonising electricity by 2030, tripling offshore wind and doubling onshore wind, but a month into this parliament “Labour has already demonstrated that it means business”. This includes amending the National Planning Policy Framework to ease onshore wind development and announcing a partnership with the Crown Estate, which owns the seabed around the nation, and boosting funding for the UK’s annual auction for new renewables, the Guardian says. But challenges remain, it continues, including the need for “generous financial guarantees” and tackling the “treacherous” politics of pylons. The editorial concludes: “Fully exploiting the British Isles’ most obvious natural asset is environmentally and economically the right thing to do, and Miliband has made a very good start. But compared with the challenges ahead, so far it’s been a breeze.”

In other comment, Daily Telegraph assistant editor Jeremy Warner points to China [where more than half of new cars are now electric and 102 gigawatts (GW) of solar was installed in the first half of the year alone, compared with UK capacity of less than 20GW] in arguing that while the UK may be leading the world on net-zero, “no one is following”. 

As climate change disrupts food and water supplies, food companies are boosting their marketing campaigns for “ultraprocessed food” and sugary drinks, says Lindsey Smith Taillie, associate professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina, in an article for the New York Times. She writes: “What’s clear is that the companies are taking advantage of worsening environmental conditions to increase their profits.” She continues by noting that when it becomes hard to find drinking water, many turn to soft drinks. Smith Taillie adds that as extreme weather batters food and water supplies, the junk food industry is likely to keep “bombarding vulnerable communities”, making it even more important for governments to boost their efforts to make sure everyone has access to healthy food and clean water to stave off a public health crisis. She concludes: “There’s no better time to rein the sales of these foods in – the hotter future will only make us further dependent on them.”

In other comment, Adil Najam, president of the WWF and an environmental-policy researcher at the Pardee School at Boston University, says in an article for Nature that the International Court of Justice “must weigh in strongly on climate and nature” in its ongoing climate case that is due to hold hearings later this year, as the “time to act is now”. In the Financial Times, columnist and the chief data reporter John Burn-Murdoch explores Green parties in Europe, saying they “need to decide who and what they are for”. 

A new study finds that sea-surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean significantly influence the frequency of compound humid heat extremes – the deadly co-occurrence of high temperatures and humidity – in the south-eastern US. Using an Earth-system model, researchers examine a range of factors that could potentially help predict the onset of these extreme events. They find that abnormally warm ocean temperatures can affect the atmospheric circulation, bringing heat and moisture from the Gulf of Mexico to the south-eastern US. They conclude that “the results of this study have potential applications in the development of early warning systems” for humid heat extremes.