The death toll in flood-hit north-eastern Libya continues to rise, with at least 5,300 people presumed dead and 10,000 missing after heavy rains caused two dams to collapse, CNN reports. While the news outlet says it cannot independently verify the numbers, it attributes them to officials from the interior ministry of Libya’s eastern government and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies delegation in Libya. Saudi Arabia-based Arab News describes how “floodwaters smashed through dams and washed away entire neighbourhoods” in the city of Derna. It says the “startling death and devastation” caused by Mediterranean Storm Daniel was due to the storm’s intensity, but also the vulnerability of a nation divided by rival governments and “torn apart by chaos for more than a decade”. Such conflict “has left the oil-rich country with a weakened infrastructure”, according to Al Jazeera. The New York Times adds that the event “also underscored how climate change can combine with political conflicts and economic failure to magnify the scale of disasters”, describing Libya as “especially vulnerable to climate change and severe storms”. The Independent also makes the link with climate change, noting that “the warm water that allowed [Storm] Daniel to intensify and fed the exceptional rainfall are a phenomenon being observed around the globe”. According to Bloomberg, the powerful storm is being described as a “medicane” – an amalgamation of “Mediterranean” and “hurricane”. While these “rare” phenomena are smaller than large Atlantic storms, they “can strike with Category 1 force”, meaning they have winds greater than 74 miles (119km) per hour and flooding rains. According to Axios, events across Europe including flooding in Greece, Spain and Libya are “tied to an unusually stuck weather pattern, with elevated water temperatures in the Mediterranean adding to the trouble”. Dr Karsten Haustein, a climate scientist at Leipzig University, is quoted in the Guardian saying: “While no formal attribution of the role of climate change in making Storm Daniel more intense has been conducted yet, it is safe to say that the Mediterranean sea surface temperatures have been considerably above average throughout summer.” Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports on a new study that concludes storms in the Mediterranean will become “rarer but stronger as the effects of warming become more severe”. It adds that, in the Mediterranean, Category 1 storms “would pose an almost unheard-of level of climatic violence, certainly in the sea’s eastern basin”. 

Politico reports on the impact of Storm Daniel-induced flooding in Greece. “Athens is asking Brussels for aid after a violent storm brought record rainfall last week, turning the Thessalian plain – home to a quarter of the country’s agricultural production – into a vast lake,” it says.

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that the Insurance Council of Australia has reported that a “repeat of Australia’s worst disasters such as Cyclone Tracy and Sydney’s giant hailstorm in 1999 would hit the economy much harder now, given increased population and the rising costs of rebuilding”. Elsewhere, Reuters reports on new research that concludes extreme heat and flooding could destroy $65bn in clothing export earnings from four Asian countries – Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan and Vietnam – by 2030, as workers struggle under high temperatures and factories close. According to the Hindustan Times, El Nino has “put oceans on an uncharted path since April with global monthly mean ocean temperatures currently at an all-time high”.

Despite “claims of climate leadership”, the US accounts for more than one-third of the expansion of global oil-and-gas production planned by the middle of the century, according to new analysis by campaign group Oil Change International, covered by the Guardian. It is followed by Canada, Russia, Iran, China and Brazil, all of which have big expansion plans in the coming years, the piece continues. It notes that global north countries – the US, Canada, Australia, Norway and the UK – will be “responsible for just over half of all the planned expansion from new oil-and-gas fields to 2050”. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), host of this year’s COP28 climate summit, is seventh on the list, the article adds. DeSmog also covers the report, noting that the world’s top 20 oil-and-gas extractors have enough production planned to generate 173bn tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) by 2050, “more than enough to blow past their Paris Agreement commitments and heat the world well beyond 1.5C”.

Another Guardian piece picks up on an opinion column penned by International Energy Agency (IEA) chief Fatih Birol earlier this week, in which he said the world’s demand for oil, gas and coal will begin to decline this decade in “the beginning of the end” of the fossil fuel era. The Financial Times Lex column notes that “oil demand is currently at record levels”, but adds that “the IEA justifiably believes Chinese demand will slow” and demand will fall more broadly due to the rise of electric car sales. In the UK, BusinessGreen has an article titled “how bungling the clean energy transition could fuel oil and gas industry job losses”. It explains that the UK’s offshore oil-and-gas industry is supportive of more investment in offshore wind, carbon storage and hydrogen projects, due to the job opportunities they offer for oil-and-gas workers in the nation. In Ecuador, the Financial Times reports that, following votes to ban oil drilling and mining activities, the nation “now faces losing out on billions of dollars of export revenue”.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports that Bernard Looney has stood down as oil major BP’s chief executive “after admitting he had failed to disclose the extent of past personal relationships with colleagues”. It notes that his pledge to cut the company’s emissions to net-zero by 2050 “have gone further than BP’s rivals”, adding that “his departure will leave the board scrambling to find a permanent replacement at a time when investors remain sceptical about some aspects of the company’s plans”. In its coverage, Bloomberg agrees that many investors had been “lukewarm over Looney’s approach” to climate action, so “without the architect of that pivot, the company’s direction is now in question”. BBC News adds that Looney “had more recently come under fire from environmental groups for watering down his initial targets”.

The European Parliament gave its final approval to legally binding targets to expand renewable energy faster this decade, increasing the goal for the bloc’s share of renewable energy from 30% to 42.5% by 2030, EurActiv reports. It notes that the current share of renewables in the EU’s energy mix is 22.1%, “which means roughly doubling that share by 2030 – mainly with additional wind and solar capacity”. The article notes that “the revised directive also adds renewable energy targets for buildings and seeks faster permitting processes for wind-and-solar projects with the introduction of dedicated ‘acceleration areas’ for renewables”. The Financial Times explains that the renewables directive is part of the EU’s Green Deal climate law, “which aims to position the bloc as a leader in environmental regulations”. It says the final outcome was “only reached after last-minute concessions were made to France and eastern European countries on nuclear power”, but was ultimately approved by three-quarters of lawmakers, “despite opposition from some right-wing politicians”. Reuters notes that, prior to this, EU countries had “informally okayed” the deal in June, “after Brussels offered written assurances that it would consider exempting certain ammonia plants from renewable fuel targets  allowing them to run on nuclear-based fuels instead”. It notes that there is hope among European leaders that the new directive can help support local renewable manufacturing, as Europe’s solar industry warned the European Commission on Monday that they were being pushed towards bankruptcy amid “fierce competition among Chinese suppliers”.

Politico reports that German finance minister Christian Lindner has taken aim at the EU over its energy performance directive for buildings, another key part of  the Green Deal climate law package, which mandates the renovation of EU housing stock to improve energy efficiency. The politician, who is a member of the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP), tells the outlet such policies could spark a voter backlash and fuel the rise of the far right, by giving the impression people will have to pay more money to live in their homes. Meanwhile, a new report by the NGO Clean Air Task Force, covered by the Guardian, warns that EU member states must bridge the vast “planning gap” between their climate targets and action plans. Energy Monitor reports that many MEPs in the European Parliament from the Left, Liberals and Greens are not happy about the conservative Dutch politician and former Shell employee Wopke Hoekstra taking on the role of EU climate commissioner.

Meanwhile, in the UK, Reuters reports that climate minister Graham Stuart has told parliament the result of a recent subsidy auction for renewable energy projects, which failed to hand out any contracts to new offshore wind, “does not prevent” the UK reaching its climate goals. The Financial Times reports that the nation’s only producer of rare earth metals – considered vital to the energy transition – is “prioritising expansion in the US and EU and putting the brakes on UK growth after Brexit created obstacles for exporting to mainland Europe”.

China’s installed solar capacity could increase twofold to 1,000 gigawatts (GW) by the end of 2026, reports Reuters, quoting energy research firm Rystad Energy. China has previously aimed to grow its capacity of wind and solar power to more than 1,200 GW by 2030, the newswire adds. By the end of 2022, China had installed 365GW of wind power capacity and 392GW of solar capacity by the end of last year – about a third of the world’s total, it notes.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong-based news outlet South China Morning Post writes that Chimbusco Pan Nation Petro-Chemical, Hong Kong’s largest shipping fuel supplier, has refuelled an ocean-going vessel using a “climate-friendly” marine biofuel mix in what is “a first for China”. The state news agency Xinhua announced that, at 249m tonnes, China has become the largest ship-owning country in terms of total tonnage. Elsewhere, Xinhua reports that China has achieved a “breakthrough” by successfully testing an ocean thermal energy electricity generation device. China Energy Net also covers the news, saying the test proved “the practicality of harnessing ocean temperature differences for electricity generation”. 

The Chinese outlet Energy Magazine reports that Chinese energy regulators the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration have recently issued a document seeking opinions on the “establishment of coal power capacity pricing mechanism rules”. The Chinese business news outlet Jiemian reports that, as part of its broader move away from carbon offset programmes, Shell has “removed rice cultivation projects conducted in China from its environmental product portfolio in the country”.

Separately, the Communist Party-backed People’s Daily releases an editorial calling for greater “policy support” and “exchange and cooperation” for green development along the Belt and Road, as well as the establishment of an environmental risk prevention and control system. Finally, Jiemian carries an interview with two industry experts on the development of green certificates.

In the “most sweeping mandate of its kind” in the US, proposed legislation in California would require major corporations that earn more than $1bn and operate in the state – “from oil and gas companies to retail giants” – to disclose their direct greenhouse gas emissions as well as those that come from activities including employee business travel, Associated Press reports. The legislation passed the state assembly on Monday and, according to Reuters, was approved by the state senate on Tuesday, meaning it will now go to governor Gavin Newsom. The newswire says his office must decide by 14 October “whether to sign it and get ahead of the federal government in setting corporate climate rules”. The Verge reports that the requirement that companies disclose so-called “Scope 3” emissions from their supply chains and consumers using their products – which “typically make up the biggest chunk of a company’s carbon footprint” – has gotten the most pushback from industry. The Financial Times notes that, for banks, the legislation requires reporting on “financed emissions” – emissions produced by their borrowers – “sparking worries in the financial industry”.

Amazon is making its first investment in direct air capture (DAC) technology that sucks carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the atmosphere, by committing to purchase 250,000 tonnes of removal credits over 10 years, Reuters reports. (As it stands, DAC is at the very early stages of development, with only 100,000 tonnes being captured annually in total, according to the International Energy Agency.) Amazon will purchase the credits from the 1PointFive DAC plant in Texas, which is being developed by a subsidiary of oil company Occidental, and the e-commerce giant will use them to help meet its climate target of net-zero CO2 emissions by 2040. The Guardian has a profile of the Texas DAC plant, asking “is it just greenwashing from big oil?”. CNBC says the announcement follows Microsoft’s news that it has agreed to buy carbon credits worth 315,000 tonnes of CO2 from California-based startup Heirloom Carbon over the next decade. 

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Alberta, Canada’s largest oil-producing province, will “finalise an investment incentive programme for emissions-cutting technologies such as carbon capture and storage in ‘coming months’”, according to the province’s energy minister.

Financial Times business columnist Helen Thomas has penned an article on how far China has pulled ahead of its European counterparts in the production of electric vehicles. “The complaint that China’s success is down to a multi-decade government-planned effort is both true and slightly academic at this stage. The country’s accumulated advantages are daunting,” she writes. Thomas says that both the UK and EU have been “heavy on setting targets, like the 2035 halt to sales of combustion engines, and light on planning and support to get there”. She concludes that the automotive industry needs to act decisively and fast in this transition. “That should be a lesson for other sectors, from energy to steel to other forms of transport, prevaricating over critical investment or strategic change in the hope that politics, subsidies, or technology will make difficult choices easier,” she adds.

A very different perspective is found in the comment pages of the UK’s right-leaning newspapers. Climate-sceptic columnist Tim Newark writes in the Daily Express about “eco fanaticism and red tape stifling the EU”, which he says the UK must avoid. “The EU’s crazy rush towards electric cars is undermining famous motor brands that have kept thousands of Germans employed throughout their lifetimes,” he writes. Interestingly, he acknowledges that China is set to dominate the electric car market, but rather than suggesting the EU or UK should try to compete in this area, he suggests “innovating and then selling services and goods into emerging markets”. Similar sentiments are found in the Daily Telegraph column by Allison Pearson, another climate sceptic. She has penned a lengthy and far-reaching piece criticising various aspects of UK climate policy under the headline: “When will our leaders admit that achieving net-zero will cost trillions and is unachievable?”. She takes aim at the 2030 ban on electric car and van sales in the UK, as well as the government’s recent  commitment of £1.62bn in climate finance to help developing countries via the Green Climate Fund.

A weekend op-ed in Politico from a number of prominent figures argues that the world is “not on track to meeting the 1.5C goal of the Paris Agreement; the global clean energy transition is dangerously off-course”, but nevertheless “we can still get back on track by taking urgent action now”. The authors include European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, COP28 president Sultan Al-Jaber, Kenyan president William Ruto, Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley, International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol and International Renewable Energy Agency Director-general Francesco La Camera. With the global stocktake report of the Paris Agreement confirming “what we already know and feel in our everyday lives”, they say COP28 “will offer the world a critical chance to course-correct on climate change”. Priority issues they mention include enhancing Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in the remainder of this decade; ensuring increased financing – “particularly in developing countries”; strengthening grids and related infrastructure; ensuring timely permitting; and structuring market rules to incentivise investment.

A carbon budget that takes into account both 1.5C of global warming and limits on ocean acidification could already have been exhausted, a new study suggests. Including acidification targets as well as warming “directly address[es] the issue of ocean acidification, which poses a threat to corals and the ecosystems reliant on them”, the authors note. They combine the Paris Agreement limits of 1.5 and 2C with acidification limits of -0.17 and -0.21 pH units. Assuming a “conservative assumption” that global emissions are held constant since 2021, the budget for the more stringent combination (1.5C and -0.17) was “spent by 2019”, the study finds, while the less stringent combination (2C and -0.21) “will be spent by 2026”.

New research suggests an “interdisciplinary analytical framework” of heatwaves that “brings together data and perspectives from social anthropology, sociology, climate science, epidemiology and meteorology”. Focusing on research in Poland and Spain, the researchers look at the impacts of heat on older adults, noting that this group recognises a heatwave “when they feel it in their bodies, when they cannot sleep, or when they need to change their daily routines”. The findings suggest that “older adults often experience longer periods of excessive heat than climate measurements or policy alerts indicate” and that “the impact of nighttime temperatures is more important than daily temperatures”.