Many publications cover the first 2024 Republican US presidential primary debate, where all but one candidate appeared to deny the scientific consensus that humans are causing climate change. The Independent reports: “During the debate in Wisconsin, the candidates fielded a pre-taped question by a youth named Alexander Diaz, who spoke about how the climate crisis is ‘young people’s number one issue’…The moderators of the debate then asked candidates to raise their hands if they believed in the human origins of the climate crisis. ‘We’re not schoolchildren, let’s have the debate,’ said Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who later insisted he never raised his hand in affirmation…Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy then chimed in, to a mix of cheers and boos, and said the ‘climate change agenda’ is a ‘hoax’.” According to the Independent, meteorologist Eric Holthaus tweeted in response: “Climate denial is alive and well in the year 2023.” The Washington Post notes that “several candidates blamed China and other foreign countries for their planet-warming emissions, overlooking America’s role as the largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases”. BBC News reports that former UN ambassador Nikki Haley went the furthest in agreeing with the question by saying: “Is climate change real? Yes it is.” BBC News quotes several leading climate scientists responding to the debate. Prof Corinne Le Quere, a climate change scientist at the University of East Anglia, tells BBC News: “This is not a political issue, it is a scientific fact that stems from overwhelming evidence from observed climate and from understanding the Earth’s physical processes.” The chairman of the Republican-backing Conservative climate group tells the Guardian that the party “deserves to lose” at the next election if it fails to tackle climate change.

Elsewhere, Climate Home News reports on how the US is “aiming to limit” new finance to tackle loss and damage from climate change.

Many outlets also cover the news that a catastrophic die-off of emperor penguin chicks has been observed in the Antarctic. “Up to 10,000 young birds are estimated to have been killed,” says BBC News. It explains: “The sea-ice underneath the chicks melted and broke apart before they could develop the waterproof feathers needed to swim in the ocean. The birds most likely drowned or froze to death. The event, in late 2022, occurred in the west of the continent in an area fronting on to the Bellingshausen Sea. It was recorded by satellites.” Dr Peter Fretwell, from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), tells BBC News that the mass die off could be a “harbinger of things to come”. He tells BBC News: “Emperors depend on sea ice for their breeding cycle; it’s the stable platform they use to bring up their young. But if that ice is not as extensive as it should be or breaks up faster, these birds are in trouble.” The broadcaster adds: “More than 90% of emperor penguin colonies are predicted to be all but extinct by the end of the century, as the continent’s seasonal sea ice withers in an ever-warming world.” The findings are covered by the Guardian, MailOnline, Daily Telegraph, Inside Climate News and New Scientist, among others.

The Times reports on new research finding that carbon offset schemes that aim to reduce emissions by protecting forests from deforestation “are systematically overstating their own effectiveness”. The newspaper says: “The Redd+ scheme is an international protocol, overseen by the United Nations, for protecting forests. Its success is judged by comparing forest cover in protected regions to what it would have been had deforestation continued at the predicted rate. The difference can then be sold on as carbon credits so that, for instance, consumers can offset the emissions from their flight. However, the system relies on its putative deforestation estimates being correct and a study has claimed they are very much not. Rather than saving trees from loggers, in most cases, scientists said, the areas of protected forest would do just as well if the offsets had never been sold.” The research, published in Science, compared 26 areas in South America, Africa and Asia under the Redd+ scheme with similar patches of forest outside the scheme, the Times says, adding: “The scientists then looked to see how the deforestation differed. In a lot of cases it didn’t.” The Conversation explains that the new Science paper is the same research that underpinned a frontpage investigation in the Guardian earlier this year finding that 90% of forest carbon offset schemes certified by the world’s largest registry, Verra, are essentially “worthless”. (The research was still going through the scientific peer review process at the time the Guardian’s investigation was published.) The investigation prompted Verra’s CEO to step down. Inside Climate News and the Hill also cover the findings.

Elsewhere, Climate Home News has an investigation finding carbon offset projects involving distributing clean cookstoves in India linked to Enking, the self-proclaimed world’s largest carbon credits producer, “have vastly overestimated climate benefits”.

US climate envoy John Kerry says the US will not pressure China to take action but will try to “find places to cooperate with China”, after having a video chat with Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenghua yesterday, reports the Independent. Kerry, speaking ahead of a series of climate lectures in Edinburgh, adds that “China would react very negatively to the United States trying to say ‘do this, do that’”. But he confirms he is “not willing to give up” on the global target of limiting temperature increases to 1.5C, says the outlet. (Read more on Carbon Brief’s Daily Briefing on 24 August)

Meanwhile, the South China Morning Post writes that China is set to extend a “trial involving genetically modified (GM) corn and soybeans” to five provinces, as well as arrange GM seed production, with “food security increasingly becoming a top priority” for the government. Chinese finance news outlet Caijing Eleven says that China is “poised to become a leader” in the global low-carbon economy, and that it aims to invest a “minimum of 250tn yuan ($34tn) by 2050 to strive for the 1.5C target. Chinese economic news outlet Jiemian reports that “leading” Chinese cement companies will soon face challenges of decarbonisation, as new policies and market regulations will soon “constrain” the industry to reduce carbon emissions. 

Elsewhere, Reuters reports that Australia and China have “pledged more support” for the Pacific Islands in combating climate change, as the four of the Pacific Islands countries “debate declaring the strategic region ‘neutral’ as China and the United States jostle for influence”. The Communist party-backed newspaper People’s Daily carries the views of experts at a seminar on “electricity quality and flexible transmission technology”. In it, Dou Xiaojun, deputy director of the State Grid’s equipment management department, states that constructing China’s new energy grid is “a systematic project” and that, “the current and long-term power system is still based on traditional technology”. As a result, the deputy director says, China should focus on “existing technology, but also pay attention to flexible transmission technology and other cutting-edge [new energy] technologies…according to local conditions”. China Dialogue explores how climate change is affecting China’s mountain farmers.

Finally, another Communist party-backed newspaper, the Guangming Daily, carries a comment piece by Wu Wei and Wan Can, researchers at Zhejiang University, on policy options available to China to boost its innovation of low-carbon technology. 

The i newspaper reports that US special climate envoy John Kerry has questioned UK prime minister Rishi Sunak’s aim to “max out” on North Sea oil and gas during an appearance in Edinburgh. Kerry “also raised doubts over whether the new projects set to be given the green light by Sunak would actually go ahead”, according to the outlet. The newspaper says that, after giving a speech calling for the end of “unabated burning of fossil fuels”, reporters asked Kerry how Sunak’s aims could possibly be in line with what he had said in his speech. The outlet says: “Kerry replied: ‘It’s not my job to be commenting on other countries’ policies specifically.’ But when it was put to him that his comments about the urgency of climate change did not align with the UK government’s position, he said: ‘Well then, you’ve got your answer.’” It comes as the Press Association reports that Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf has accused Sunak of “climate denial” over oil and gas licences.

Elsewhere, Politico’s London Influence newsletter speaks to Conservative Environment Network leader Sam Hall about how he plans to respond to Sunak’s apparent “cooling” on ambitious climate policies.

In addition, the Financial Times reports that “Harbour Energy, the largest oil producer in the UK and a vocal critic of the windfall tax, will increase spending in the North Sea this year and potentially next as it fears the next government will cut investment deductions”.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz has said that deep geothermal energy holds significant potential for heat generation in Germany, aligning with the country’s goal of replacing fossil fuels in its heating system, reports Reuters. Table.Media adds that Scholz and Bavarian prime minister Markus Söder visited a geothermal energy project together yesterday, just a few weeks before the Bavarian state election. The outlet notes that the federal government aims to harness “as much geothermal energy as possible by 2030” to inject “10 times as much into the grid as today”, while Söder wants to cover “a significant portion of Bavaria’s energy demand from geothermal sources” by 2050. ZDF explains that geothermal energy accounts for only 4% of renewable energy in Germany. However, the outlet quotes Inga Moeck from the Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics, saying that “geothermal energy in Germany could cover a quarter to even a third of the energy demand”.

Meanwhile, Handelsblatt reports that the conflict surrounding a state-subsidised industrial electricity price in Germany is intensifying, as the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and finance minister Christian Lindner continue resistance. However, under economy minister Robert Habeck, the German Greens have been championing a state-backed reduction in high electricity costs to support energy-intensive industries during the green transition, notes the outlet. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) introduced a six-point economic plan, including a “transformation electricity price” of five cents per kilowatt-hour for energy-intensive industries, valid for five years, as reported by Handelsblatt.

Finally, according to Die Welt, Germany is set to build the world’s largest wind turbine. Standing at 365 metres in height, the turbine will generate more electricity and address criticisms related to visual landscape impact, a concern that has arisen amidst the construction of around 30,000 wind turbines in the country, the outlet says.

In the Guardian, Amazon-based global environment editor Jonathan Watts writes on a recent landmark referendum in Ecuador, whereby people voted to keep oil in the ground in an Amazonian national park. He says: “It is the fruit of years of dogged campaigning by the Yasunídos collective and other civil society groups, and will surely inspire climate activists in other parts of the world. But arguably the greatest lesson from the referendum is for other governments, which have just been given a glaring example of the cost of stranded assets when the social mandate for fossil fuels is suddenly removed.” In the Independent, young climate activist Scarlett Westbrook also examines what the result could mean for the rest of the world.

An opinion article hosted on All Africa by Damalie Tebajjukira, a researcher and communicator for the African Centre for a Green Economy, says that the current meeting of BRICS nations [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] in Johannesburg should focus on tackling climate change. She says: “The summit presents an opportunity to avail solutions to the world’s overarching reality, which in this case is climate change. With its evident detrimental impacts, such as floods, droughts and [storms] as witnessed in member states, the climate crisis cannot be disputed. Moreover, BRICS countries account for more than half of G20 emissions, given their carbon-intensive economic systems, which contribute significantly to global greenhouse emissions. For example, South Africa ranks as one of the world’s coal-dependent countries, with coal accounting for 85% of electricity produced. China emits 27% of global CO2 and a third of the world’s greenhouse gases. Together with India, they make up 82% of BRICS emissions.” It comes as Carbon Brief Josh Gabbatiss’s notes in a tweet that, when six new countries join the BRICS alliance in 2024, the bloc will control more than half of the world’s fossil fuel production.

A new study finds that the record-low Antarctic sea ice extent in spring 2022 caused “widespread breeding failure” of the emperor penguin colonies in the Bellingshausen Sea. Researchers examine satellite imagery at five known breeding sites in the Bellingshausen to track the presence of emperor penguins at those locations. They find that four of the five sites experienced sea ice breakup before the penguin chicks reached the fledging stage, when they develop waterproof feathers. The authors write: “Our finding of probable breeding failure across multiple…sites in a single season is without precedent.”