More than 30,000 people joined protests in South Korea’s capital city on Saturday “in broiling heat…demanding more aggressive action by the government to combat global warming”, Reuters reports. It says: “Organised by the 907 Climate Justice March Group Committee, the protest followed a ruling last month by South Korea’s top court that the nation’s climate change law fails to protect basic human rights and lacks targets to shield future generations.” The newswire adds: “South Korea, which aims to be carbon-neutral by 2050, is the biggest coal polluter after Australia among the Group of 20 big economies, with a slow adoption of renewable energy. The government last year lowered its 2030 targets for curbing industrial greenhouse-gas emissions but kept its national goal of cutting emissions by 40% from 2018 levels.”

Typhoon Yagi has left “dozens” of people dead in Vietnam, Reuters reports, after Asia’s “most powerful storm this year” caused floods and landslides. It adds: “The [country’s] weather agency warned of more floods and landslides, noting that rainfall ranged between 208 millimetres and 433 millimetres (8.2 inches to 17.1 inches) in several parts of the northern region over the past 24 hours.” The Associated Press reports on the storm and notes: “Storms like Typhoon Yagi were ‘getting stronger due to climate change, primarily because warmer ocean waters provide more energy to fuel the storms, leading to increased wind speeds and heavier rainfall,’ said Benjamin Horton, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore.” Bloomberg also has the story. Wired says: “Unlike in the Atlantic, there is little to stop high-intensity storms forming in Southeast Asia, and climate change is making conditions even more perilous.”

In other extreme weather news, Reuters says that Bolivia has “declared a national emergency due to raging forest fires, the country’s defence ministry announced on Saturday”. In North America, the Guardian reported on Friday: “An intense heatwave across the US west has brought unusually warm temperatures to the region – some of the highest of the season – and broken heat records.” The story adds: “Heatwaves are growing more frequent, more extreme and longer-lasting in the US west and across the world as the climate crisis drives increasingly severe and dangerous weather conditions. Heatwaves are the weather event most directly affected by the climate crisis, an expert told the Guardian in July.” The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and CBS News also cover the heat. Meanwhile, the New York Times says the “fast-spreading” Line wildfire in southern California has seen more than 11,000 people evacuated. CNN and CBS also have the news. CNN reports on the Atlantic hurricane season “confounding experts” and says: “The strange season has been influenced by extreme atmospheric conditions that are a byproduct of climate change driven by fossil fuel pollution, experts said. And it could also be a ‘lens’ into the more volatile storm behaviour of the future, said Matthew Rosencrans, lead hurricane season forecaster with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.”

In related comment, sociologist Eric Klinenberg argues for the New York Times that heatwaves should have names in the same way as hurricanes and Stephanie Pincetl, a professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, writes in the Los Angeles Times under the headline: “A summer of extreme heat and wildfire shows the cost of human folly.”

China and the US discussed “stemming deforestation and paring potent planet-warming pollution” in talks between their climate envoys, Bloomberg reports. It adds that the discussions “were meant to help forge progress” for the COP29 climate summit and “spur ambition” for the 2035 climate targets. US climate envoy John Podesta says that the two sides “still have ‘some differences’ on issues such as climate finance”, Reuters reports, adding that “little was expected from [the] talks”. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post covers comments by top diplomat Wang Yi to Podesta “not to let overbroad definitions of national security stand in the way of climate change cooperation”. The state-run newspaper China Daily said environment minister Huang Runqiu told Podesta “China is willing to further enhance dialogue and communication with the US and deepen practical cooperation”. The Financial Times says of the talks: “China and US push each other on priorities for UN COP29 climate talks.” It adds: “John Podesta presses China for ambitious goals on emissions while Beijing urges Washington to ‘maintain consistency’.” Shanghai-based news outlet the Paper quotes one expert saying the talks “send a signal reflecting the resilience and continuity of US-China climate diplomacy” and “creates a favourable atmosphere” for COP29. IFeng covers a speech by China’s US ambassador Xie Feng, in which he said that climate change is “a development issue, and the solution lies in cooperation”.

At the China-Africa summit held in Beijing last week, Chinese president Xi Jinping pledged financing worth $51bn to Africa, adding that “China is ready to launch 30 clean energy projects” across the continent, Reuters reports. Bloomberg quotes Eric Olander, co-founder of the China-Global South Project, saying the credit will likely “finance purchases of vast quantities of solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles (EVs)”, rather than “large-scale mega infrastructure projects”. Current affairs magazine China Today carries an article titled “African youth praise China-Africa climate cooperation”.

China introduced new rules for the “issuance and trading of renewable energy green electricity certificates (GECs)”, according to energy news outlet BJX News. The rules “for the first time set the validity period of GECs to two years” and “clarified specific requirements” on issuance, financial news outlet Jiemian says. The China Daily says that Xi has issued regulations for ecological and environmental protection for the military.

Elsewhere, China Daily reports that China’s average absolute temperature in August was 22.6C, 1.5C higher than average. Jiemian reports that Typhoon Yagi “caused the destruction of many wind turbines” under construction in Hainan province. The Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily reports that the typhoon left “at least two people dead and 92 injured”. Another People’s Daily article says Xi “urged beefed-up disaster relief efforts” for the typhoon.

Finally, Bloomberg says that China’s coal reserves could power “all of America’s coal boilers and blast furnaces” until late 2025, adding “coal that’s oxidised in a stockpile will [also] produce carbon dioxide”. BJX News carries an article under the byline “Zhong Nengping” arguing China should “firmly” advance its energy reforms. China’s “transition to dual control of carbon” can “optimise” its energy consumption structure, a commentary in the Paper says.

Pope Francis has been visiting the island nation of Papua New Guinea, “which has been exploited for its natural resources and is imperilled by rising sea levels”, says the New York Times. The newspaper reports: “‘Your holiness, climate change is real,’ Bob Dadae, the governor general of Papua New Guinea, told Francis at a meeting on Saturday. ‘The rise in the sea level is affecting the livelihoods of our people,’ he added, asking for the pope’s support for ‘global action and advocacy’.” It continues: “Francis did not immediately speak of climate change, but at the meeting in Port Moresby at APEC Haus, a conference centre, he said that the country’s environmental ‘treasures’ should be developed in a sustainable way, and for the benefit of all people, not just a few.” The article adds: “The pope addressed the issue of climate change on Thursday during a meeting in Jakarta, one of the world’s most polluted cities and among those most at risk from climate change. He said that the climate crisis ‘has become an obstacle to the growth and the cohabitation of people’.” Reuters reports: “Earlier, the pontiff had visited Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque to sign a declaration on tackling climate change and promoting interfaith dialogue to resolve conflict.”

European commissioner for industry Thierry Breton is to “berate Europe’s carmakers on slow EV drive”, the Financial Times reports, adding: “The EU has banned the sale of new cars running on fossil fuels from 2035, but progress to electrify Europe’s road transport is slow.” The newspaper says: “Breton will tell a meeting of his Route35 network – which includes carmakers, battery manufacturers, electric grid companies and trade unions – that China is far ahead in making affordable electric vehicles. Last week, Volkswagen said it would shut its Audi electric vehicle plant in Brussels and was contemplating closing a German one for the first time in its history.” Reuters calls the VW factory closure a “stress-test [of] Germany’s economic model”, while the Guardian asks if it is a “crisis for Germany?” The Financial Times reports former VW head Herbert Diess defending his strategy at the firm. Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Italy is calling for an early review of the EU ban on fossil fuel cars: “The European Union should decide already next year whether to rethink regulation that effectively bans the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the 27-nation bloc from 2035, Italy’s industry minister said on Saturday.” Another Reuters article says Japan is to give up to $2.4bn in subsidies for domestic EV battery manufacturers. And, finally, Reuters says carmakers are “adjust[ing] electrification plans as EV demand slows”. 

The Unite union wants the UK’s Labour government to drop its plan to ban new North Sea oil and gas licences, the Daily Telegraph reports: “[Energy Secretary] Ed Miliband’s plan to ban new North Sea oil and gas licences could see thousands of energy workers losing their jobs and becoming the ‘miners of net-zero’, a major union [Unite] has claimed.” [The Unite union has made similar comments repeatedly in recent months.] The newspaper continues: “In a motion to be debated at the TUC [Trades Union Congress], the union said it was ‘dismayed’ that the government had gone ahead with an ‘arbitrary target’ to stop drilling in the North Sea, before any plan for jobs had been agreed…Their motion said there should be no ban on new licences for drilling until jobs are guaranteed for all North Sea workers.” BBC News reports that prime minister Keir Starmer faces “flashpoints with the unions” at this week’s TUC in Brighton. It explains: “Shots will be fired across the bows of Labour’s flagship ‘green transition’ policy. The country’s second and third biggest unions – Unite and the GMB – are concerned about jobs in the oil and gas industry. The former union claims 30,000 jobs are at risk and is opposed to ending new oil and gas licences in the North Sea without guarantees on alternative employment.” It quotes Unite leader Sharon Graham saying: “Everyone knows we need to do something about the climate crisis. But workers cannot be sacrificed on the altar of net-zero. North Sea jobs are on a cliff edge.” Politico also reports the Unite-GMB motion against Labour’s North Sea plans, but adds: “Yet the civil service union PCS has a more campaigny motion on Tuesday calling for no new fossil fuel sites. Which is fine for a union that doesn’t represent the oil workers, one official notes drily.” An editorial in today’s Daily Mail says “union bosses say North Sea energy workers are set to become ‘the miners of net-zero’ as their jobs are cancelled in the reckless rush to carbon reduction”.

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph reports on falling fuel duty receipts as drivers switch to electric cars: “[A] coalition of thinktanks and green charities say road pricing is the only way that chancellor Rachel Reeves can plug a £22bn hole in the public finances. They are urging the chancellor to unveil the measure in next month’s budget in a bid to stop the bleeding and ensure electric vehicle drivers pay their fair share.” The Daily Telegraph also says energy secretary Ed Miliband is “consider[ing] scrapping” plans for a new nuclear plant at Wylfa on Anglesey off North Wales. According to the newspaper: “sources said that the government’s future commitments [to new nuclear] were being reviewed in the round as part of wider plans to transition to a net-zero energy system”. It adds: “Whitehall sources stressed no final decisions had been made and that Miliband remained strongly supportive of expanding British nuclear capacity.” 

Elsewhere, the government has approved the country’s “biggest solar power project”, says the Times. It reports that the approval of the 600 megawatt Cottam solar scheme is the fourth since the government took office in July. BBC News says the project will include a battery storage system. The Daily Telegraph reports on the 109 gigawatt (GW) pipeline of battery proposals in the UK, compared with the currently-installed total of 5GW, under the headline: “The bus-sized battery farms threatening to blight Britain’s countryside.” The Times reports on Hornsea 3, the “world’s biggest” offshore windfarm, which is due to start generating electricity off the coast of Norfolk in 2027. The Times reports separately that electricity imports from continental Europe to the UK “hit a record high of 20% of total supply” in the second quarter of the year. It adds: “Wind power was still the UK’s largest source of electricity during the quarter, having overtaken gas on a quarterly basis last year, according to a report by Imperial College London commissioned by the energy company Drax.” A Q&A feature in the Sunday Times looks at “how Labour plans to rescue Port Talbot” steelworks in South Wales. BBC News reports that a group of county councils in the east of England plan to work together “to oppose National Grid’s plans to install hundreds of pylons along the east coast”. The Observer has a feature on the Drax biomass-fired power plant titled: “Why ‘the UK’s biggest carbon emitter’ receives billions in green subsidies.” Finally, BBC News reports on flash flooding in Shrewsbury after “biblical” rainfall over the weekend.

Several publications cover the Green Party annual conference in Manchester, with the Independent reporting the comments of co-leader Adrian Ramsay criticising the length of jail sentences handed to climate protestors. It says: “Speaking to The Independent as his party gathered in Manchester for its conference this weekend, Ramsay made it clear he did not agree with the methods of the climate activists but said he thought the prison terms handed out earlier this year were disproportionate.” BBC News says Ramsay “condemned the government’s approach to the NHS, housing and climate change”. It says: “[Ramsay] would champion a wealth tax to pay for ‘the necessary climate action, or to make sure everyone has a safe, warm affordable home, or to fund our much loved NHS’, he added. Ramsay’s speech focused more on economic issues than climate change, but he urged the government to halt the the development of the Rosebank oil field off Shetland.” The Financial Times says two Green MPs “called for citizens’ assemblies on the climate and social care”. The Scotsman reports: “Scotland has failed in its quest to become a climate leader, [co-convener of the Scottish Greens] Lorna Slater has claimed, as she warned her party will not support the SNP’s climate legislation.”

Germany’s Environment Agency has rejected carbon credits for 215,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions from oil companies due to suspected fraud in Chinese climate projects, Reuters reports. These projects were intended to help companies meet EU greenhouse gas reduction targets by using biofuels or funding emission reduction initiatives, explains the outlet. However, the agency found legal and technical issues in eight projects funded by oil companies in China, and 13 more are undergoing review. The newswire adds that the “disputed” carbon credits, available since 2018, are expected to be phased out by 2025. Bloomberg notes that Germany’s chief climate envoy, Jennifer Morgan, said China’s commitments to decrease CO2 emissions may determine whether the world can achieve a target of limiting global warming to 1.5C and called on the country “as a major emitter” to provide more climate finance to developing countries. 

Meanwhile, Handelsblatt reports that Qatar is interested in acquiring Rosneft Deutschland, the subsidiary of the Russian oil company Rosneft, which has been under the trusteeship of the German government due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The outlet details that Rosneft Deutschland holds a 54% stake in the Schwedt oil refinery, critical for supplying eastern Germany with petroleum products and stakes in two other refineries, accounting for around 12% of Germany’s oil refining capacity.

Elsewhere in German media, Die Zeit reports that German Social Democrats proposed an electricity price cap to support “struggling companies”, such as Volkswagen and Thyssenkrupp. At the same time, other politicians are calling for increased EU support and an “ambitious industrial strategy” from European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, as Volkswagen considers closing German factories and Thyssenkrupp faces board resignations, notes the outlet.

Finally, Der Spiegel reports that Germany wants to produce hydrogen in the Middle East and the Mediterranean to fuel its economy, but stalled pipeline projects hinder progress due to political and logistical challenges, particularly with France and Algeria.

The US presidential election in November “may have the power to determine how high [global] temperature goes and how fast we turn to clean power”, writes veteran US environmentalist Bill McKibben in the Guardian. Quoting Republican candidate Donald Trump comments on climate change from a recent interview, McKibben says he got “every word of it wrong” and was talking “gibberish”. But, he says, “it’s gibberish in the service of something very important and very dangerous: doing all that he can to block the energy transition, in America and around the world”. McKibben continues: “[Trump’s] friends at Project 2025 have laid out in considerable detail how you translate that gibberish into policy. It lays out in loving detail many of the steps his administration would use to bolster oil, gas and coal while sidetracking sun and wind. These include ending the effort to spur EV production in Detroit; ending support for renewables…and reversing a crucial 2009 finding from the EPA that carbon dioxide causes harm.” While Trump cannot “reverse the tide towards renewable energy” entirely, he can “slow it down considerably”, warns McKibben. There are ways to calculate the impact of Trump’s potential policy moves, McKibben explains, pointing to Carbon Brief analysis from earlier this year that showed a Trump victory over his then opponent Joe Biden would lead to an additional 4bn tonnes of US emissions by 2030. But worse is the timing, he writes: “If a Trump administration was merely going to be a four-year interregnum, it would be annoying. But in fact it comes at precisely the moment when we need, desperately, acceleration.” McKibben concludes: “If we elect Donald Trump, we may feel the effects not for years, and not for a generation. We may read our mistake in the geological record a million years hence. This one really counts.” [For more on how Trump differs on climate and energy from Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, see Carbon Brief’s interactive grid, which was published on Friday.]

An editorial in the Financial Times begins by noting that the US and China “have been locked into an increasingly disruptive game of tit-for-tat trade warfare” as they “jostle for supremacy in semiconductor chips and green technology”. The editorial says: “The US and its allies have set up initiatives like the Mineral Security Partnership to improve critical resource collaboration. But such forums need to move quickly from dialogue to action…Stepping up mining and refining efforts is key. China dominates both, but there are still significant critical metal reserves outside the country to exploit, including in the west.” It concludes: “For decades, governments in the west lapped up cheap raw materials from China, while Beijing invested heavily in mining, refining and exploration. The economic hostility between the US and China is highlighting just how short-sighted it was to build up dependence on a single supplier of essential metals. China’s command of the sector looks unassailable. But if America and its allies want to dilute its leverage in the trade war, a more concerted effort on critical minerals would help.” 

Meanwhile, in a comment for the Daily Telegraph, Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative MP and candidate for leadership of the UK opposition party, writes under the headline: “Net-zero is gifting our future to an increasingly dominant China.” She writes: “Manufacturing economies fear the oversupply of cheap Chinese goods, particularly those in the automotive industry…They are planning production capacity of 70m electric vehicles by 2030, while global sales of electric vehicles are only estimated at 44m for that year. Let’s be clear – this is unfair competition. Put simply, China is seeking to flood the market, driving other nations’ industries out of business.” Badenoch continues: “Sadly net-zero has made dependency worse – and specifically our commitment to meet net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.” She concludes: “We are gifting our economic future to China…Strong growth and prosperity in the UK is the best way to counter China’s malign influence with confidence. I will be determined to champion our national interest and ensure that our policies support our people and lessen our dependence on China.”

In other UK comment, a Lex opinion piece in the Financial Times is titled: “For European carmakers, EVs are a Catch-22.” It explains: “That European carmakers were going to struggle with the transition to electric vehicles was a given. New, native EV entrants such as Tesla and BYD were always likely to make inroads, leading to share losses for traditional incumbents. The bad news is that a delayed transition [to EVs] is not proving any easier to navigate.” The article continues: “Ordinarily, carmakers in a slump would rush to launch new, cheaper cars – even at lower margins – to entice consumers and keep factories ticking over. But the uncertain trajectory towards electrification makes it hard to invest in new internal combustion models. Cheap European EVs, meanwhile, remain a far-off dream.” It concludes: “It is hard to see how European carmakers can thrive while the market is in a muddle. And when EVs do finally resume their growth path – as seems inevitable – they will have to grapple with margin dilutive sales and fierce competition.” Elsewhere, the Times profiles Sarah Finch, the “reluctant figurehead who changed the rules for energy giants”. It explains: “The words ‘Finch ruling’ now invoke dread in oil, coal and gas company boardrooms. In June, the country’s highest court agreed with the 60-year-old self-employed writer that carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels should be factored into planning decisions.”

Elsewhere, several newspapers carry editorials on the debate over winter fuel payments, a fuel poverty measure for pensioners that the government has said it will restrict to those on certain means-tested benefits. A Guardian editorial calls the plan to end universal winter fuel payments for pensioners “mean, unjust and politically inept”. The Sunday Express, the Sun and the Independent also carry critical editorials on the topic. A Mail on Sunday editorial, meanwhile, criticises prime minister Keir Starmer for saying he has to take difficult decisions because the previous Conservative government had “broken the economy” and left a “black hole” in the public finances. The editorial goes on to say of the upcoming budget: “Extra duty on petrol would risk a motorists’ revolt. Huge numbers of people rely on cars to work, and they operate on very tight margins, counting each penny.” The Sun on Sunday editorial on winter fuel payments – without any justification – attempts to link the issue to climate action: “Struggling pensioners are already reeling from the loss of their winter fuel allowance to help fund Labour’s mad dash for net-zero.” The story is on the frontpage of the Sunday People, the Sunday Express, City AM, as well as today’s Guardian, Times, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Daily Telegraph and i newspaper. The story receives extensive news coverage, ahead of a vote in parliament on Tuesday, including in the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, Daily Mail, Sky News and BBC News. The i newspaper says in an “exclusive” that ministers are looking at a “social tariff” that would reduce energy bills for poorer households.

An editorial in Le Monde says the “disastrous rise in temperatures is inevitably accompanied by a series of environmental catastrophes”, but adds that “this dynamic is not irreversible”. It explains: “Solutions exist, on a human scale, are being undertaken and are producing results. This is what Le Monde also wanted to highlight, to oppose deadly defeatism and fatalism [in] a series of surveys published since 1 September under the title ‘Repairing the Earth’. This series of studies, carried out in Romania, Benin, Italy, the Mediterranean Sea, India and Denmark, in fields as diverse as household waste treatment, marine biodiversity and carbon neutrality in urban areas, reflects a common desire. It’s a wish to combine a move away from fossil fuels with an end to the over-exploitation of natural environments, without sacrificing the democratic framework in the negotiation of such a complex turn of events.” The article concludes: “Repairing the planet: It’s urgent – and it’s possible.”

A new study finds that on average, the world’s wetlands released around 153m tonnes of methane every year between 2001 and 2020. The authors used a “process-based model” to simulate global wetland methane emissions over 2001-20. They find that methane wetland emissions initially increased, peaking in 2010, and then decreased. This pattern is “consistent with the peak of wetland areas”, according to the study. The paper adds that most methane emissions came from tropical regions, and that methane emissions show a seasonal cycle with a peak in July.