Not a single MP running to be the next leader of the Conservative party (and, thus, the prime minister) attended an emergency briefing on climate change by the government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance yesterday, i newspaper reports. The i says the briefing is an updated version of a presentation Sir Patrick gave to prime minister Boris Johnson in 2020, which was first made public following a freedom-of-information (FOI) request by Carbon Brief. Johnson has repeatedly said the briefing was instrumental in changing his mind about the urgency of climate change. The updated briefing for all parliamentarians was arranged after a climate activist staged a 37-day hunger strike outside Westminster earlier this year urging politicians to see the presentation, the i adds. The Guardian notes that only 70 MPs and peers attended the briefing.

The news comes as several Tory leadership hopefuls have been pledging to scrap measures to help the UK reach net-zero by 2050, according to a second i newspaper story. The Daily Telegraph reports that the UK’s new chancellor and leadership hopeful Nadhim Zahawi has promised to temporarily scrap green energy levies if he is chosen, claiming that “families must not be made to pick up the bill for the UK’s net zero drive”. The Sun reports that home secretary Priti Patel is still weighing up whether to join the leadership race, but has plans to “woo Brexiteers” by “ditch[ing] green levies and start[ing] fracking”. Meanwhile, Lord Zac Goldsmith, who is international environment minister, tells the Independent it would be better to have a Labour government than a leader who “deprioritises” action on net-zero. He adds: “It would be a catastrophic error for Conservatives to select a candidate who deprioritises these issues, but if they do, then we can only hope voters replace the party at the [next] available election.” The newspaper also quotes Chris Skidmore, a senior backbencher who chairs the Conservative’s Net-Zero Support Group, who says: “I devoutly believe net-zero is a vote winner. If we go soft on net-zero, then a candidate has to know they will struggle to win a general election.” Skidmore also speaks to the Press Association, saying the leadership race means there is just “two weeks to save net-zero”.

Russia’s main gas pipeline to Germany “went offline” for scheduled maintenance on Monday, with growing concerns that the flow of gas might not resume after the repairs are done, “threatening potentially disastrous consequences for Europe’s largest economy”, reports Financial Times. It adds to officials’ recognition of incomprehension about the situation with deliveries through Nord Stream 1 after the end of the repair. Politico quotes the chief of Germany’s network regulator, Klaus Mueller, saying that the Kremlin is giving “very varied signals”, cautioning that “no one can say exactly” whether the gas will be switched back on. The article explains that Russia’s partly state-owned energy firm cited technical problems involving a gas turbine powering a compressor station that partner Siemens Energy sent to Canada for overhaul and couldn’t be returned because of sanctions imposed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, it continues that over the weekend, Canada said it would allow the part to be delivered to Germany. Deutsche Welle also covers a story adding economy minister Robert Habeck’s quote that it’s “hard to say if it [Nord Stream 1] will come back online after maintenance”. Reuters carries an explainer on what would happen if gas flows from Russia to Germany stop entirely, while the Daily Telegraph explores the “doomsday scenario of a winter without Russian gas”. Elsewhere, Reuters also reports that Italy is looking at ways to curb gas consumption as flows from Russia falter. It comes as IEA chief Fatih Birol warns the world is yet to see the worst of the energy crisis, according to Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, in other German news, Handelsblatt reports about the “faltering” of the expansion of wind power. Preliminary figures from the onshore wind energy agency FA Wind show that in the first six months of this year only 235 systems were installed in Germany and 15% fewer permits were given. “If we do not clear the remaining blockages in a timely manner, not only is there a risk of failing to achieve our climate protection goals, but also the attempt to free ourselves from the shackles of fossil and nuclear energy dependence”, warns expert Jürgen Quentin from FA Wind.

Finally, Stern warns about the upcoming heatwave in Germany. Experts are alarmed that, according to some weather models, temperatures of up to 45C could be reached in North Rhine-Westphalia, says the outlet. To deal effectively with the heat and its consequences, the city administrations must succeed in getting the issue out of the “environmental niche” and making it a cross-sectional task, says Brandenburg political scientist Wolfgang Haupt.

The UK’s Met Office has issued an amber extreme heat warning amid “exceptionally high” temperatures across large swathes of the UK, the Independent reports. The warning was in effect on Monday as temperatures exceeded 30C in many parts of the country, the Independent says. It is expected to last into next week as temperatures soar further, it adds. According to the Independent, a statement from the Met Office said: “Population-wide adverse health effects are likely to be experienced, not limited to those most vulnerable to extreme heat, leading to potential serious illness or danger to life…Substantial changes in working practices and daily routines (are) likely to be required.“ It comes as train tacks in south London caught fire in the extreme heat, according to a second Independent story, which the Times also reports on its frontpage. Channel 4 News and Bloomberg also report on the extreme heat, as does the Daily Express on its frontpage.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Australia is pressing ahead with plans to co-host a UN climate summit with the Pacific “to boost its climate change credentials” after receiving backing from regional leaders in Fiji. The newspaper says: “The Pacific’s support for the conference, which came on the same day that coal became Australia’s most valuable export, will heap pressure on Labor to raise its climate change ambitions in time for the summit in 2024. Australia’s emissions targets remain among the lowest in the developed world.” It comes as the Guardian reports that Australia is currently at odds with Pacific nations over new coal and gas projects.

As Chinese equities “approach bull-market territory”, green energy stocks such as electric vehicle (EV) producers are “enjoying a revival of sorts”, the South China Morning Post reports. It adds that there is “evident” from “a 47% surge” in Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) – the world’s “biggest” maker of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and a Tesla supplier – since the company “suffered a rout” in May. The outlet cites Zhan Yunming, an analyst at Hualong Securities based in Beijing, saying that “there are a lot of policy tailwinds for the new-energy industry, such as subsidies for EV purchases and windpower generation in rural areas”. He added that: “All these policies will foster fast and sustainable growth in the green energy sector”.

Additionally, China Electric Power News reports that, according to the market analysis released on Friday by China’s National Passenger Cars Association, the sales of new energy passenger vehicles “reached 571,000 units” in June, “up 141.4% year-on-year and 35.3% sequentially”. The state-run industry newspaper adds that under the policy of “halving the vehicle purchase tax”, new energy vehicles “improved more than expected” on a year-on-year basis.

Meanwhile, a separate report by China Electric Power News says that on Friday, the world’s largest hydro-solar hybrid power station Yalongjiang Kela power station started construction. The newspaper describes the move as the first time that the scale of the hydro-solar hybrid project in the world has been “raised to the megawatt level”, adding that it will “become a new model for the large-scale and concentrated development of clean renewable energy in the world”.

Elsewhere, Reuters writes that oil prices “fell in volatile trade” on Monday, “reversing most of the previous session’s gains as markets braced for an expected drop in demand because of mass testing for Covid-19 in China, which outweighed ongoing concern over tight supply”.

Finally, the South China Morning Post carries a feature titled, “China’s wind farms have a role in its renewable energy future, can they also ease effects of dust storms?” The piece focuses on a study by researchers at Lanzhou University of Technology which finds that a turbine can cause more than 50% of the dust and sand in the air nearby to “sink and stay” on the ground. Ma Gaosheng, corresponding author of the study and an associate professor at the university, said that China had the ”largest wind power capacity in the world, with many of its turbines installed in the Gobi Desert in the northwest of China.” He added: “China has built, and will build, a large amount of solar and wind power capacity. Their impact on regional climate is noteworthy.”

Several UK newspapers carry comment on how climate change is being discussed in the Conservative leadership contest. The i’s chief political commentator Paul Waugh warns “there is a real risk that [Boris Johnson’s] successor could let slip the major progress Johnson’s party has made on climate change”. He says that trying to backtrack on legally binding net-zero commitments would be “stupid”. He continues: “Why? Well, firstly there is overwhelming scientific consensus that the Earth is running out of time…But, most of all, it would be electorally stupid for the Tory party to ignore how the public has shifted on the whole issue of climate change. Polling shows that onshore wind farms, for example, are much more popular than MPs assume.” In a similar vein, former energy minister Chris Skidmore publishes a piece in the Times Red Box arguing the “next Tory leader must remember net-zero wins votes”. In addition, an analysis in Politico says that the Conservative climate push “has lost its champion” after Johnson was forced to resign, while BusinessGreen editor James Murray explores the “cost of not zero” for the UK.

Elsewhere, the Times publishes an opinion article by climate-sceptic columnist Melanie Phillips, who uses the leadership contest turmoil and Sri Lanka’s current economic crisis as an opportunity to attack established climate science. She falsely claims: “There is no evidence that anything is happening to the world’s climate that lies outside historic fluctuations. Scores of the world’s most eminent scientists have long testified to the theory’s bogus nature.”

UK publications also publish comment around the UK’s ongoing extreme heat. The Independent’s climate correspondent Saphora Smith says that “while the hot weather baking Britain this week is enjoyed by many, it is also likely to silently kill hundreds”. She adds: “Heatwaves are the deadliest extreme weather event in the UK, and in England there are on average 2,000 heat-related deaths every year.” Elsewhere, the Guardian publishes an explainer on why the UK is so hot and what dangers extreme temperatures pose.

Meanwhile, an editorial in the Daily Telegraph describes 33C heat in the UK as “higher than average but not unusual in a typical British summer”. It continues: “Inevitably, anything exceptional nowadays is attributed to global warming, even though we have had hot, dry weather before…Nonetheless, if the climate is changing then we need to be ready for it. All government effort is being expended on what might prove to be a forlorn attempt to reverse warming when it should more pragmatically be focused on adapting to its consequences.” It comes as an editorial in the Daily Express urges people to “be careful” in the extreme heat.

Populations of the “commercially important” Florida stone crab may be “susceptible to community fragmentation” as a result of reduced seawater pH and elevated temperatures, a new study warns. Analysing the current and future distribution of the stone crab larvae along the west Florida shelf, the research shows “a clear impact of these climate change stressors on larval dispersal and on the subsequent stone crab distribution”. The results indicate that “future climate change could result in stone crabs moving north or into deeper waters”, the authors say.