Spanish authorities evacuated four villages in Tenerife on Wednesday, as wildfires broke out in the nature park surrounding Mount Teide volcano, reports Sky News. Josef Aschbacher, director general of the European Space Agency, said the wildfires in Tenerife and around the world were “really alarming” evidence of the speed of climate change, the outlet reports. It further quotes Aschbacher saying “It just confirms that climate change is the biggest threat to our planet, to humankind, and will remain so for the next decades and we do need to do everything we can to mitigate the effects”. The wildfire spread to cover over 1,800 hectares (4,450 acres) in just 24 hours, with 14 aircraft and a combined 250 firefighters and military personnel tackling the blaze, reports Reuters. However, the region’s leader, Fernando Clavijo, told an evening news conference in Tenerife’s capital, Santa Cruz that “the fire is out of control… the outlook is not positive”, notes Reuters. 

In Canada, wildfires have burnt twice as much land as any previous season, an area the equivalent size of Alabama or nine Connecticuts, reports the Washington Post. Nearly 33m acres (13.3m hectares) have burned, with many fires still going, it continues. Residents in the city of Yellowknife in Canada’s far north were ordered to evacuate as concern grew that raging wildfires could reach it by the weekend, reports Le Monde. Nearly 20,000 residents have been given until noon on Friday to leave their homes, after a state of emergency was declared earlier this week, it adds. There are now more than 200 wildfires burning in the  north-west territories in Canada, including the one now 17km from Yellowknife, BBC News reports. Those in Fort Smith, K’atl’odeeche First Nation, Hay River, Enterprise and Jean Marie River have all been ordered to evacuate, it adds. 

In the US, wildfires in northern California have also triggered evacuation orders and road closures in rural communities, reports Axios. There are 20 wildfires ignited by lightning from thunderstorms on Monday in the Klamath National Forest, where the daily record high temperature hit 112F (44C) on Wednesday, it continues. Additionally, there are five large fires burning in Oregon, where air quality advisories were issued for multiple counties, adds Axios. 

Tropical cyclones in the Atlantic are becoming deadlier as the planet warms, reports the Guardian. Between 1988 and 2019, 179 named tropical storms and hurricanes have caused about 20,000 deaths, it adds. More than two-thirds of this death toll, as well 17 of the 20 deadliest storms, have occurred during the past 15 years as “ocean-heating fossil-fuel emissions have driven increasingly intense hurricanes”, the article continues. This is according to a new study published in Science Advances, which looked at changes in storm-hit county’s overall number of deaths before, during and after a hurricane and “compared those to normal years”, reports the Associated Press. This identified those killed indirectly by the storms, instead of just those who drowned, were hit by debris or killed in other direct ways, it notes. “It’s the difference between how many people died and how many people would have died on a normal day” with no hurricane, said study lead author Robbie Parks, an environmental epidemiologist, AP continues. The study found these storms disproportionately affected the most socially vulnerable communities, including older adults and Indigenous, Black and Brown communities, reports the Washington Post, with 90% of the excess deaths in these groups. The article quotes Parks, who said: “The thing that was kind of shocking is the way that the large majority of the deaths were in…socially vulnerable areas compared with the rest of the country impacted by cyclones. The poorest places in the states are by the coasts, which are repeatedly battered by cyclones.”

UK prime minister Rishi Sunak has ruled out holding a referendum on net-zero, despite calls from his party to put the 2050 climate target to a public vote, reports the Daily Telegraph, in a story that features on its frontpage. Ministers have urged Sunak to “rethink the headlong rush for net-zero” and commit to a vote, after the issue has become key for both the Tories and Labour in recent weeks, it continues. Sunak has stated that “most people are committed to getting to net-zero” and rejected the suggestion of a Brexit-style referendum, continues the newspaper. The Daily Mail reports that Sunak said in an interview with ITV News that “I have two young daughters, I care about the environment that we – I – leave them…My job is to leave it in a better state than I found it”. The Independent also quotes Sunak from the interview, where he said: “I think the path to net-zero has got to be one that we tread carefully, that we bring everyone along with us on that journey, and we make that journey in a proportionate and a pragmatic way”. Politico notes that “opinion polls generally show that Brits back the headline target”. It says: “Supporters of the plan will be buoyed by fresh Ipsos polling Wednesday which showed a 13-point month-to-month rise in the proportion of Britons who say they are concerned about climate change and the environment. One in four (25%) of those polled now cite it as an important issue for the country, the polling shows – putting it behind only the economy and inflation and level with the U.K.’s National Health Service in a ranking of voters’ top issues.” 

At the same time, an “exclusive” in the i newspaper reports that Sunak “is set to give Tory MPs a chance to vote down plans to force UK car makers to produce more electric vehicles from next year”. The Department of Transport will give MPs the chance to potentially veto secondary legislation needed to enact new target for vehicle manufacturers, it continues, adding: “Under plans for a so-called ‘ZEV mandate’, British car makers would from 2024 have to ensure that at least 22% of all their new cars, and 10% of their vans, are electric-powered.”

UN climate summit COP28 host the United Arab Emirates has failed to report its emissions of the greenhouse gas methane to the UN for almost a decade, the Guardian reports in an “exclusive”. The country’s state owned oil company Adnoc has also set itself a methane leak target that is far higher that the level it claims it has already reached, the article adds. Adnoc’s chief executive Sultan Al Jaber, who will preside over the climate summit, recently urged countries and companies to be “brutally honest” about the inadequacy of global action on climate change, it continues. The UN’s climate body requires countries to submit their methane emissions every two years, and has done since 2014, but the UAE has not submitted any reports, unlike other Middle Eastern oil states including Saufi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman, the article says. “Critics say the revelations, and the UAE’s huge planned expansion of oil and gas production against scientific advice, show the ‘opposite of leadership’ and undermine Al Jaber’s credibility”, adds the Guardian.

Lower gas and electricity bills have helped slow inflation, reports the Financial Times. Prices were 6.8% higher in July than in the previous year, a fall from an increase of 7.9% in June, it adds. Inflation fell in electricity, gas, milk, bread, cheese, petrol and diesel, but the rate of inflation was still high due to increases in hotels and air travel, reports Sky News. Between June and July, gas prices fell by a record 25.2%, the largest drop since the Office of National Statistics began collating the data in 1988, it continues. This story was also covered by BBC News, Guardian, Independent, Press Association and others.

Indonesia has delayed plans to announce investments from a $20bn fund pledged by rich countries and global lenders to help speed a clean energy transition, reports Reuters. A coalition of nations – led by the US and Japan – pledged to mobilise public and private finance under the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), the article notes. This is designed to help Indonesia shutter coal power plants and adopt greener solutions, to ultimately advance the sector’s peak emissions target to 2030, a shift of seven years, it continues. The investment plan for the JETP was expected to be made public on Wednesday, but officials have said the timeline for publication has been delayed as additional data has been added to the model. This setback follows nine months of “tumultuous behind-the-scenes negotiations” since the deal was announced at the G20 summit in Bali, reports Inside Climate News. There have been disagreements over the type of funds provided and technical challenges in ensuring the coal-to-renewables switch, the article adds. Dadan Kusdiana, Indonesia’s secretary general of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, told Climate Home News the government is “committed to the energy transition”, but added it had to review the technical findings “to see if the targets are credible and workable”.

China has expanded its efforts to counter espionage in the energy industry, urging both companies and agencies to prevent “leaks of information in industries including nuclear power and oil”, reports Bloomberg. It adds that, according to the National Energy Administration (NEA), the country’s top energy regulator, “foreign forces are collecting data and information to disrupt China’s efforts to ensure energy security and to hinder its planning for a green transition”. It continues: “While information about those endeavours isn’t as readily available as in places like the US and Europe, government agencies and research firms still regularly report data that allows companies, investors and academics to keep tabs on trends vital to global trade flows and the fight against climate change.”

Separately, the Guardian quotes Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, a French MEP, who says that “we [the EU] are facing dependence, particularly on China [regarding ‘clean technologies’].” The state-supporting newspaper the Global Times carries an editorial, saying that “growing signs” suggest that the ‘clean energy’ industry is becoming the next arena for economic competition between the US and China. It adds that Washington’s pursuit of “economic security” frequently adheres to a “hegemonic logic that no one can gain more than it does”. State-backed media outlet China Daily carries a comment piece by scholars Marcos Cordeiro Pires and Zhang Min, who write that China and Latin American countries’ partnership on the “Green Belt and Road Initiative” is “vital” to “face the enormous problems faced by all humanity, such as the extreme weather events that hit every place in the world”. 

Finally, the South China Morning Post picks a study on melting glaciers in China, which says the expansion of lakes on the Tibetan Plateau was “caused by increased precipitation and glacial meltwater, both results of climate change”. Reuters says that oil prices showed “little fluctuations” as investors weighed concerns over China’s struggling economy with anticipations of decreased supply in the US.

China National Disaster Reduction Commission has initiated a level IV emergency response for drought in northern China’s Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Xinjiang, reports the National Business Daily, a Chinese economic newspaper, citing a report by the state broadcaster CCTV. It adds that the commission warned south-west China will expect heavy rains and storms at the same time.

The Chinese outlet Jimian reports that the carbon price at the national carbon market on Tuesday surpassed 70 yuan ($9.6) per tonne, “marking a new record high since the opening” of the carbon market in July. The policy by the ministry of ecology and environment says that the quotas held by emission control companies for the first compliance period (2019-20) can be used for offsetting compliance in the second compliance period (2021-22), as well as for trading in the carbon market, the article adds. The state-run industry newspaper China Electric Power News has published an article by Zhao Zenghai, director of the National Renewable Energy Information Management Center. He writes that the new policy on “green certificates” will create a “synergistic policy approach between green certificates and the national carbon emissions trading system, collectively supporting actions toward achieving the ‘dual carbon’ targets”.

Another article by China Electric Power News reports that, according to Chinese national oil company CNOOC, the country’s “first large-scale project” for the development of thin coalbed methane has been put into operation. It adds that thin coalbed generally refers to coal seams with “an underground mining thickness of less than 1.3 metres, which has long been regarded as marginal resources in coalbed methane development”. The operation holds “significant importance” in ensuring national energy security, says the article. Another article by Jiemian covers the same news. 

Elsewhere, a third article by Jiemian reports that the electricity consumption of “the second industries”, which includes mining, manufacturing and construction, reached 538 terawatts-hours nationwide in July, marking a year-on-year growth of 5.7%. The Chinese outlet 21st Century Business Herald quotes Li Gao, director general of the Department of Climate Change at the ministry of ecology and environment, saying: “there is still significant policy space for advancing climate-related investment and financing, including creating a conducive policy environment.” 

Hundreds have been evacuated in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh as rescuers continue to hunt for people feared missing in floods and landslides, Al Jazeera reports. The state’s chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu described the disaster as “the worst to hit [the state] in the past 50 years”, while experts told the outlet that climate change “is increasing the frequency and severity” of landslides and flash floods in the monsoon. State officials told Times of India that 71 people have been killed in the disaster “triggered by torrential downpour and cloudbursts since Sunday”, while the release of water from the Pong hydroelectric dam “necessitat[ed] a large-scale rescue operation of more than 1,700 people so far” in the low-lying areas of Kangra district.

Elsewhere, water resources experts told the Hindu that 12 hydroelectric projects in the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh signed over to state-run utilities on Saturday are “economically unviable” and a “guarantee[d] disaster” for the state and downstream regions. India’s renewable energy minister RK Singh “justified the government’s push for hydropower as it would contribute to the objective of net-zero carbon emissions by 2070”, according to the story. Another story in the Hindu reports that Indigenous village councils in the sister state of Nagaland have pledged to oppose a new forest conservation act legislated this month to meet the country’s carbon sink target, which they say is “designed against the interests of Indigenous communities”. In his independence day speech on 15 August, prime minister Narendra Modi said India “has achieved the green targets it had set for itself much ahead of schedule and has shown the world the way to fight climate change”, NDTV reported.

Separately, The Third Pole analyses how “high-profile intergovernmental discussions” between India and Nepal especially on hydropower deals “usually overlook climate change”, while a comic-style illustrated article in the Washington Post looks at how climate change is impacting the Indo-Gangetic plain.

In its first year, the Inflation Reduction Ace (IRA) has been a “game changer”, spurring a “race to the top”, writes Gina McCarthy, the first White House National Climate Advisor and former US Environmental Protection Agency administrator, in Time. “The world’s major economies rushed to develop their own competitive climate plans and opened up unprecedented opportunities to take a big bite out of global carbon emissions while enhancing domestic economies, growing good-paying clean energy jobs, saving families money, and improving air quality and health outcomes – especially for communities most in need,” she continues. McCarthy urges the US to go further though, to push harder to move fossil fuels out of domestic and international energy systems, to ensure developed countries meet or exceed their commitments to developing countries, and to entice more private sector investment, suggesting a carbon credit trading system could support this. “So on this one-year anniversary of the IRA, let’s do more than celebrate its ongoing success and push to keep implementing its provisions fast and furiously,” concludes McCarthy. 

Elsewhere, a Los Angeles Times editorial has “five takeaways” from the first year of the act. In related news, an “exclusive” in the Hill reports on projections from the US Energy Department, which show “the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law could save Americans up to $38bn on electricity costs over the remainder of the decade”. At the same time, Bloomberg reports that “the uncapped incentives of the Inflation Reduction Act mean spending sparked by the historic US climate law could triple initial estimates and push past $1tn”. And Politico reports that, on the anniversary of the act, “many Democrats are already talking about the next climate law”.

“When images of the climate emergency’s impact are so visceral and so widespread, it is easy to neglect what we cannot see,” says a Guardian editorial, which warns that humans must remember the damage being done to coral reefs, which sit often unseen. While coral reefs account for just 0.1% of the surface area of the ocean, they support a quarter of the world’s known marine life, and an estimated half a billion people, it notes. But reef cover has halved since the 1950s, “with the rate of loss accelerating”, driven by record temperatures leading to bleaching events. Work is underway, and the focus must be on prevention, writes the Guardian, reducing pollutants and tackling damage from tourism and overfishing, but “the only real solution is to slash the use of fossil fuels”. People cannot be shocked into change, the paper says. Instead “humans need to be confronted not only by the haunting images of ghost reefs, with life and colour drained from them, but also by the wonder of those that are still healthy, with their fabulous, fantastical populations. Contemplating these ecosystems in all their rainbow glory reminds us not only of what we have lost, but what we must protect”, the article concludes. 

There is no green “transition”, argues David Blackmon, a writer, podcaster and self-described “miner of absurdities”, in an article for the Daily Telegraph, in which he highlights that in 2022, the human race burned more coal, oil and gas than ever before. He points to increases in German imports of US natural gas, and suggests China has prioritised energy security over climate change. China has been “happy to let western developed nations sacrifice economic and grid stability in pursuit of ‘net-zero by 2050’ goals while it has continued to commission hundreds of new coal-fired power plants and become the world’s biggest importer of crude oil”, writes Blackmon. (China’s renewables and nuclear sector has reached 50.9% of the country’s power capacity, meaning it has hit its 2025 energy transition target two years early, Carbon Brief reported in June.). “What it all boils down to is this: the prevailing narrative being pushed by policymakers, activists and much of the western news media of an energy transition that will dramatically reduce the use of fossil fuels and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 is a fantasy. The direction and pace of whatever transition ultimately occurs will be dictated by real-world complexities and events, not by schemes promoted in Brussels, Washington DC and London”, Blackmon concludes.

A new study finds that rivers and streams account for roughly equal emissions of methane – a potent greenhouse gas – as other freshwater systems. The new study compiles all published data on riverine methane concentrations and emissions into a new database then uses machine-learning tools to predict methane concentrations and emissions globally. The findings suggest that while temperature does not appear to be a main driver of the 27.9m tonnes of methane per year emitted by rivers and streams globally, human modifications – such as water-treatment plants, ditches and canals – can be a factor.

A study examines excess deaths in the aftermath of cyclones in the US over more than three decades. The researchers combined death registration data with a comprehensive record of 179 tropical cyclones between 1988 and 2019 to estimate short-term excess deaths in the wake of such events. The study finds that the deadliest event was Hurricane Katrina in 2005, with 1,491 excess deaths including 719 in Orleans Parish alone. The authors warn that “trends of heightened activity and increased intensity of tropical cyclones in recent years indicate that tropical cyclone exposure is, and will remain, a major public health concern”.

By 2100, the decline of glaciers outside Greenland and Antarctica could produce new terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems over an area the size of Nepal or Finland, suggests a new study. Depending on future emissions, the area covered by glaciers could reduce by 22-51%, exposing new areas and leading to the rapid development of “post-glacial ecosystems”, the study says. Noting that less than half of glaciers are located in protected areas, the authors emphasise the need to “urgently and simultaneously enhance climate-change mitigation and the in situ protection of these ecosystems to secure their existence, functioning and values”.