World leaders and heads of international organisations are gathering in Paris for a two-day summit on reshaping the global financial system to tackle poverty and climate change, the Associated Press reports. It says the summit, organised by French president Emmanuel Macron, “comes in the wake of a plan championed by Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley to ease access to financing for climate-vulnerable countries”. It continues: “The Paris summit has no mandate to make formal decisions, French organisers stressed, but it aims at giving a strong political impetus to key issues to be discussed in upcoming climate conferences and other international meetings.” The newswire says an announcement is expected today that developed countries have finally met the $100bn climate finance target they had pledged to meet by 2020. It adds that participants at the Paris summit are “expected to back a tax on the greenhouse gas emissions produced from international shipping, with the aim to enable its adoption at a July meeting of the International Maritime Organization”. Additionally, it says: “Participants are to discuss a debt suspension clause for countries hit by extreme climatic events. Yet it would have no impact on existing debt, activists note.”

The Financial Times says the World Bank “will allow countries hit by disasters to pause repayments on loans to the multilateral lender, in a win for a campaign led by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley”. It continues: “World Bank president Ajay Banga will unveil measures, including the pause on repayments and embedding catastrophe insurance into new loans, in a speech in Paris on Thursday.” The paper adds: “More than 40 world leaders are expected in Paris over the next two days for the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact. They include German chancellor Olaf Scholz and the presidents of Gabon, Zambia, Sri Lanka and Kenya. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen and UN secretary-general António Guterres are also due to attend.” It also notes: “The Élysée has stressed the event is not a ‘pledging’ summit where countries come with fresh money. Instead, by the end of the two days there will be a ‘road map’ for how to reform the international financial system, including multilateral development banks.”

Reuters says attendees in Paris will include China’s premier Li Qiang and Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. It reports: “[The Paris summit] aims to create multifaceted roadmaps that can be used over the next 18-24 months, ranging from debt relief to climate finance…Leaders are set to back a push for multilateral development banks like the World Bank to put more capital at risk to boost lending, according to a draft summit statement seen by Reuters.” BBC News speaks with Mottley in Paris, quoting her saying: “The reason why these [Bretton Woods] institutions exist is that they were created to help the world in the reconstruction effort after World War Two. We are in a moment that is equal to World War Two with respect to climate.” Politico runs with the headline: “Western leaders snub Macron’s Paris summit on global finance.” It says beyond Macron and Scholz, the only other EU heads of state to attend are Bulgaria and Slovakia’s. Climate Home News asks: “Fossil fuels, planes, ships and shares – what will be taxed for climate funds?” Analysis for the Polycrisis newsletter looks at the second iteration of Mottley’s “Bridgetown Agenda”. BusinessGreen also previews the Paris meeting.

Intense heat continues to make news around the world. Temperatures have soared above 45C in parts of Mexico, Reuters reports, driving “record electricity consumption that has prompted the country’s energy authority to issue a rare alert over grid capacity”. It adds: “Electricity usage tends to surge amid high temperatures as the use of air conditioning increases.” Separately, Reuters reports: “Beijing braces for blistering hot weather as heatwaves return.” It says the Chinese capital “issued its second-most severe warning for high temperatures” today and has breached 40C “for the first time since 2014”. The newswire continues: “Last week, the national weather bureau issued an alert for heat stroke, almost a fortnight earlier than in previous years, as new record temperatures for the month of June assailed cities across northern China.” Another Reuters article reports: “Texas grid operator again forecasts record power use amid heatwave.” Axios reports: “A tornado in Matador, Texas, killed at least three people and wounded multiple others Wednesday night as a line of storms spawned multiple tornadoes across the Rolling Plains amid an extreme heat wave, per the New York Times.” Another Axios article says the extreme heat in Texas and the southern US “may linger until fourth of July”. The Guardian says: “Half of Americans have faced ‘extreme’ weather in the last six weeks.” In the UK, the Times reports: “Britons should prepare for a hot summer but are unlikely to see a repeat of last year’s extreme 40C heatwave, according to the Met Office. The forecaster said there was more than double the usual chance of a warm summer.” The Daily Mail says the Met Office “refuses to rule out temperatures hitting 40C”. The Daily Telegraph reports: “Climate change may make British summers as hot as the south of France but it will still be a lot rainer in the UK than Nice, the Met Office has said…Will Lang, the Met Office head of situational awareness, said climate change could also bring more extreme rain even during the summer.” City AM reports: “Soaring demand for air conditioning across Europe with warmer weather marking the beginning of summer has contributed to the latest spike in gas price.”

Meanwhile, Agence-France Presse has an explainer on “how climate change fuels extreme heat”. It cites analysis from Carbon Brief, which found: “Of the 152 extreme heat events that have been assessed by scientists, 93% found that climate change made the event or trend more likely or more severe.” An editorial in Pakistan’s the Nation says a new report from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) “paints a scary picture of what the future might look like in light of rising temperatures across the globe”. In his Bloomberg column, David Fickling writes: “With temperatures across India soaring above 45C this week, you’d hope the government had learned from last year’s deadly heatwaves and properly prepared the health system for the next climate-driven crisis…Instead, attempts to even enumerate what is happening have become embroiled in bitter arguments. Nearly 100 people have died from heat-related conditions in two of the country’s most populous states in recent days, the Associated Press reported this week – but officials, including medics, have disputed the claims.” Finally, Mongabay looks at the small decrease in solar panel efficiency at very high temperatures, in light of repeated heatwaves in India.

The Chinese state news agency Xinhua reports that China and Germany have agreed to “set a dialogue and cooperation mechanism on climate change and green transition” during Chinese premier Li Qiang’s visit to Germany. Argus Media says that the five-year-long mechanism – memorandum of understanding (MoU) on climate cooperation – “although lacks concrete deals, sets out several topics Germany and China will work on, including industrial emissions reductions and decarbonisation in typically hard-to-abate sectors such as cement, steel, chemicals and pulp and paper”. 

Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu Agency gives details that the MoU was signed by Robert Habeck, German economy minister, and Zheng Shanjie, the chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission. It adds that, in the MoU, both countries want to “cooperate more closely” in addressing climate change and acknowledge their “special responsibility” to comply with the Paris Agreement. According to the German Ministry of Economics, the memorandum includes “eight fields of action for cooperation”, such as “central area of decarbonisation of industry” and the expansion of renewable energies, the article highlights. Tokyo-based Nikkei Asia also covers the story.

Politico writes that, following a meeting with Li, German chancellor Olaf Scholz reiterated his plea in a statement that China should use its influence over Russia to bring an end to the war in Ukraine. It adds that Beijing expressed a preference for discussing the expansion of trade relations instead. Separately, the Chinese state-affiliated newspaper Global Times, citing the Hill, writes that US president Biden said his climate envoy, John Kerry, will “soon visit China”.

Meanwhile, China has introduced a four-year, 520bn yuan ($72bn) “tax breaks” package for electric vehicles (EVs) and other “green” automobiles, reports Reuters. This is the largest tax break so far for the industry as China wants to stimulate the sluggish growth in auto sales, the newswire adds. Bloomberg covers the same news. Adair Turner, chairman of thinktank the Energy Transition Commission, says that China is a “world leader” in the promotion of electric vehicles, reports China News Service. He highlights that the actions of three major economies, the EU, the US, and China, will determine whether there is still a chance to achieve our climate goals, the state newswire notes. 

Elsewhere, Radio France Internationale writes that, according to a joint report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), China currently accounts for “the majority” of clean-energy investments in emerging and developing economies. The country’s investment amounts to $510bn, significantly more than Africa’s $32bn, the French state-owned radio network adds. Finally, the Financial Times writes that the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and QatarEnergy signed a 27-year deal, under which China will buy four million metric tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) annually, which is the second large gas supply deal for the Gulf state. 

Solar and wind together generated more electricity in the US than coal power during the first five months of the year, CBS news reports, citing preliminary data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). It continues: “It’s the first time on record that wind and solar have out-produced coal for five months, according to industry publication, E&E News, which first calculated the figures.” It adds: “The figure marks a new high for clean power and a steep decline in coal-fired power generation, which as recently as 10 years ago made up 40% of the nation’s electricity. And while the monthly figures are preliminary and could be revised in the coming months, according to the EIA, more renewables in the pipeline mean that coal power is set to keep falling.”

The UK’s “largest undeveloped fossil fuel field”, Rosebank in the North Sea, is “set to be approved by regulators within the next two weeks, City AM understands”. The newspaper continues: “This will leave energy security secretary Grant Shapps with a decision over whether to intervene or let the decision pass, which would be a tacit endorsement of the development. The energy firms backing Rosebank – Equinor and Ithaca – will then release their final investment decisions, following the regulators’ green lighting of the project.” It adds: “News that the project is set to be approved by regulators follows Labour leader Keir Starmer confirming he would not retroactively cancel ongoing developments in the North Sea – including Rosebank – despite shadow climate secretary Ed Miliband’s public opposition to the oil and gas field.” Separately, the Financial Times reports: “One of the last arteries carrying Russian gas to Europe could be shut off by the end of next year when Ukraine’s supply contract with Gazprom expires, the Ukrainian energy minister has said.”

Former Conservative cabinet ministers including COP26 president Alok Sharma “have formed a group to pressure the government to improve its green policies in the hope of making it ‘credible’ in the next general election”, the Guardian reports. It adds: “They will sit on the new steering committee for the Conservative Environment Network (CEN), a group of 159 Tory MPs who pressure the government to improve its green offering. The group was formed a decade ago. The ministers will be calling for Sunak to adopt ambitious policies to unlock more onshore and offshore renewables, improve home energy efficiency, incentivise sustainable transport options, clean up rivers and seas and reward farmers for using nature-friendly practices.”

In a joint comment published by Le Monde, 13 world leaders – including France’s Emmanuel Macron, Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley, European Commission president Urusla von der Leyen, Germany’s Olaf Scholz, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, the UK’s Rishi Sunak, Fumio Kishida of Japan and US president Joe Biden – call for increased public and private finance in support of both the Paris Agreement and Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. They write: “We want a system that better addresses development needs and vulnerabilities, now heightened by climate risks, which could further weaken countries’ ability to eliminate poverty and achieve inclusive economic growth. Climate change will generate larger and more frequent disasters, and disproportionately affect the poorest, most vulnerable populations around the world. These challenges cross borders and pose existential risks to societies and economies.” The letter continues: “We want our system to deliver more for the planet. The transition to a ‘net-zero’ world and the goals of the Paris Agreement present an opportunity for this generation to unlock a new era of sustainable global economic growth. We believe that just ecological transitions that leave no one behind can be a powerful force for alleviating poverty and supporting inclusive and sustainable development. This requires long-term investment everywhere to ensure that all countries are able to seize this opportunity. Inspired by the historic Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, we also need new economic models that recognize the immense value of nature for humanity.” In the Guardian, meanwhile, Canadian minister of environment and climate change Steven Guilbeault, Australia’s climate and energy minister Chris Bowen and New Zealand climate minister James Shaw write under the headline: “The climate crisis is this century’s biggest threat. We need a global finance pact that reflects the task ahead.” They add: “We need a global financial architecture that helps address the existential threat of climate change, while supporting countries’ development ambitions, responding to the millions slipping back into poverty and maintaining stability in the global financial system.” The trio conclude: “We all need to be ‘all in’. And that includes all international financial institutions.”

For Reuters, Rachel Kyte, dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a member of the UN Secretary-General’s high-level advisory group on climate action, says: “The summit offers an interesting juxtaposition: a radical agenda to overcome climate colonialism, known as the Bridgetown Initiative, taking place in Paris, home of the Paris Club, an informal group of 22 creditor nations, where debtor countries have come to manage their indebtedness since 1956.” Kyte continues: “Summit participants in formal and informal side meetings across the city will focus on three buckets of issues: In the short term, what can we do to increase the impact of the international financial system? And what innovations outside the existing financial architecture may shift financial flows and encourage smarter risk-taking? Then, in the medium to long term, how can we increase consensus on a system restart?” She adds: “Running throughout will be the challenge of how to bolster investment in emerging markets and developing economies in a way that does not incur debt. Bringing down the cost of capital is critical.” Kyte concludes: “From Paris, this urgent work will pass to the first African Climate Summit in Kenya, the G20 meeting in India, where MDB reform is being discussed, the UN General Assembly, the World Bank/IMF annual meetings in Morocco and, at the end of the year, the climate talks in the United Arab Emirates. It’s a punishing schedule of international meetings, which if it works, should build both support and momentum for international financial system change. For those who are becoming increasingly vulnerable and for whom the current system isn’t working, the stakes couldn’t be higher.” For India’s Mint, Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency and Amitabh Kant, India’s “sherpa” during its G20 presidency, say that the G20 “can build a global bridge to a future of sustainable energy”.

A Financial Times editorial says: “Investors and companies must make the case that ESG is not about ideology.” Reflecting on the backlash against “environmentally and socially responsible models of capitalism”, particularly from the right-wing media and politicians in the US, the paper notes that the “war on woke” being waged by some Republicans “is achieving less than its proponents hoped”. It continues: “Anti-ESG measures have been scrapped or diluted in several Republican-led states and newly formed anti-ESG funds have raised relatively trivial sums. A surge in proposals from conservative shareholders at this year’s annual meetings has flopped, meanwhile, with the average anti-ESG resolution garnering just 2.6% support, according to the Sustainable Investments Institute, a data provider. Outside the US, the backlash is having even less impact.” However, the editorial notes: “Even so, there are signs that asset managers’ belief that social and environmental stewardship should be part of their mandates is wavering in the face of pressure from the right.” The piece concludes: “ESG investing itself remains a flawed catch-all, trying to encompass too many issues in one marketable acronym; there is a case for unpacking it into its separate elements. The success its opponents have found by pointing out its contradictions and hypocrisies should encourage supporters to reflect on how it has proved so vulnerable to attack. It should also prompt them to refocus on the core responsibilities that companies have to their employees, the planet and the people who hold their stock. Doing so, in a way that acknowledges ESG’s flaws and looks for common ground between its critics on the left and right, may yet rescue a vital debate about business’s place in the world from the extremes of America’s partisan battles. But believers in cleaner, more equitable and more sustainable forms of capitalism have more to do to make the case that they are driven by their companies’ long-term interests rather than by ideology.”

Writing for Politico, Laurence Tubiana, head of the European Climate Foundation (which funds Carbon Brief), recalls that, last month, G7 nations said they would back “the sustainable and resilient recovery and green reconstruction of Ukraine”. She writes: “Rebuilding a prewar version of Ukraine would be unthinkable. An old-style economy based on fossil fuels means fragile sovereignty, and it would scare off investors wary of financing assets that belong in the last century. It would be no recovery at all. Renewables, however, are aligned with peace, security and independence for Ukraine. They are the building blocks of a modern economy, attracting private investment and positioning the country alongside its European neighbours. This is what Ukraine’s government, and its people, need from Europe.” For Politics.co.uk, Conservative MP Alicia Kearns writes under the headline: “Britain must rally global support behind a Green Marshall Plan for Ukraine.” She continues: “President Zelenskyy has stated that his vision is to make Ukraine a clean energy hub. This is admirable and doable – but only if the international community supports an ambitious Green Marshall Plan.” For the Times Red Box, Daria Chekalova of Ukrainian human rights group Divchata-NGO Girls and Hannah Bond of ActionAid UK write under the headline: “Women and the climate must be at heart of recovery in Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, the New York Times has an interview with US climate envoy John Kerry titled: “The war is worsening the effects of climate change, Kerry says.” It quotes Kerry saying that the war shows how “climate change is a thread multiplier”. The article says Kerry made a joint statement with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell Fontelles, NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg and European Commission climate chief Frans Timmermans saying: “climate change and environmental degradation are an existential threat to the planet, and also have immediate, direct and growing negative implications for security and defence”. In an interview with the Associated Press, Stoltenberg says NATO needs to “reconcile the need for an effective, strong, armed forces with the need to have climate-friendly armed forces”. The newswire quotes him saying: “Climate change is a crisis multiplier. It increases competition over scarce resources like water and land, and it drives millions of people to leave their country. So, all this impacts our security.”

The indirect effects of climate change, such as wildfires, have a greater impact on soil organic carbon than direct effects such as rising temperatures, according to new research. The “global meta-analysis” brings together findings from 230 meta-analyses, comprising more than 25,000 “primary” studies, on the impacts of land-use change, land management and climate change on soil organic carbon. The authors find that land management practices implemented in forests generally deplete soil organic carbon. They add that land conversion for crop production leads to high soil organic carbon loss that can be partially restored through land management practices.