New figures from the World Resources Institute find that primary rainforest loss in the tropics rose by 10% between 2021 and 2022, BBC News reports. According to the outlet, the equivalent of 11 football pitches of primary rainforest were destroyed every minute last year, with Brazil “dominating the destruction”. BBC News notes that, at COP26 in 2021, more than 100 world leaders signed the Glasgow Declaration on forests committing to “halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030”. But it says that, according to the new analysis, “the promise made in Glasgow is not being kept”. The Guardian adds: “Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Bolivia headed the table for tropical primary forest loss in 2022. Indonesia and Malaysia managed to keep rates of loss near record low levels after significant corporate and government action in recent years. Bolivia was one of the few big forested countries that did not sign the COP26 commitment on stopping the loss. Ghana, a major producer of cacao for chocolate, has suffered the biggest relative increase in forest loss of any country in recent years, although the absolute figures are small.” The Financial Times notes that under Brazil’s ex-president Bolsonaro, deforestation levels rose due to “increased activity by criminal groups”. But it adds: “Bolsonaro’s successor, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has pledged to crack down on illegal deforestation and has offered greater resources and financial support to the country’s environmental protection agencies. In April, deforestation in the Brazilian part of the Amazon fell almost 70% from the previous year in a tentative sign of the country’s changing environmental trajectory.” The New York Times reports that deforestation in 2022 drove 2.7bn tonnes of CO2 emissions – roughly equivalent to the annual fossil fuel emissions of India.

Ithaca Energy, an oil and gas company, has warned that the UK could be “starved” of “North Sea energy”, BBC News report. According to the outlet, the company – which is “almost entirely invested in North Sea oil and gas” – said that Labour’s pledge to ban new oil and gas drilling licences in the North Sea, if it wins the next election, in addition to the current government’s taxation policy is “spooking” investors. The outlet continues: “Last week, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said a Labour government would not grant licences to explore new fields in the North Sea, saying it would be an ‘historic mistake’ to wait until UK oil and gas runs out. But Gilad Myerson, executive chairman of Ithaca, said the move would threaten the UK’s energy security.” This comes as the Financial Times reports that the UK’s projected windfall tax take from the North Sea levy has dropped almost 40% to £26bn. According to the paper, this reflects a “sharp fall in the price paid for oil and gas in wholesale energy markets”. It continues: “Since peaking close to $130 a barrel in March last year oil prices have fallen to about $75 a barrel while wholesale gas prices are down almost 90% from their record highs to about 80p a therm.”

In other UK news, the i newspaper reports that the UK is on course for its hottest June on record, “finally” beating the record heatwave of June 1940. Elsewhere, the Sun reports that policing Just Stop Oil protests in London has cost £5.5m.

According to China’s Central Meteorological Observatory, the temperature in the city of Beijing-Tianjin, as well as the southern part of Hebei province is expected to reach “over 40C” this week, with some local temperatures possibly breaking previous records, reports the Beijing News. The observatory says that this round of high temperatures in the region is characterised by “high intensity” sustained over “a long duration”. The newspaper quotes Gao Hui, the chief forecaster at the National Climate Center, saying that, “against the backdrop of global warming”, the frequency of extreme high temperatures is “rapidly increasing, both in the southern and northern regions [in China].” China Youth Daily covers the same news. Bloomberg writes that the current heatwave in northern China poses a new challenge to agricultural production as El Nino brings hotter and drier conditions than usual. Additionally, online news site Sina Finance, citing a report by National Business Daily, writes that the “prolonged” high temperatures are “intensifying the strain on regional power supply and demand”. It adds that the industry policies are expected to “incentivise investment in thermal power generation and facilitate the transition of thermal power towards more flexible and adjustable sources”.

Meanwhile, the state-run newspaper China Daily carries a feature about a “mega solar and wind power base” –  the world’s “largest power generation base of its kind” – which is under construction in northwestern China’s Kubuqi desert. The newspaper quotes a person in charge of the construction site, saying the project will generate approximately 40 terawatts-hours of electricity annually. Half of the electricity will be generated from “clean sources”, resulting in savings equivalent to about six million metric tonnes of standard coal and a reduction of approximately 16m tonnes of CO2, the person adds. 

Separately, China News Service says that China and Europe are “pivotal players” in “global climate governance” and leaders in global “green development”, citing analysts. It adds that “deepening cooperation between the two sides will contribute practical solutions to global low-carbon transformation”. Another article in China Daily says that during Chinese premier Li Qiang’s visit to Germany last week, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen signed “letters of intent” with China for “enhancing cooperation” in researching and developmenting “new energy [electric] vehicles”, as well as promoting the automotive industry’s shift towards “smart electrification”. The website China Briefing has an analysis which focuses on the “national and local policies that support the development of EV chargers” in China. 

Elsewhere, the website Sina News has a comment piece by Chinese economist Zhu Min. He writes that carbon neutrality itself is the most “significant” solution driving China’s development, which could “enable the country to maintain the momentum of development seen in the past four decades”. 

The European Union is at risk of failing to meet its 2030 climate change target due to lack of funds, according to the the European Court of Auditors, Reuters reports. The newswire continues: “Despite the EU passing a raft of CO2-cutting measures and earmarking 30% of the bloc’s 2021-2027 budget for climate-related spending – yielding around 87bn euros ($95bn) per year – the auditors said a substantial funding gap remained unaccounted for in governments’ plans for meeting climate goals. Estimates by consulting firm McKinsey suggest roughly 1tnn euros per year in investments are needed to hit Europe’s climate goals, including its 2050 pledge to have net-zero emissions.”

Elsewhere, EnergyMonitor covers a new report from the European Climate Neutrality Observatory, which finds that “the pace at which the EU is transitioning towards a net-zero future is too slow to achieve its 2030 and 2050 climate targets”. According to the outlet, electricity is “almost on track”, but emissions from buildings and industry are “still too high” and “CO2 removals are moving in the wrong direction”. 

More than $2tn investment in emerging and developing countries is needed each year to tackle climate change and its impacts by 2030, but current investments are only around $500bn, according to an editorial in the Financial Times. It continues: “Shifting from ‘billions to trillions’ needs innovation. It means leveraging multilateral development banks better, de-risking private sector investments, being more creative about debt reduction, and building new revenue streams. The Multilateral Development Bank (MDB) system, which holds around $1.8tn in assets, will be central.” The paper says that MDBs should “accelerate efforts to use their balance sheets more efficiently”, “play a greater role in de-risking projects” and “build up a suite of financial products to match the funding problem they are trying to solve”. It adds that “reducing low-income nations’ debt load will also free up funds for sustainable development”. 

In other UK comment, CityAM writer Nicholas Earl calls onshore wind a “vote winner”. He continues: “Despite NIMBY resistance, onshore wind is now a widely popular energy source that, if ramped up, could help drive down bills with cheaper, cleaner power… Considering the government is prepared to make the politically difficult argument for sustaining oil and gas production, it is damning Sunak cannot make the politically easy decision to revive what should be a burgeoning industry. This is especially aggravating because if onshore wind can be revived through breaking up planning obstacles – this could even pave the way for progress to boost housing construction and transport. Such an opportunity has not gone unnoticed by Labour, which has managed to fire the first shots against NIMBY-ism last week when opposition leader Keir Starmer unveiled fresh details on Labour’s energy strategy.”

Elsewhere, Daily Telegraph columnist Celia Walden writes that “Just Stop Oil are doomed to fail – but they’re too blinded by ideology to see it”. Climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph columnist Andrew Orlowski writes that “green targets throw up massive contradictions – and no one is willing to resolve them”. An editorial in the Sun urges Rishi Sunak to “bin [the] green levy”, writing that it “adds to our energy bills and makes us poorer”. Similarly, the Daily Mail argues in an editorial that “green levies will hurt struggling families”. And Daily Telegraph writer Henry Hill writes that “the Tories must u-turn on net-zero to win”, saying that “instead of banning petrol and immiserising households, policy should be based on cheap, abundant clean energy”.

The large-scale land-clearing required for increased biofuel crop production could impede global climate goals if it is not well-regulated, according to a new study. Researchers use an integrated assessment model to determine emissions factors for biofuels under a range of policy frameworks. They find that without regulations on land use, biofuels’ emissions factors surpass those of fossil gas and diesel combustion. The authors warn: “In the absence of comprehensive and timely land-use regulation, bioenergy thus may contribute less to climate change mitigation than assumed previously.”