In continuing media coverage of the wildfires in Greece, the Washington Post reports that an “exceptionally dangerous” wildfire, with flames reaching up to 80 feet (24m) high, is burning around Athens. The newspaper continues: “Hundreds of firefighters are working to control the devastating blaze that has raced through forests, carried by strong winds over land left particularly dry by the heat waves that have scorched Southern Europe this summer. Greece has experienced one of its hottest and driest summers on record, according to the Hellenic National Meteorological Service.” Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in Athens, the Financial Times reports on its frontpage, which is illustrated with a picture of the Acropolis against a backdrop of smoky skies. The newspaper notes that Greece has appealed to the international community for help, adding: “Two jets from Italy, a helicopter from France and two firefighting teams from the Czech Republic and Romania had been sent, according to an EU official. France has also offered to send 180 rescue workers and firefighters to the region on Tuesday.” The Associated Press reports that at least one person has died due to the fire. It adds that a drop in wind speeds late last night allowed firefighters to make some progress in tackling the fire. Reuters says: “More than 700 firefighters backed by volunteers, 199 fire engines and 35 waterbombing aircraft have been battling the conflagration that broke out at 3pm on Sunday near the village of Varnavas 35 km (20 miles) north of Athens.” The Times, CNN, the Daily Mail, the Los Angeles Times, Al Jazeera and BBC News have also published stories about the fire.

Heatwaves killed nearly 50,000 people in Europe last year, the Guardian reports on its frontpage, citing a widely-covered new study. The newspaper says: “Hot weather inflamed by carbon pollution killed nearly 50,000 people in Europe last year, with the continent warming at a much faster rate than other parts of the world, research has found…Doctors call heat a ‘silent killer’ because it claims far more lives than most people realise.” It says that heat-related mortality in 2023, measured in deaths per million people, was highest in Greece, followed by Italy and Spain. Reuters says the new report by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health finds that more than 47,000 people died in Europe last year due to heat and that the death toll “would have been 80% higher without measures introduced in the past 20 years to help people adapt to rising temperatures, such as early warning systems and healthcare improvements”. The New York Times says: “Some of the measures include advances in health care, more widespread air-conditioning, and improved public information that kept people indoors and hydrated amid extreme temperatures.” The Independent notes that according to the study, more women died of heat-related illnesses than men in 2023. EuroNews also covers the study. Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that this summer, “the number of people accessing emergency care for heat-related illnesses has risen sharply in some of Italy’s most popular tourist cities”.

And in comment, Bloomberg opinion columnist Tyler Cowen writes that “more air conditioning would make Europe more comfortable during the summer heat, but also less interesting to visit”. Cowen notes both the high heat-related death tolls in Europe and the financial and energy costs of air conditioning. He adds: “For selfish reasons I am not myself rooting for more AC in Europe. If there were, more Europeans might spend more time in the cool of their homes and less in the heat of the outdoors. That would lower the value of public walks and public squares, degrading my European tourist experience.”

China’s State Grid has “completed the world’s biggest pumped hydro plant as the nation ramps up its green energy capabilities”, Bloomberg says, citing a report from China Energy News saying that the project cost 19bn yuan ($2.6bn) and has a capacity of 3.6 gigawatts (GW). The news outlet adds that, according to the National Energy Administration (NEA), China aims to expand its “pumped hydro capacity to 120GW by 2030”. State broadcaster CCTV reports that China has completed construction of the world’s “heaviest international offshore oil and gas platform” – at 17,000 tonnes – marking a “breakthrough” in the country’s “large-scale offshore oil and gas equipment construction technology”. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reports that China’s central bank will “extend a programme of cheap lending to financial institutions” until the end of 2027 to support “emission-reduction projects”. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment is “organising carbon emission accounting guidelines [and] verification requirements” in China’s steel sector, and will require the sector “to carry out carbon emission data submissions and monthly records” in the second half of the year, economic news outlet Yicai reports. State news agency Xinhua, in an article titled “In responding to climate change, how to actively and steadily promote ‘dual-carbon’ work?”, focuses on the need for carbon markets to achieve China’s climate targets. CleanTechnica publishes a commentary refuting arguments that China is not the global leader in wind panel manufacturing, arguing that China is “at the top of the leader board…across almost every event”. Industry news outlet BJX News covers a new Wood Mackenzie report finding that, in the first half of 2024, wind turbine orders in China exceeded 70GW, setting a “new record”.

Meanwhile, Xinhua quotes “many” EV manufacturers “complaining bitterly” that due to the sector’s price war, “the more you sell, the more you lose”. Bloomberg says that China’s booming battery storage capacity is currently going “largely unused”, adding that “the average system operated only once every other day and sat idle 91% of the time”. International Energy Net reports that a group of Chinese scientists has made “further progress” in the development of “perovskite tandem solar cells”.

Elsewhere, “Chinese miners and refiners are driving a surge” in the output of lithium in Africa, Bloomberg reports. Reuters says that the state-owned China General Nuclear has “signed an agreement with Laos expanding a planned renewable energy base in the country’s northern region”. The New York Times reports that senior officials from the Biden administration will visit Shanghai this week for “a round of high-level meetings” aimed at stabilising the US-China economic relationship.

And Reuters reports that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has cut its forecast for global oil demand in 2024, as a result of “softer expectations” for China. In its monthly report, published yesterday, OPEC says that world oil demand will rise by 2.11m barrels per day in 2024, down from growth of 2.25m bpd expected last month, according to the newswire.

Yesterday was the UK’s hottest day of the year so far, BBC News reports. According to the outlet, the UK Met Office said temperatures of 34.8C were recorded in Cambridge. It continues: “The higher temperatures have been confined to central and southern England and yellow heat health alerts are in place for millions of people…Various parts of London, Writtle in Essex, and Wisley in Surrey all reached 33C – and temperatures of 32C were also recorded in areas ranging from East Malling in Kent to Holbeach in Lincolnshire.” The Guardian says: “In a further sign of the climate crisis, the Met Office said provisionally this was the 11th year since the 60s to have seen temperatures as high as 34.8C but six of them have been in the past decade.” It adds that “the heatwave is linked to a kink in the jet stream, caused by Tropical Storm Debby in the US, which has pushed hot air northward”. The Press Association reports that “before Monday, the hottest day of 2024 had been Friday 19 July when temperatures reached 31.9C in central London”. The Daily Telegraph adds: “A yellow heat health alert, issued by the UK Health Security Agency, is in place for the East and West Midlands, the East of England, the South East and the South West, the North West and London. It runs until 9am on Wednesday. The alert means those who are particularly vulnerable, such as elderly people with multiple health conditions, are likely to struggle to cope with the heat.” The Daily Mail reports that Britain “enjoyed its hottest day in two years today”. The Times adds that “parts of the UK experienced thunderstorms with more than 15,000 lightning strikes recorded, mainly in Northern Ireland and Scotland”. 

In other UK news, the Guardian reports that Great Britain’s energy regulator, Ofgem, has approved the development of “a £3.4bn low-carbon electricity ‘superhighway’, which will carry renewable power for more than 300 miles from north-east Scotland to the north of England”. The paper continues: “The first phase of the Eastern Green Link subsea power cable will have the capacity to transmit enough renewable electricity from Scotland’s windfarms to power 2m homes in England, according to Ofgem. Work is expected to begin on the project, which is being developed by SSE in partnership with National Grid, later this year before it starts transmitting power by 2029. A second project, spearheaded by Scottish Power and National Grid, is expected to receive approval from the regulator within weeks.” Reuters and Bloomberg also cover the news. Elsewhere, the Guardian reports that “councils and public bodies in England are poised to be handed powers to enable them to buy greenbelt land without overpaying as part of the government’s drive to build 1.5m homes by 2030”. The newspaper reports that under the proposed rules, greenbelt landowners could be forced to sell their land at a “capped benchmark value that the government has said will provide ‘fair but not excessive return’ for the landowner, as well as ‘maximising community benefits’”. The MailOnline and the Independent cover the story.

Separately, the Guardian covers talks held in Aberdeen yesterday, where a Treasury minister “sought to defuse a bitter row with the North Sea oil and gas industry by promising to keep investment reliefs on low-carbon projects, aiming to protect jobs and soften the expansion of the energy windfall tax”. The newspaper says that chancellor Rachel Reeves has promised to expand the levy on energy industry profits, but “energy bosses and unions representing North Sea workers warned that the changes could hit jobs and investment in the UK”. The Times reports that a disused Scottish coalmine will be turned into a pumped storage hydro power station. The Press Association covers a YouGov poll, which finds that “support for UK climate policy has increased since before the general election, with nearly three-quarters of people backing the shift to net-zero”. And separately, the Press Association covers a new assessment from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, which finds that “British food security is being hit by a double whammy of climate change impacts at home and in the countries it imports products from”. 

Robert Habeck, Germany’s economy and climate action minister, has declared the city of Lingen in Emsland, previously known for its now-decommissioned nuclear power plants, “one of the most important sites for the energy transition”, reports Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). It explains that Germany’s energy giant, RWE, inaugurated a pilot plant for hydrogen electrolysis using “green electricity” at the Lingen site yesterday. The outlet adds that the plant will have a capacity of 14 megawatts (MW) and can produce up to 270 kilograms of “green hydrogen” per hour. It adds that the initiative aims to develop infrastructure that will connect hydrogen production in Lingen – expected to reach 300MW by 2027 – with industrial consumers in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk says that German network operators plan to invest €20bn into constructing a 10,000-kilometre hydrogen network, converting existing gas pipelines to carry hydrogen.

Meanwhile, Der Spiegel reports that the German Free Democratic Party (FDP) has proposed free parking for cars as a part of the initiative “roadmap to the future – a policy for cars”, which “seems aimed at appealing to their core, car-loving voter base” ahead of upcoming state elections, thus distancing themselves from their coalition partners, the Greens and SPD. The newspaper notes that this stance “contradicts the efforts” of the German transport minister Volker Wissing, who is also a part of FDP and who has been working to shift more traffic from roads onto railways.

Finally, Die Zeit reports that the German Federal Network Agency has approved RWE’s construction of two large windfarms in the North Sea, with a total auction price of €250m. It says that each farm will feature 133 turbines, each with a 15MW capacity – meaning a total capacity of 2 gigawatts – and is set for full commissioning by 2031-32.

Forecasters have warned that Tropical Storm Ernesto, which formed in the Atlantic on Monday, is approaching the US territory of Puerto Rico, the Associated Press reports. The newswire continues: “The storm was located about 230 miles (370 kilometres) east-southeast of Antigua late Monday. It had maximum sustained winds of 40mph (65kph) and was moving west at 28mph (44kph). Ernesto is the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season…Ernesto Morales, with the National Weather Service in San Juan, said between six to eight inches of rain are expected, with higher amounts in isolated areas. He also warned of hurricane-strength wind gusts as the storm is expected to hit northeast Puerto Rico and move across the US territory late Tuesday and early Wednesday…Officials also warned Ernesto would cause widespread power outages given the fragile state of Puerto Rico’s power grid, which crews are still rebuilding after Hurricane Maria struck the island in September 2017 as a Category 4 storm.” It adds that more than 200 personnel in the National Guard have been “activated” and more than 340 shelters across the island will be available if necessary. The Guardian reports that the “above normal” tropical storm season is being fuelled by “near-record warm ocean temperatures” in the Atlantic, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It notes that countries including Antigua, Barbuda, Saba and St Eustatius, Guadeloupe and St Maarten have been added to the tropical storm watch list. The New York Times also covers the storm.

“Wildlife has benefited from the post-Brexit farm payments system, strengthening the case for an extension,” says an editorial in the Guardian. The newspaper says that unlike Europe’s common agricultural policy, which mainly subsidises landowners on the basis of acreage farmed, payments from the environmental land management scheme (ELMS) are designed to promote nature. The editorial says a recent report by regulator Natural England, which finds that “moths, butterflies and bats have all grown more numerous in the places where farmers had adopted new methods”, shows that ELMS is working. It continues: “By far the most challenging section of the report, politically speaking, is the one dealing with research into the trade-offs between food production and nature protection. Nine land-use scenarios were explored. The conclusion was that none could deliver ‘strong reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (or large increases in potential bird populations) without also seeing a large reduction in food supply’. On the other hand, evidence shows that measures including food waste reduction and the use of arable land to grow crops for people to eat, rather than livestock, could mitigate reduced food production and help the UK to achieve its climate goals.” In a comment for Reuters, Tom Lancaster, head of land, food and farming at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, writes that “farming is the UK’s net-zero blind spot”. He argues that the UK needs to reduce emissions by “reducing numbers of ruminant livestock (cattle and sheep mainly) and by feeding these livestock methane inhibitors”. He also argues that reducing emissions from lowland peat is a priority, but adds that “due to their value for agriculture, this comes with significant trade-offs”. Lancaster also argues that new woodlands are needed.

In a comment for Climate Home News, Cristina Gamboa, chief executive of the World Green Building Council, writes that Ursula von der Leyen, who is about to begin her second term as president of the European Commission, “must implement plans to boost energy efficiency in the sector, reducing reliance on fossil fuels and exposure to geopolitical shocks”. Elsewhere, Andrew Bowie – Conservative MP for West Aberdeenshire and former energy minister – writes in a comment for the Daily Telegraph that “Labour’s energy policy is economically and environmentally illiterate”. Bowie says: “Recent fiscal instability, punitive windfall taxes (for which we Conservatives must take blame) and a negative atmosphere around business investment in oil and gas in Scotland (for which the SNP must take the flack) is being exacerbated by a Labour government whose eco-zealotry will see our domestic oil and gas industry all but cease to exist. This will not only impact the UK economically as the sector shrinks and provides less revenue to the Treasury, but will weaken our energy security and in an irony totally lost on our new government, hamper our journey to a cleaner energy mix.” [While in government in 2019, Bowie posted on his personal website: “Concern about climate change is growing to unprecedented levels and I can assure you that I recognise the importance and urgency of public debate on this issue.” Explaining his decision to ask the Climate Change Committee for advice on how and when the UK should reach net-zero emissions, he said “we must do more, and the [then]-government will do more”.]

In a Dialogue Earth comment, South Asia managing editor Omair Ahmad argues that “without a Green Deal, South Asia’s youth unemployment crisis, combined with other factors, could trigger political instability similar to that in Bangladesh”. Ahmad writes that youth unemployment was the “underlying issue” in Bangladesh, which led to Sheikh Hasina’s fall from power. Youth unemployment is an issue across south Asia, where almost one-third of 15-24 year olds are unemployed, he adds. He continues: “One part of the issue is that the agricultural sector is the area most vulnerable to climate change impacts, such as erratic rainfall, droughts, floods, new pests and diseases…The second part of the issue is that there are few jobs to be found for those fleeing devastation. If a green future exists, the jobs associated with it have not yet arrived in South Asia…If South Asia – a region hosting a quarter of humanity with a per capita income that is a sixth of the world average – were able to speak in one voice on the global stage, the single biggest demand would be for a Green Deal, one that facilitated growth and an energy transition.” However, Ahmad says there is “very little likelihood” that south Asian governments will argue for a green new deal at COP29, noting that “none of the political parties in the region articulated a clear climate message during the elections in Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh this year”.

Elsewhere, Barry Eichengreen – a professor of economics and political science at the University of California – writes in a comment for the Guardian that “American voters face an unusually weighty decision in 2024”. He notes that Republican nominee Donald Trump has promised to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement if elected, and continues: “But one might ask: what is so catastrophic about a newly re-elected Trump pulling the US out of the Paris accord a second time, if the next president could, like Biden, simply rejoin it? In fact, Trump’s advisers are aware of the possibility. They are reportedly drafting executive orders that would remove the US not just from the Paris climate agreement but also from the UN framework convention on climate change, the foundation on which the Paris Agreement is built. Reversing that step would then require approval by the US Senate. And Senate approval cannot be taken for granted, given the ample representation in that chamber of oil- and gas-rich states.” Eichengreen also says that Trump would put other bilateral climate agreements at risk. For example, he argues that Trump is “unlikely to persist with climate-friendly subsidies”, meaning the EU will apply its carbon border adjustment mechanism to US exports in full. “Inevitably, US retaliation would result,” Eichengreen says. He also notes Trump’s poor relationship with China. Conversely, he argues that presumptive Democratic nominee and vice president Kamala Harris “could demonstrate her independence from her predecessor by removing Biden’s punishing tariffs on imports of Chinese electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and solar panels”. However, he says that this would present a dilemma, as Harris would need to “decide whether to prioritise domestic manufacturing jobs and economic independence from China over the fight against the climate crisis”. 

For the Hill, opinion contributors Emily Domenech and Danielle Butcher Franz write that “environmentalists are suing us out of addressing climate change” by opposing the Manchin-Barrasso proposed permitting bill. They say that the bill outlines reforms needed to build new energy infrastructure, and “sailed through committee last week”. However, they say that “a coalition of extreme environmental groups is digging in its heels” to prevent it. They continue: “For those of us working in the environmental space, this isn’t a surprise. Even though many environmental leaders in the Senate and climate-focused environmental groups support the bill, extreme environmental groups are once again opposing reforms needed to build new energy infrastructure. Their outdated approach ignores the fact that addressing climate change and meeting our energy demands will require rapidly building out clean-energy infrastructure.” Similarly, Robert Gebelhoff – deputy politics editor for the Washington Post‘s opinions section – writes that “climate activists have lost sight of their mission”. He says: “Often, they fight climate change on a project-by-project basis – opposing a pipeline here or a drilling project there. But the only way to reform energy markets is to think on a broader scale…This is what makes the Manchin-Barrasso compromise so compelling. It is a serious proposal to unlock clean energy quickly that, if lawmakers are allowed to vote on it, might have a real chance of becoming law. If only those who care most passionately about protecting the planet would get on board.”

And the Conversation has published multiple pieces by scientists explaining their research, under the headlines “new solar farms can benefit nature – here’s how”, “Amazon countries are stepping-up measures to counter illicit financing of nature crime”, “New storm is headed for the Caribbean: What meteorologists look for in early signs of a future hurricane”, “NZ is running out of gas – literally. That’s good for the climate, but it’s bad news for the economy”, “If you want Americans to pay attention to climate change, just call it climate change” and “African economic expansion need not threaten global carbon targets: study points out the path to green growth”. 

The terms “climate crisis” and “climate emergency” do not elicit a more urgent response from people than “climate change”, according to a survey of more than 5,000 people in the US. To test out how different climate terms affect people’s perceptions, researchers conducted a nationwide experiment by randomly assigning 5,137 US residents to the terms “climate change”, “global warming”, “climate crisis”, “climate emergency” or “climate justice” and examining their responses. The authors say: “Overall, ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming’ were rated as most familiar and most concerning, and ‘climate justice’ the least, with ratings for ‘climate crisis’ and ‘climate emergency’ falling in between. Moreover, we find no evidence for ‘climate crisis’ or ‘climate emergency’ eliciting more perceived urgency than ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming’.”