As “weather extremes grow more frequent and climate breakdown intensifies”, 15 national heat records have been broken since the start of the year, a climate historian has told the Guardian. Additionally, there have been 130 monthly national temperature records broken, along with tens of thousands of local records registered at monitoring stations “from the Arctic to the South Pacific”, it continues. Maximiliano Herrera, a historian who keeps an archive of extreme events, tells the Guardian that the number of records in the first six months of 2024 is “astonishing”. He adds: “This amount of extreme heat events is beyond anything ever seen or even thought possible before. The months from February 2024 to July 2024 have been the most record-breaking for every statistic.” The run of records is “particularly alarming” because last year’s extreme heat could be attributed to a combination of human-caused global warming and the natural El Niño phenomenon, the article continues, but the phenomenon has been fading since February, which has “brought little relief”. The Guardian has also published an accompanying article headlined: “How does today’s extreme heat compare with Earth’s past climate?” A related article in the Conversation looks at “what to expect” now that the world’s 13 month-long streak of record heat has ended. 

Separately, a new report from Unicef has found that children in West and Central Africa are increasingly exposed to extreme heat, reports the Associated Press. Since the 1960s, the frequency of heatwaves in the region has more than quadrupled, it adds. West Africa experienced an unprecedented heatwave earlier this year, leading to a surge in deaths, AP states. “Exposure to high levels of heat also leaves children more vulnerable to developing chronic diseases and contracting infectious ones that spread in high temperatures, such as malaria and dengue,” David Knaute, a regional climate specialist for the UN’s children agency, tells the newswire. The Unicef report calls on governments to reduce their emissions, to get rising temperatures under control and protect children, the article adds.

New analysis shows that if Donald Trump were to enact the climate policies within the rightwing “Project 2025” manifesto, it “would result in billions of tonnes of extra carbon pollution, wrecking the US’s climate targets, as well as wiping out clean energy investments and more than a million jobs”, reports the Guardian. According to modelling from Energy Innovation, a non-partisan energy thinktank, if Trump is elected in November and passes the policies within the controversial Project 2025 document it would “significantly increase” carbon emissions by 2.7bn tonnes above the current trajectory by 2030, the article continues. This extra pollution would “torpedo” any chance the US has of meeting its goal of halving emissions by 2030, which is imperative if the world is to avert “disastrous climate change”, it adds. The analysis finds that it would result in 1.7m lost jobs in 2030, because reduced clean-energy deployment would not be offset by smaller gains in the fossil-fuel sector, plus there would be a “£320bn hit to US GDP”, it says. The article points to previous analysis by Carbon Brief, which found that, if Trump wins, the US could generate an additional 4bn tonnes of emissions by 2030 compared with Joe Biden’s plans. Trump’s opponent Kamala Harris has kept her energy policy “strategically ambiguous”, according to Reuters, although it is expected she will keep policy in line with Biden’s.

An EU satellite mapping agency says 104 square kilometres (40 square miles) of land was burned during a deadly wildfire north of Athens, Greece, this week, reports the Associated Press. The Copernicus Emergency Management Service announced the estimate yesterday, following the fires being contained the day before on the outskirts of the capital, it adds. Milder wind together with work by the emergency services brought the fires under control, but there is still a risk it could flare up again as temperatures soar above 30C (86F) in the daytime, reports BBC News. One woman was killed and dozens more injured as the fires “tore through” 100,000 acres (40,470 hectares) of land, it says. Hundreds of firefighters tackled the blaze, assisted by dozens of aircraft, notes the Independent. It quotes prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who visited the military airport of Elefsina to thank the pilots of firefighting aircraft, saying: “This is an effort we all make during a great climate crisis. We must constantly improve.”

Hong Kong’s Li Ka-shing has bought a portfolio of 32 wind farms for £350m, in a “deal that will tighten the billionaire’s grip on Britain’s energy market”, reports the Daily Telegraph. Under the agreement between Ka-shing’s CK Group and Aviva Investors, the group’s infrastructure arm will acquire wind farms such as the 18MW Den Brook wind farm in Devon and the 25MW Minnygap project near Dumfries in Scotland, it continues. The group is already one of the biggest gas, electricity and water distributors in the UK, owning assets like UK Power networks, the newspaper adds. A separate article in the Daily Telegraph reports that councils in England will be “ordered to approve a raft of wind and solar farms”, as part of a shake-up of planning rules by housing secretary Angela Rayner. These will mean local authorities have an obligation to support projects that “contribute to green energy production and net-zero”, according to draft documents released by the Housing, Communities and Local Government department, the article adds. 

In other UK news, a legal challenge against the former government’s approval of a new gas power station in Teesside has failed, reports BBC News. An environmental consultant lost the High Court challenge which alleged the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) failed to “adequately” explain how the Net Zero Teesside Project would help deliver the government’s net-zero goals, it continues. The gas-fired power plant, a joint venture by BP and Norway’s Equinor, is planned to be a 860MW asset, fitted with post-combustion carbon capture, reports Reuters.

The Communist party-backed newspaper Study Times carries an article written by Zhang Jianhua, the head of China’s National Energy Administration (NEA), saying that the “high-quality development” of “new energy” is a “crucial guarantee” for achieving its “dual carbon” goals. Zhang adds that only by “vigorously” developing new energy can China “fundamentally” ensure its energy security and “break through the international green barriers”. State broadcaster CCTV cites the NEA saying the “next step” for China’s “green energy transition” is to support various construction and distributions of renewable energy, including “onshore and offshore” projects. Industry news outlet BJX News reports that “large-scale upgrades” of China’s distribution grid are “urgently needed” to meet the growing electricity demand for electric vehicles (EVs). Business news outlet Caixin carries a comment article by Shen Xinyi, Yu Aiqun and Liu Hongqiao arguing that China’s current plan to cut coal emissions could lead to “additional operational costs, higher capital burdens and, ultimately, slow down the green transition”.

Meanwhile, state news agency Xinhua says that “prolonged and severe heatwaves” this year have “hit every continent”, damaging infrastructures and straining “essential services, including water, electricity, health and food supplies”. The “key solution” to the problem is “the rapid reduction of greenhouse gas emissions”, adds the newswire. China Daily reports that the “increasing frequency of heavy downpours and severe floods shows that more and more regions are becoming vulnerable to extreme weather events”, adding that China urgently needs to “strengthen disaster preparedness and boost climate resilience”.

Elsewhere, Bloomberg says Chinese company Baowu – the world’s biggest steel producer – has “sounded the alarm about an industry crisis in China that carries the potential to ripple around the globe and plunge the sector into a deeper downturn”. The outlet adds that “global investors are lasered onto China’s struggling economy…For commodities including steel, the warning from Baowu underscores risks to demand and prices, as well as what ArcelorMittal SA, the industry No 2, called an ‘aggressive’ surge of exports from China”. The Daily Telegraph reports that Chinese automaker Zeeker “has claimed to have developed the world’s fastest-charging electric car battery”. Another Bloomberg report says Tongwei – one of China’s largest solar manufacturers – plans to merge with rival company, Jiangsu Runergy New Energy. The deal, once completed, will be the “largest merger in the history of the solar industry”, economic news outlet Jiemian reports. Semafor reports on a 100GW solar power project in the desert of Inner Mongolia, which it says is, “even by China’s standards, audacious in scale and, most remarkably, in ambition”. China’s embrace of “electricity-driven high-speed rail” and EVs means that “gasoline sales are no longer getting their usual bump from holiday travel”, says Bloomberg. 

Brazil’s Folha de São Paulo examines the factors influencing wildfires across the nation. The newspaper points out that voluntary firemen brigades have to undergo “constant fights” to extinguish fires in the Amazon rainforest. In 2023, the outlet says, the brigades faced a “surge” in forest fires in western Pará state “and now they’re preparing for another difficult year”. It adds that a rapid attribution study – covered by Carbon Brief last week – published by the World Weather Attribution service indicated that human-caused climate change made this year’s Pantanal wetland fires four and five times more likely.

In other Latin American news, Mexico’s El Universal reports that the nation has the “potential for attracting $50bn in renewable energy investments by 2050”, according to estimates by the Mexican Association of Wind Energy. The association’s president tells the newspaper that the outlook is due to “the country’s growing needs”.

Germany’s steelmakers are “beset with problems”, with the sector’s “green transformation” currently a threat to competitiveness, argues a Lex comment piece in the Financial Times. The article highlights Thyssenkrupp Steel, which is undertaking a switch from coal to renewable hydrogen, as being “a costly proposition”. Over time, however, the higher cost of the steel this will produce –  the “green premium” – will fall as carbon prices rise and hydrogen prices fall, the article notes. A bigger concern for the industry is “green” steel produced in parts of the world that benefit from cheaper renewables, such as the Middle East, notes Lex. “While decarbonisation, employment and strategic independence may be desirable political objectives, ‘forever’ subsidies will prove a high cost to pay”, the article concludes. 

In other comment, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, international business editor of the Daily Telegraph, argues that “unencumbered by the [EU’s] de facto ban, the UK has an opportunity to become a global leader in cell-grown meat”.

Fracking wells contributed more than 85% of the hundreds of billions of tonnes of salts produced by oil and gas wells in North America from 2005-19, according to a new study. Oil and gas extraction “generates substantial volumes of highly saline wastewater”, the study outlines, which poses “environmental concerns”. The researchers introduce two parameters to “better assess” the environmental impact of this wastewater. Analysing a database of 620,000 wells in the US and Canada, they find that more than 355bn tonnes of salts were produced from 2005-19. Projections suggest that more than 1.5tn tonnes of salts will be produced by wells from 2019-50, “predominantly” from fracking, the study adds. The study methods – “alongside considerations of disposal options, water availability, treatment technologies and costs” – can help to evaluate “industry sustainability”, the researchers write.