The world’s wealthiest countries, including the US and the UK, are “leading a stampede of fossil fuel expansion in spite of their climate commitments”, the Guardian reports on its frontpage. It says new oil and gas exploration in 2024 “threatens to unleash nearly 12bn tonnes of planet-heating emissions”. It continues: “The new oil and gas field licences forecast to be awarded across the world this year are on track to generate the highest level of emissions since those issued in 2018, as heatwaves, wildfires, drought and floods cause death and destruction globally, according to analysis of industry data by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).” The newspaper adds: “Classic ‘petrostates’ such as Saudi Arabia or Russia – which rely heavily on oil and gas revenues to balance their budgets – have faced criticism for slowing action on the climate crisis. Yet countries including the UK, the US, Canada, Norway and Australia are increasingly being thought of by some experts as the ‘other petrostates’, given they have access to financial and technological resources that would make the energy transition less disruptive.” A related Guardian feature explores “how the US became the world’s biggest fossil fuel state”, with another Guardian article asking: “[S]hould climate hypocrites get the petrostates label?” A comment for the Guardian by Tessa Khan, executive director of Uplift, is titled: “It’s easy to blame petrostates – but self-proclaimed ‘climate leaders’ like the US and UK are driving the crisis.”

Monday was the world’s hottest day on record, breaching the previous high for absolute temperature that had been set a day earlier, the Associated Press reports. It continues: “There’s a good chance that when the data comes in for Tuesday, it will be three straight days of global record breaking heat, said Carlo Buontempo, the director of the European climate service Copernicus…This is human-caused climate change in action, according to Buontempo and other scientists.” It adds: “Some scientists worry that human-caused climate change is accelerating. Buontempo said the high temperatures in recent days are consistent with that idea, but that it is too soon to reach that conclusion.” The New York Times, the Guardian, CBC News, CBS News, Al Jazeera and BBC News all report the story, while the records are covered in more detail in Carbon Brief’s new “state of the climate” update. A Financial Times “big read” looks at the “dangerous effects of rising sea temperatures”.

There has not been any progress in reducing chronic hunger over the past three years, the Daily Telegraph says, citing a report from five UN agencies that it says is “throwing the plan to end world hunger by 2030 into doubt”. The newspaper quotes Asma Lateef, chief of policy and advocacy at the SDG2 Advocacy Hub, saying: “It’s clear that we’re not making sufficient progress towards the 2030 goals. But what worries me more is the implications of climate change, we have no idea when and how things will evolve.” It also quotes David Laborde, director of agri food economics division at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO): “Laborde said governments should prioritise a ‘strong convergence’ when investing in mitigating the effects of climate change and food security. ‘We are not connecting the dots properly,’ said Laborde. ‘Agriculture is on the front line of climate change, but we are not spending money on it.’” The Financial Times reports: “Levels of hunger are set to remain ‘shamefully’ high, UN officials said as the multilateral organisation published a report that predicts almost 600 million people will be undernourished by 2030.” It quotes Maximo Torero, FAO chief economist, saying small-scale farmers in poor countries need more funding to adapt to climate change: “Why today [does] only 3% of climate financing goes to agriculture and agri food systems?” The newspaper adds: “At successive COP climate conferences, agriculture has been portrayed as ‘the bad sector’, [Torero] said. ‘They forget the fact that agriculture is the one that provides food to people.’” Reuters reports: “The annual State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report said around 733 million people faced hunger in 2023 – one in 11 people globally and one in five in Africa – as conflict, climate change and economic crises take their toll.” It adds: “‘We are in a worse situation today than nine years ago when we launched this goal to eradicate hunger by 2030,’ [the FAO’s Laborde] told Reuters, saying challenges such as climate change and regional wars had grown more severe than envisaged even a decade ago.”

The world’s demand for coal is expected to remain “broadly flat” over the next two years, BusinessGreen reports, citing a new report from the International Energy Agency. It says that “​​surging electricity demand in a number of major economies offsets the ongoing rapid expansion of solar and wind capacity worldwide”, according to the agency. The outlet quotes Keisuke Sadamori, the IEA’s director of energy markets and security, saying: “The continued rapid deployment of solar and wind, combined with the recovery of hydropower in China, is putting significant pressure on coal use. But the electricity sector is the main driver of global coal demand, and electricity consumption is growing very strongly in several major economies. Without such rapid growth in electricity demand, we would be seeing a decline in global coal use this year. And the structural trends at work mean that global coal demand is set to reach a turning point and start declining soon.” Reuters and Mining Weekly also have the story.

The UK’s newly created state-owned energy company, Great British Energy, is to work with the Crown Estate, which owns most of the country’s seabed, to help speed the development of offshore windfarms, the Press Association reports. The newswire says: “Ministers laid out fresh details on what GB Energy will do with its £8.3bn of funding over the next five years, as the Great British Energy Bill is introduced to Parliament on Thursday. The company is set to lead energy projects through development stages to speed up the process, before returning them to private ownership but maintaining a stake. It could, however, become an operator of such projects over time. Leading the development of green power projects will come alongside GB Energy’s previously announced role of acting as a co-investor on schemes with private sector firms.” BBC News says the partnership with the Crown Estate “will lead to between 20GW [gigawatts] and 30GW of new offshore wind reaching seabed lease stage by 2030, the government said”. The Financial Times reports: “The UK’s fledgling state-owned energy company will work with the Crown Estate to support the development of offshore wind and other clean technology projects, which ministers claim will help leverage up to £60bn of private investment. GB Energy, due to be set up in coming months under new legislation, will take steps to get projects off the ground, including by potentially taking a small stake to reduce private investors’ risk.” The Times reports the news on its frontpage, under the print headline: “Labour plans thousands of offshore wind turbines.” It says: “Officials will also look at how GB Energy could join forces with Great British Nuclear, a public body that helps bring forward nuclear energy projects, and support local generation projects through partnerships with local councils.” The Guardian reports: “Keir Starmer will promise to build enough offshore wind over the next five years to power 20m homes, by using taxpayer money to develop parts of the seabed owned by the royal family.” The Daily Telegraph says: “The current danger from climate change justifies the biggest taxpayer investment in wind and solar farms in British history, the government will say on Thursday.” The Daily Express, BusinessGreen, i newspaper, Independent and Daily Mail all cover the news.

China has revealed an “action plan on the green development of data centres, specifying a set of targets to accelerate the low-carbon transition of the sector”, Xinhua reports. The state news agency adds that the plan sets goals for the country’s average power usage effectiveness (PUE) of data centres to be “lowered to less than 1.5” by 2025. Industry news outlet BJX News also covers the story, adding that the government said that data centres will be encouraged to “increase the utilisation rate of renewable energy”. Energy news outlet International Energy Net says that the new plan sets a target of data centres’ “average PUE and energy and carbon efficiency per unit [of computing power]” reaching “internationally advanced levels” by the end of 2030. Another International Energy Net report says that China released a special action plan for energy saving and carbon reduction for China’s aluminium industry, which encourages companies to “expand their use” of non-fossil energies. The Communist party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily reports that Asia’s largest direct air capture (DAC) device for CO2 has “successfully passed full-load reliability operation verification for its 100-tonne module” in China, marking an “important breakthrough”. China’s environment ministry announced that it “blacklisted” five environmental impact assessment entities in the first six months of 2024, China Energy Net reports. Another People’s Daily article says the standing committee for the main advisory body to the Communist party is carrying out research on “science and technology innovation and ecological construction to promote the development of new productive forces”. 

Reuters reports that “coal-fired power plants generated 59.6% of China’s total electricity output during the opening half of 2024”, according to data from the thinktank Ember, which is the “first time on record that coal produced less than 60% of the country’s total electricity during that period”. State newspaper China Daily covers the launch of a report by the State Grid Energy Research Institute, which finds that “China’s utilisation of renewable energy has either reached or exceeded advanced international levels”.

Elsewhere, China Daily reports that recent torrential rainfall in many parts of China has “triggered several secondary disasters”, prompting “transportation authorities to launch urgent nationwide inspections of roads and waterways to swiftly identify and mitigate risks”. Xinhua reports that more than 13,400 people have been affected by “heavy rains” in one city in north-western Gansu province.

The government-run outlet China Environment News quotes National People’s Congress Standing Committee vice-chairman Ding Zhongli saying at the Ministerial on Climate Action in China that “climate change is a major issue concerning the sustainable development of all humanity and requires joint efforts from all countries”. Xinhua reports that Chinese president Xi Jinping sent a letter to the Sixth China-Russia Energy Business Forum saying that “energy cooperation between the two countries is increasingly mature, stable and resilient”. Another Xinhua article said that Chinese vice-premier Ding Xuexiang attended the forum, saying that “China-Russia energy cooperation has developed into a comprehensive, wide-ranging, deep, and high-level partnership”.

Microbes in tree bark play a “vital role in removing methane from the atmosphere”, the Guardian reports, citing new research. New Scientist says the study shows trees “have an extra climate benefit thanks to methane-eating microbes”. It reports: “Microbes living in the bark of trees are absorbing methane from the air, making trees about 10% better for the climate than previously thought.” Bloomberg, the Daily Telegraph and a Nature “news and views” article also cover the findings. The researchers behind the work describe their findings in an article for the Conversation. Meanwhile, BusinessGreen reports: “Restoring tree cover to areas that have previously been deforested may be far more cost-effective undertaking for combatting climate change and reversing nature loss than previously thought, according to a new ‘first-of-its-kind’ scientific study.” It adds: “Published today in the journal Nature Climate Change, the research assesses the carbon removal potential and costs associated with reforestation projects, and finds that in many cases the opportunities for low cost climate action offered by such projects have been vastly underestimated.”

The UK’s record-breaking year in 2023 could be seen as a “cool year” by the end of the century, the Press Association reports, citing a study from the Met Office. The newswire says: “In this year’s report, the researchers gave more focus to how individual high-impact weather events are increasing in frequency and intensity. The new analysis showed the UK is seeing, on average, more frequent periods of hot weather and an increase in extreme rainfall, bringing challenges for infrastructure, health and wellbeing.” It quotes lead author Mike Kendon saying 2023 “will be a fairly average year by the middle of the century and actually a fairly cool year by the end of the century”. BBC News says: “Climate change is dramatically increasing the frequency of extreme high temperatures in the UK, new Met Office analysis has confirmed.” It adds: “The State of the Climate report finds 2023 was the seventh wettest year on records going back to 1836. March, July, October and December were all amongst the top-ten wettest for the same month in the series. It is these weather extremes – of heat or rainfall – that have the biggest impact on people, says Prof Liz Bentley, the chief executive of the Royal Meteorology Society.” BusinessGreen says a “spate of UK climate records” were “sent tumbling” in 2023. The Guardian says water temperatures around the UK last year were the warmest on record. The Daily Mail covers the story with a headline saying scientists “blame[d] global warming” for the UK’s record heatwaves, rainfall and rising sea levels in 2023.

The Mexican government allocated more than £1bn (24bn Mexican pesos) for the Maya Train – a new tourist and cargo train line that runs in a loop around the Yucatan Peninsula – with funds originally earmarked for addressing climate change, according to El Universal. Mexico’s ministry of finance and public credit last year redirected more than £4bn (95bn Mexican pesos) to the ministry of tourism from the climate change budget, the newspaper adds. Also in Mexico, the National Institute for Transparency has requested the National Water Commission to share information on climate change impacts on agriculture, livestock, and fisheries following a citizen’s complaint for not receiving the information, Excélsior reports.

In other Latin American news, Folha de São Paulo reports that the EU donated more than £16m ($120m Brazilian reals) to the Amazon Fund, totalling £534m ($3.9bn Brazilian reals) for Amazon conservation. The funds will be used to combat organised crime in the Amazon, through drones, ships and helicopters, says Aloizio Mercadante, president of the Brazilian Development Bank, cited by the outlet. Additionally, the resources will be allocated to Indigenous communities for forest conservation. Meanwhile, In Chile, climate change has caused the 5,400-metre-high El Plomo mountain in the Andes mountain range to undergo glacier retreat and thawing permafrost, according to Reuters. Local guides and mountain rescue workers have witnessed these changes and the impacts on the region’s water cycle, the newswire notes.

In a commentary for El Comercio, sociologist Fernando Bravo writes that inhabitants of Peru’s Altiplano Puneño are migrating because of “persistent droughts”, extreme temperatures, poor harvests and water stress. Bravo cites a study by the Observatory of Internal Displacement that states that 656,000 Peruvians migrated because of “natural phenomena” between 2008 and 2019. In a comment article in La Nación, economist Alieto Guadagni writes that clean energy has not yet been able to reduce coal, oil and gas consumption. Guadagni argues in favour of mobilising “large investments” in low-emission technologies and local production of clean energy, as well as the collaboration of the largest polluting countries.

Climate activists have taken part in a “wave of protests” across Europe under the banner “oil kills”, the Guardian reports, adding that the action has “grounded flights…as holidaymakers attempt to make summer getaways”. It says protests took place in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Spain and Finland, while in the UK 10 Just Stop Oil activists were arrested on suspicion of planning disruption at Heathrow airport. Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press also have the story. Euronews says: “Supporters of five climate protest groups took part in a set of coordinated actions at European airports on Wednesday…It comes as climate activists begin a summer of potential flight disruption around Europe calling for an end to fossil fuels.” It quotes Just Stop Oil saying yesterday’s actions were “just the start”. Reporting in UK media focuses on the arrests at Heathrow, with BBC News saying operations at the airport were “continuing as usual”. It says: “Earlier this month, the high court granted an injunction prohibiting anyone from entering, occupying or remaining on London Heathrow Airport land in connection with environmental campaigns, without consent. Anyone breaching the injunction might be jailed, fined or have their assets seized for contempt of court.” The Daily Telegraph, Independent, Daily Mail and Press Association all cover the arrests and the protests across Europe.

The Basic group of Brazil, South Africa, India and China has issued a joint statement accusing rich countries of leaving a “leadership void” on climate change, Reuters reports. It continues: “Ministers from the four countries met in Wuhan, China, earlier this week, and expressed concern that industrialised nations were ‘backtracking’ on their climate pledges, according to a joint statement published by China’s environment ministry. They called on developed countries to set ambitious new targets to reach net-zero ‘significantly ahead of 2050 (and) preferably by 2030’ and to achieve ‘net-negative’ emissions immediately after that, the statement said.” 

Elsewhere, another Reuters article says: “Brazil and the US will unveil a joint climate transition initiative, Brazilian finance minister Fernando Haddad said on Wednesday, after earlier meeting with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.” And Cipher news carries an interview with Rahman Mustafayev, ambassador from Azerbaijan to the Netherlands, “shar[ing] his thoughts about the UN climate summit in November, called COP29, which will be hosted by his home country”.

Drivers need more attractive support packages to incentivise the shift to electric vehicles in the UK, the car industry has said, BBC News reports. It says: “The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said support packages were needed to make the electric vehicles (EV) switch more attractive and affordable. It comes as figures reveal EV production, which includes hybrids, dropped 7.6% in the first half of 2024.” It continues: “The new Labour government has pledged to restore the petrol and diesel ban to 2030, after previous prime minister Rishi Sunak pushed it back to 2035…SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said UK firms were split over whether restoring the 2030 deadline was a good or bad plan.” The Times and the Press Association also report on the drop in car production.

Former US president Donald Trump’s promises to “bolster fossil fuels and weaken environmental agencies [has drawn] support from powerful oil-and-gas backers”, the Wall Street Journal reports. It says a series of donations from oil billionaires “make the magnates among some of Trump’s biggest donors and represent an increase from past election cycles”. An article in the Economist is titled: “Donald Trump’s promise of a golden age for oil is fanciful.” It says: “There is not much he could do to boost fossil fuels – or rein in clean energy.” Meanwhile, the New York Times looks at where vice-president Kamala Harris’s potential running mates stand on climate change: “Possible contenders to join the Harris ticket include three governors who welcome clean energy and a senator concerned by extreme heat and drought.” E&E News has an article on “Harris’ go-to guy on climate”, Ike Irby. Bloomberg says: “As a 2019 presidential candidate, Kamala Harris pledged to ban fracking. Now Republicans are betting her opposition to the drilling technique will hurt her at the polls.” CNN reports: “[US] Environmental Protection Agency administrator Michael Regan is bullish on his agency’s prospects against the harshest headwinds in its history, as Republicans, anti-climate industry and an ultra-conservative Supreme Court take aim at its core mission.” An editorial in the Wall Street Journal looks at a broken wind turbine blade at an offshore windfarm off Nantucket. Finally, the Financial Times has a comment titled: “Investors should beware the unwinding of Biden’s economic legacy.”

Writing in the Guardian, UK energy and net-zero secretary Ed Miliband says his government, with the launch of GB Energy, is “making the case for 21st-century, modern public ownership that serves our communities”. He writes: “Every person and business has paid the price of our country’s energy insecurity. As Vladimir Putin sought to use energy as a weapon in his illegal invasion of Ukraine, bills went through the roof in a cost of living crisis unprecedented in modern times. As the Climate Change Committee (CCC) recently made clear, there is one obvious answer to preventing us being so exposed again – a sprint for homegrown clean energy.” He continues: “That is why our mission to make Britain a clean-energy superpower, with a fully decarbonised power system by 2030, is so important – and there is not a moment to lose.” Miliband concludes: “Great British Energy will prove the case for 21st-century, modern public ownership – a dynamic state in partnership with workers, industry and unions, serving communities with cheap, clean and more secure energy, and we’re doing it in a way that will deliver economic prosperity to every home, business and community across the UK. The new government is under no illusions about the scale of the challenge we face. This is a long-term plan, not a quick fix, but we believe we can galvanise the whole country behind this mission.”

An editorial in the Daily Mirror supports the Labour government’s GB Energy: “The future can be much better if GB Energy can silence those who screech that pursuing net-zero – cancelling out polluting carbon emissions – would wreck the economy. Because GB Energy is capable of reviving the economy, creating waves of new jobs and turbo-charging growth.” An editorial in the Daily Express is also supportive, saying of the GB Energy launch: “The dream of limitless clean affordable energy has roared closer.” It continues: “The conflict in Ukraine demonstrates why Britain must not remain dependent upon energy imported from unstable parts of the world.” The editorial concludes: “The future really will be brighter.” The Times has an editorial calling the government’s target for clean power by 2030 “delusional and reckless”. It says: “This country should carry out its policy of decarbonising electricity generation. But not, as Labour insists, by 2030.” The editorial also contains a shocking revelation, hitherto unrecognised by all except the Times leader writers: “The truth is that Britain, a country of 68 million people, cannot rely entirely on wind and solar.”

For the Financial Times, UK chief political commentator Robert Shrimsley writes about the lengthy prison sentences recently handed to Just Stop Oil protestors: “Stiff sentences for climate activists underscore the crucial distinction between protest and disruption.” He says: “Like others, I gasped initially at the sentences. However, I then read the judge’s remarks. The sentences are high partly to deter others but also because the five all have similar convictions that had been treated more leniently with fines or suspended sentences. All were on bail for other offences. The leader, Roger Hallam, was recently convicted for planning to disrupt Heathrow flights with drones. Some have argued for shorter or non-custodial sentences, but in the face of persistent defiance prison becomes the only option.” He continues: “The climate cause is pressing and widely supported but these protests could not effect change and instead alienated the public…There is a long history of civil disobedience, especially over denial of basic rights. The suffragettes, for example, were refused the vote. The five have a platform, a vote and even the Green party to vote for. But they use the rhetoric of a climate emergency to argue that electoral politics is inadequate to the challenge. This is the demagogue’s rationale.” Shrimsley concludes: “Just as good fences make good neighbours so clear boundaries protect essential freedoms. A liberal society requires defending from those who abuse its rights. You have the freedom to vandalise buildings, deface artwork or bring chaos to the roads. And you still have the freedom to take the consequences.” A letter to the Financial Times by Sophie Dembinski of tech firm Ecosia says: “The new government is expected to be bold and ambitious on climate action, yet with the public nuisance law remaining on the docket it will discourage real discourse when it comes to the climate crisis. It was absent from the king’s speech, but last week’s news must accelerate a scrapping of this law. This would send a signal to the international community that the UK can lead on climate mitigation, from the ground up.”

Meanwhile, an editorial in the Sun criticises the Just Stop Oil protestors that were arrested at Heathrow airport yesterday, saying: “It’s the arrogance that turns the stomach. Their contempt for the freedoms of ­fellow citizens. The repugnant self-importance of them believing that their ­climate panic trumps other people’s right to go to work, to a funeral, to ­hospital or on their summer holiday.” It adds: “Our justice system must continue its tough new line. Jurors and judges must not be confused like the millionaire celebs witlessly supporting JSO.” The editorial concludes: “Britain must inch towards net-zero at a pace which preserves our economy and living standards.” In the Daily Mail, Frank Furedi – an emeritus professor of sociology and writer at online magazine Spiked, which has often provided a platform to those opposed to action on climate change – writes that he is “delighted” by the lengthy jail terms recently handed to Just Stop Oil members planning a peaceful protest. In other comment, the Daily Telegraph finds space for veteran climate-sceptic commentator Bjorn Lomborg to write under the headline: “Net-zero will only make you poorer and China richer.”

In a comment for Scientific American, Jules Boykoff, a political scientist and author of a number of books on the Olympics, argues that – despite a pledge to make “sustainability a centrepiece of their enterprise” – the Paris games are instead a “recycled version of green capitalism that is oblivious in its incrementalism, vague with its methodology and loose with its accountability”. He writes: “It’s too late for Paris, but if the Olympic organisers truly want to be sustainable, the Games need to reduce their size, limit the number of tourists who travel from afar, thoroughly greenify their capacious supply chains and open up their eco-books for bona fide accountability. Until then, the Olympics are a greenwash, a pale bit of lip service delivered at a time when climatological facts demand a systematic transformation in splendid Technicolor.” Boykoff adds: “One academic study that investigated the sustainability of 16 different Olympic Games spanning 1992 through 2020 found that environmental follow-through has actually diminished over time. The four least sustainable Olympics – the Sochi 2014, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and London 2012 Games – were all recent.” Boykoff has a second comment article for the Los Angeles Times, with Dave Zirin, sports editor of the Nation. The article is headlined: “The Olympics promise to be socially responsible. How’s that working out?” 

In contrast, a comment for Reuters by Chris Hocknell, chief executive of consultancy Eight Versa, says: “The Paris Olympic Games has set a new standard in low-carbon sporting events. Yet the work is not finished; this should create a new model for future event organisers to build upon.” He continues: “This year, the Paris Olympic Committee has set the goal of having at least 50% fewer carbon emissions than previous events…Some 25% of emissions, from previous Olympics come from the built environment, hence why the Paris organisers are committed to having 95% of its stadiums as existing or temporary structures.” For the Conversation, Brian McCullough, an associate professor of sports management at the University of Michigan, writes under the headline: “Paris Olympics promote sustainability for good reason: Climate change is putting athletes and their sports at risk.” Another comment in the Conversation, by Anne de Bortoli, a member of Canada’s Net-Zero Advisory Body, says: “On paper, the Paris Olympics aim to halve the greenhouse gas emissions released by the Rio 2016 or London 2012 Games, estimated at an average 3.5m tonnes of CO2 equivalent. That’s with the caveat that both games were among the least environmentally friendly in history. There have also been criticisms of the methodology used to calculate emissions, prompting the International Olympics Committee to release a standardised carbon footprint calculation framework for the Olympic games in 2018.”

In related news coverage, Le Monde asks how the Paris organisers have prepared for heatwave risks following the “painful memory” of heatstroke and other impacts at the Tokyo games. MailOnline reports: “Thousands of air conditioning units have been ordered for the Olympic Village in Paris after a growing concern over heat in France. Athletes worried that temperatures in the Village could surpass 79F (26C) have ordered ‘around 2,500 AC units’ – despite the fact that the complex was built with the intention to go without air conditioning.”

“Large parts” of Asia will be at risk from dengue – a disease spread by mosquitoes – under future global warming, a new study finds. Using multiple climate models and scenarios, the researchers assess areas in Asia that could be impacted by dengue under different levels of future warming – ranging from 1.5-5C above pre-industrial temperatures. Almost half of metropolitan areas in Asia are already affected by the virus and this could increase to 71% under a 5C global temperature increase, the study finds. The researchers explain that dengue-carrying mosquitoes are moving to different locations in response to climate change. Parts of the Arabian Peninsula, southern Pakistan, Korean Peninsula, north China and others could be impacted by dengue under future warming levels, the researchers find.

People from ethnic and racial minority groups are “significantly overrepresented” in neighbourhoods hit by more frequent heatwaves each year in the US, according to a new study. Using a range of datasets including recorded heatwaves over 2005-22, the researchers analyse racial and ethnic disparities in the frequency of heatwaves and the resulting economic losses. The results show that most racial and ethnic minority groups are overrepresented in neighbourhoods experiencing more frequent heatwaves and higher expected economic losses from heatwaves in the US. The findings show that “specific racial/ethnic minority groups are disproportionately impacted by the consequences of heatwave occurrence”, the researchers write.