A Philippines-flagged tanker carrying 1.4m litres of oil has capsized off the coast of the Philippine capital, Manila, “prompting fears of the worst oil spill in the country’s history”, reports Al Jazeera. It continues: “Transportation secretary Jaime Bautista said 16 of the 17 crew members were rescued after the MT Terra Nova went down on Thursday morning, amid heavy rains and rough seas due to Typhoon Gaemi…Bautista said there ‘is already an oil spill’, but strong winds and high waves were hampering the response. The Philippine coastguard said an aerial survey showed an oil slick stretching about 3.7km (2.3 miles) in the busy waterway and being driven by strong waves.” The Guardian notes that “authorities have not directly linked the capsizing to the typhoon, which passed through the area on Wednesday and brought torrential rain and high seas, but were investigating ‘if there was an existing weather disturbance in the vicinity waters’”. 

BBC News says that the coastguard is “preparing to deploy floating barriers and suction hoses to contain an oil spill and prevent it from reaching the capital”. The outlet quotes an environmental sciences expert at Mindanao State University, who said that the amount of oil the vessel was carrying would warrant the issuance of the country’s highest oil spill alert: “Manila Bay is where the Port of Manila is, the biggest port in the Philippines and the centre of trade and economic activity. This could possibly paralyse the capital and the neighbouring areas.” Both Sky News and BBC News carry footage of the capsized tanker. The Independent reports that Typhoon Gaemi – which it says is “the first powerful tropical storm of the season” – has flooded “swathes of the capital and its surroundings”. Sky News says the storm has caused the deaths of 22 people in the Philippines, largely due to heavy flooding and landslides, and three people in Taiwan. CNN says “the widespread and destructive flooding has put fresh scrutiny on the Philippines’ ability to respond to disasters”. Gaemi subsequently made landfall on China’s south-eastern coast yesterday evening, says the Associated Press (see more below).

Energy news outlet BJX News reports that, between January and June 2024, China has added a total of 102.48 gigawatts (GW) of solar installations, of which centralised solar plants make up 48%, according to data released by the National Energy Administration. By the end of June, the country’s total solar capacity reached 712.93GW, the outlet adds. Wang Bohua, head of China the Photovoltaic Industry Association, is quoted by Bloomberg calling for coordinated efforts to push “struggling solar manufacturers to exit the market… to reduce severe overcapacity”. Economic newspaper National Business Daily also quotes him saying that solar exports will continue to see the trend of “falling prices and rising volume”.

Meanwhile, state-owned Beijing Energy International Holding is looking to “team up with new investors to purchase several solar farms in Australia” as it seeks to “satisfy regulatory concerns, Reuters reports. The Financial Times investment column Lex says the falling shares of China’s largest wind turbine makers “reflect concerns about overcapacity at home and obstacles to global growth”, but “the sector has a formidable cost advantage”. In an interview with business newspaper 21 Economic News, Xia Yingxian, the head of the climate office at China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, says China’s carbon trading scheme (ETS) is becoming more “active” and its effect on “pushing industrial decarbonisation” is “showing”. China Energy Net reports that the energy and chemical industries have formed the country’s first “carbon footprint alliance” that aims to “promote accurate carbon accounting and application in the industry chain”.

Elsewhere, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has raised the subsidy for purchasing new energy vehicles to 20,000 yuan ($2,766), China Securities Journal reports. NDRC has also laid out plans to “support the scrapping and renewal of large-scale equipment and consumer goods” to help key industries such as logistics make their switch to “energy saving, carbon cutting solutions”, according to BJX News. State news agency Xinhua says the Ministry of Commerce is “concerned over planned protectionist measures by the EU in the biodiesel industry” and warned that “such measures will backfire”.

In weather-related news, the Ministry of Transport has raised the emergency response for Typhoon Gaemi to level 2, the second-highest level, as the typhoon – the third this year – made landfall in Fujian, state newspaper China Daily reports. Reuters says that Typhoon Gaemi “roared into south-eastern China on Thursday after churning across the Taiwan Strait, prompting warnings of swelling rivers, flash floods and waterlogging in cities and provinces that were hit by extreme rains just several weeks ago”. The newswire adds: “Ahead of its arrival, 240,800 people in Fujian were evacuated. Despite slightly weakening since its landfall in Fujian’s Putian, a city of over three million [people], Gaemi and its giant cloud-bands are forecast to unleash intense rainfall in at least 10 Chinese provinces in the coming days. The arrival of Gaemi has drawn comparisons with Typhoon Doksuri last year, which triggered historic flooding as far north as Beijing and caused nationwide losses of nearly $30bn.” The New York Times says that, as of this morning, “some weather stations in Fujian reported more than 1.6 feet [427mm] of rainfall since Wednesday. Forecasters said that other parts of the country could see as much as 2.6 feet [792mm] of rain”. 

Elsewhere, Beijing is also on “orange alert”, the second highest emergency level, for rainstorms after the “highest precipitation has been recorded in Beijing’s suburban Fangshan district”, Xinhua reports. Another Xinhua report says that China is “mobilising nationwide efforts to combat torrential rains”. And a third Xinhua article says Chinese president Xi Jinping yesterday “chaired a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee to study and arrange work related to flood control and disaster relief”. As “extreme weather events become more frequent”, China has stepped up its use of “technology such as satellites and radar” to monitor natural disasters and aid in relief and reconstruction efforts, reports Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post. 

Wildfires have forced more than 25,000 people to evacuate from the Canadian tourist destination of Jasper as the blaze has spread through the national park, causing “significant loss” within the local town, reports BBC News. Hundreds of wildfires have sparked in the western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, the outlet says, as the “region has been hit by more than 58,000 lightning strikes within the last week, sparking new blazes after a three-week heatwave”. It continues: “Around 1,900 Alberta firefighters have been deployed, assisted by personnel from Alaska and Australia, and are working to save local infrastructure. That includes the Trans Mountain Pipeline, a Canadian government-owned pipeline that runs through Jasper National Park. As of Wednesday it was still operating, with sprinklers being used to protect it.” In a briefing yesterday, Pierre Martel, the director of fire management for Parks Canada, the national parks agency, said that the “aggressive and fast-moving fire” was still burning in the park, reports the New York Times. Martel added that flames from the fire have reached as high as 100 metres: “It’s just a monster at that point…There are no tools we have in our toolbox to deal with that. You get out of the way, you retreat and you do what you can to protect communities and infrastructure.” The Guardian quotes Alberta’s premier, Danielle Smith, who said: “We have all seen on the news and social media that horrific pictures and videos coming out of Jasper, homes and businesses have been lost to a wildfire that people are calling a ‘wall’ of flames…There is no denying that this is the worst nightmare for any community.” Smith said that 30% to 50% of the town’s structures are potentially damaged or destroyed, notes CNN. Al Jazeera reports that Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau confirmed yesterday that his government had approved Alberta’s request for federal assistance. In the Conversation, an academic writes that the Jasper fire is a “grim reminder of the urgency of adopting a Canadian national wildfire strategy”. The Times and Washington Post also have the story, while the New York Times also reports that “a raging wildfire in northern California known as the Park fire has ballooned to more than 120,000 acres, quickly becoming the largest in the state so far this year”. And a CNN “fast facts” article says that “a warming climate and dry conditions have contributed to longer, more intense wildfire seasons in the US over the last several years”.

Reporting on the formal launch of a new state-run GB Energy company, the Guardian leads with prime minister Keir Starmer’s pledge “to take on Labour MPs and councils that try to block pylon networks delivering a planned new generation of clean electricity”. It continues: “Speaking at a wind turbine factory on the edge of Widnes, Cheshire, Starmer set out the plan to build enough offshore wind turbines over the next five years to power 20m homes, part of a tie-up with the crown estate… [He] was asked if he could guarantee ministers would push for power to be distributed using overground lines, rather than underground or undersea cables, which are much more expensive and take considerably longer to build.” Starmer responded that “we will take the tough decisions to make this work”, adding: “That will include decisions on planning, where we intend to make the necessary changes. And that will apply everywhere, whatever the rosette on the constituency, because we have to move this forward.” Starmer argued that, without radical action, planning delays for wind farms and electricity networks would mean it “takes 30 years before we get the power”, reports Politico. Starmer added that he wants to make progress after a “decade of lost opportunity”, the outlet notes. The Times also has the story.

In further reporting, the Independent reports that Starmer also promised that household energy bills will come down as a result of the plan, although it notes that energy secretary Ed Miliband “declined to give a timeline”. It adds that Miliband admitted it is “going to take time” for the new energy firm to make money, but it would start generating returns “within the lifetime of this parliament”. The Daily Telegraph’s story leads with this admission that GB Energy “could take five years to turn a profit”. MailOnline accuses Starmer of “flip-flopping” on an election pledge to cut bills by £300 because “Downing Street pointedly refused to repeat the cash figure that [Starmer] had used during the campaign”. In its print edition, the Daily Mail reports in a frontpage story that shadow energy minister Claire Coutinho accused Labour of “lying” to the public over the £300 figure. The Daily Express also picks up the story. The Financial Times says that the proposed partnership between GB Energy and the Crown Estate to accelerate the building of thousands of offshore wind turbines “raises questions” about the future of the UK wind sector. It explains that “proposals for GB Energy to carry out development work for offshore wind projects, such as scoping out the seabed and navigating the planning process, triggered some concern among industry about the state potentially taking too big a role in a market which has been broadly successful so far”. Sky News notes that the government said it would “lead energy projects through development stages to make them go faster, then give them back to private firms, while keeping a stake to get a return for the public purse”.

As part of yesterday’s announcement, Miliband appointed British-Austrian businessman Jürgen Maier – who previously headed up wind turbine producer Siemens UK – to run GB Energy, reports the Daily Telegraph. The newspaper leads with the assertion that Maier is a “leading critic of Brexit”, who has “warned before Britain’s departure from the European Union that quitting would hit the country’s economy like a ‘slow puncture’, making it far harder for British companies to export their products”. BusinessGreen also has the story (without the Brexit angle). In his comments yesterday, Starmer also insisted that the government will not force people to remove their gas boilers as part of its net-zero plans, reports another Daily Telegraph article. He said the green transition was “not about barreling down on individuals and imposing a disproportionate burden on them”, before adding: “I am not going to tell people what to do with their boilers.” The Daily Telegraph’s parliamentary sketchwriter describes Starmer and Miliband as “none other than Wallace and Gromit”, referring to the plasticine duo that feature in a series of stop-motion animation films. BBC News asks whether “oil capital” Aberdeen will be the home of GB Energy. It says: “Aberdeen has a historic claim to be the UK’s energy centre. But is it the future? Possibly not, if the main role of an HQ is to recruit financiers with experience of doing big deals between the public and private sector on infrastructure projects.” And another BBC News article reports that Plaid Cymru has said that money raised from the Welsh seabed used for energy schemes should directly benefit Welsh communities and “not Westminster”. 

In a speech yesterday, UN secretary general António Guterres warned that people around the world are struggling with the fatal impacts of worsening extreme heat, which is also damaging economies, widening inequalities and undermining green development, reports Climate Home News. Speaking to journalists at UN headquarters in New York, Guterres said “billions of people are facing an extreme heat epidemic – wilting under increasingly deadly heatwaves”, the outlet reports. He described extreme heat – driven by “fossil fuel-charged, human-induced climate change” – as “the new abnormal” and said it is estimated to kill almost half a million people a year. Guterres was setting out a new UN “call for action” that brings together 10 specialised UN agencies for the first time “in an urgent and concerted push to strengthen international cooperation in addressing extreme heat”, says Climate Home News. Guterres also warned that the world’s wealthiest countries are “signing away our future” by leading a “flood” of expansion in fossil fuel activity, reports the Guardian. He said: “I must call out the flood of fossil fuel expansion we are seeing in some of the world’s wealthiest countries…In signing such a surge of new oil and gas licences, they are signing away our future. The leadership of those with the greatest capabilities and capacities is essential. Countries must phase out fossil fuels – fast and fairly.”

The Drax power station in Selby, North Yorkshire, has secured a high court injunction against would-be environmental activists on and around its site “after a police tip-off about a planned protest camp”, reports the Press Association. The newswire continues: “Lawyers for the company said that North Yorkshire Police had advised it to seek an injunction following a ‘specific threat of imminent environmental protest’ by the campaign group Reclaim the Power, which was ‘supported, or at least endorsed’ by fellow campaign group Axe Drax.” In written submissions, Timothy Morshead KC, representing Drax Power, said a “protest camp” had been advertised as taking place between 8 and 13 August at an undisclosed location at the site, the article says, adding that there was a “real and credible risk” that protesters could affect the power station, including by trespassing on the site, cutting or “locking on” to its fencing, or obstructing trains which bring biomass materials to it. The injunction will be reviewed in 12 months, the newswire says – noting that “no protesters attended the hearing in London and they were not represented”.

In other protest news, BBC News reports that two Just Stop Oil activists who threw soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting have been found guilty of criminal damage. The outlet continues: “Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland, both 22, launched the contents of two tins of tomato soup onto the painting at the National Gallery in central London, later glueing their hands to the wall beneath it. The gallery previously said the gold-coloured frame of the glass-covered painting was damaged in the October 2022 attack.” At Southwark Crown Court, Judge Christopher Hehir told the pair to be “prepared in practical and emotional terms to go to prison” when they are sentenced on 27 September, the article says. Hehir added that the pair “came within the width of a pane of glass of destroying one of the most valuable artworks in the world”. Reuters also has the story. In related comment, Ella Whelan – a columnist at online magazine Spiked, which has often provided a platform to those opposed to action on climate change – writes in the Daily Telegraph that young JSO protestors are a product of “so-called progressive, gentle, middle-class parenting [that] is creating a generation of spoilt brats”. 

There is widespread criticism of the Labour government’s newly launched state-run energy company in right-leaning newspapers. In its lead editorial, the Daily Mail describes GB Energy as “a giant, publicly owned quango” and a “green dream turned delusion”. It continues: “It is extraordinary that self-professed socialist politicians believe they can swoop in and run a highly specialised energy business better than the professionals. GB Energy’s raison d’etre is to build more wind and solar farms by encouraging and subsidising new investment. But there are two insurmountable problems. First, expecting our power-hungry nation to be reliant on renewables for all our electricity within six years is simply unfeasible. And the quango’s £8.3bn budget over five years is a drop in the ocean compared to the colossal sums needed to achieve net-zero.” [The aim of the £8.3bn in state funding is that it will attract £60bn of funding from other investors.] While attacking the “headlong dash to clean power”, the Daily Mail adds, without irony, that it “fiercely believes in the duty to safeguard the planet for our children”. Today’s Daily Mail also features a double-page spread on GB Energy. One half is given to Daily Mail commentator Alex Brummer, who says he fears “Starmer and Miliband are creating a taxpayer-funded white elephant that will decimate our energy security”. The other half is a news feature on how King Charles “is expected to earn millions from Great British Energy’s deal with the Crown Estate”. 

Elsewhere, an editorial in the Daily Telegraph says the government is “exposing taxpayers directly to the success or failure of speculative renewable schemes”. The newspaper says that “if these projects were economically viable, would the private sector itself not be enthusiastic about supporting them without a partnership with government or considerable taxpayer support?”. [A 2023 report found that G20 countries spent $1.4tn subsidising fossil fuels in 2022.] The editorial concludes: “Doubts have also been raised about the government’s wider aim of decarbonising the grid by 2030. Many experts consider that it is unachievable, at any price. But instead of listening to criticism, ministers are ploughing ahead with an ideological approach that could cost British voters and industry dearly. They cannot say they haven’t been warned.” Today’s print edition of the Daily Telegraph also includes a column (not yet online) from climate-sceptic Conservative peer Peter Lilley, who describes Ed Miliband as a “climate alarmist” and says the plans for GB Energy are “too good to be true”. The Times financial editor Patrick Hosking writes that GB Energy “has likely losses written all over it”, adding: “It wants to back the development of untested early-stage green technologies, which is when the risks and costs are greatest and the potential rewards furthest away. If it really gives Britain a lasting competitive edge in new industries such as carbon capture or hydrogen, then the seed money will be worth it. But expect write-offs galore.” 

In related comment, an editorial in the Sun attacks Ed Miliband for saying Just Stop Oil is “disastrous” because it is “alienating” the public. It continues: “True, but it hasn’t been disastrous politically, has it, Ed? The real aim of JSO’s serial criminality is to bully weak politicians into ­surrendering to its ‘demands’ – the first being the banning of new North Sea oil and gas licences. And Miliband himself has done just that.” And Conservative MP Greg Smith criticises Miliband in an article for Daily Express for recently approving three new solar farms and “treating our beautiful UK countryside like a building site”.

A new study finds that the Southern Ocean may be taking up 25% more CO2 than previously thought. Using measurements of the CO2 exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere from seven Southern Ocean research cruises, alongside other datasets, researchers model the total CO2 uptake around Antarctica from November to April. They find that ocean models and other datasets “considerably underestimate the observed CO2 uptake”, which they say “may be due to the lack of representation of small-scale high-flux events”. They conclude that higher resolution is needed when making CO2 flux estimates in order to accurately quantify the fluxes.

By implementing ambitious climate policies at both the state and federal levels, the US could cut its total emissions by nearly two-thirds in the coming decade, according to new research. Using integrated assessment models, researchers project US greenhouse gas emissions under existing policies, such as the Inflation Reduction Act, and under a high-ambition scenario. They find that the current policies will reduce US emissions by 44%, compared to 2005 levels, while the high-ambition scenario – which includes “accelerated implementation of federal regulations and investments, as well as state policies such as renewable portfolio standards, EV sales targets and zero-emission appliance standards” – can cut emissions by 65%.