Unless the UK can rapidly deploy renewables, ensure nearly all cars sold are electric and fit heat pumps in 10% of homes, the country’s 2030 target to cut greenhouse gas emissions is at risk, reports the Financial Times. The latest annual report by the government’s independent advisor, the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC), which assesses the UK’s efforts to meet its climate ambitions (also covered in detail by Carbon Brief), finds that the new Labour government “urgently needs to reduce emissions across the transport, building, industry and agriculture sectors in order to meet its decarbonisation goals”, the article adds. The CCC says that only a third of the reductions required to meet these targets are currently covered by credible plans, the FT notes. This follows the “damning verdict” that the Conservative government left the UK “drastically off track to meet its international commitments”, reports the Guardian. Keir Starmer’s Labour party has already begun to take steps to cut the country’s emissions by lifting a de-facto ban on new onshore wind in England, greenlighting solar farms and dropping the legal defence of a proposed new coal mine, it continues. The new government also has plans to make landlords improve energy efficiency in their properties and to reinstate the 2030 phase-out date for sales of new petrol and diesel cars, it adds. The CCC’s report outlines 10 recommendations for action, including removing levies from electricity bills to encourage electrification in sectors like transport and heating, reports Reuters. The CCC says annual offshore wind installations must at least treble, onshore wind double and solar increase fivefold by 2030, the newswire adds. BusinessGreen publishes a collection of responses to the new report, including Prof Piers Forster, interim chair of the CCC, who says: “The country’s 2030 emissions reduction target is at risk. The new government has an opportunity to course-correct, but it will need to be done as a matter of urgency to make up for lost time. They are off to a good start.”

The environment was “front and centre” in the King’s Speech, written by the newly elected Labour government and delivered by King Charles yesterday, the Guardian reports. The new government “recognises the urgency of the global climate challenge”, the speech noted, and welcomed environmental, sustainability and energy concerns in nine out of the 40 policy bills proposed, the article continues. The speech noted that Great British (GB) Energy will be headquartered in Scotland, as a “nod towards the need for a “just transition” away from oil and gas to green jobs”, it adds. GB Energy, a publically owned renewable energy company, is set to be capitalised with £8.3bn and is one of the remaining major green financial commitments, following the reduction of investment in the Green Prosperity Plan, the article adds. GB Energy will “own, manage and operate clean power projects” across the UK, helping to fund existing and new clean technologies as well as working with local communities to develop renewable energy projects, reports BBC News. In his speech, the King said the legislation would “help the country achieve energy independence and unlock investment in energy infrastructure”, it adds. Further details about GB Energy will be confirmed in due course noted Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden, the article states. GB Energy will buy equity stakes for the taxpayer in energy projects and supply chains, reports the Daily Telegraph, with potential investments spanning supply, distribution, storage, emissions capture and other measures that could “speed up the green transition”. The article notes that GB Energy marks the first time the government will be a direct player in the energy market since the late 1980s, when the electricity industry and supplier British Gas were privatised. 

Beyond GB Energy, the King’s Speech also reaffirmed that the government will put into effect the National Wealth Fund (NWF), reports Edie. The NWF will function to provide strategic investment to growing industries, with an initial investment of £7.3bn being “split between electric vehicle battery manufacturing, low-carbon ports, low-carbon steelmaking, carbon capture and renewable hydrogen production”, it continues. The government hopes that the initial NWF investment will prompt private investments, generating over £21bn, it adds. BusinessGreen reports that new legislation announced in the speech will affirm plans to enable sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) production to decarbonise air travel. (Carbon Brief analysis has shown that SAFs will only reduce emissions by 0.8% by 2040.) The speech “positioned planning reforms at the heart of the new government’s economic strategy”, the article adds, included the introduction of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill which could help streamline approval processes for major infrastructure projects, such as wind farms and new transmission links. 

Amid extreme heat, Greece’s Culture Ministry has ordered the closure of the Acropolis in Athens for several hours in the middle of the day on Wednesday, reports the Associated Press. Hot air from Africa was forecast to “continue baking Greece for several more days and at least through Sunday”, with the heatwave peaking over Wednesday and Thursday and temperatures expected to reach 43C (109F), it adds. In Italy, the health ministry has placed 12 cities under the most severe heat warning within the country, reports the Daily Mail. In Croatia, the highest-ever temperatures have been recorded in the Adriatic Sea, while in Serbia the state power company reported record consumption due to the use of air-conditioning, it continues. The heatwave has triggered forest fires and dried up a lake for the first time in Serbia, Reuters reports. Vladimir Djurdjevic, a Belgrade-based meteorologist, tells Reuters, “at the moment, we are amid an extreme weather event, a heatwave characterised by its length and intensity,” adding that climate change could make such super-hot summers more frequent.

In Toronto, Canada, a clean-up effort is now underway after a strong of storms flooded parts of the city, cut power and stranded drivers, reports BBC News. Environment Canada reported that almost 100mm (4in) of rain fell in Toronto on Tuesday, surpassing the previous daily record set in 1941, the article notes. As of Wednesday morning, nearly 5,000 customers were still without power according to Toronto Hydro, down from 167,000 the previous day, it adds. Toronto Fire Services said it rescued 14 people from flooding on the highway, after flooding led to Don Valley Parkway which runs from the north of the city to the downtown area was closed due to flooding, reports the Associated Press. The article quotes deputy fire chief Jim Jessop, who told reporters: “We’re actively rescuing people that are trapped in their cars or on top of their cars. We are triaging based on life safety.” Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Olivia Chow, the city’s mayor, said the number of rainstorm days the city experiences is expected to increase significantly in coming years due to climate change, the New York Times notes. Rapper Drake’s Toronto mansion has been seriously flooded during the record-breaking storms in the city, reports the Guardian. 

Meanwhile, the US government has been urged to declare wildfire smoke and extreme heat major disasters, reports the Guardian. Fourteen state attorney generals are urging the federal government to recognise these as disasters, with the petition coming as millions of people in the south and north-east face excessive head advisories and large swathes of the western US and Canada battle ongoing wildfires, it says.

State news agency Xinhua reports that the installed capacity of China’s non-fossil fuel power generation exceeded 1.57bn kilowatts in 2023, surpassing coal for the first time in history, according to a report by the China Electric Power Planning and Engineering Institute (EPPEI). The Communist Party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily also cites the EPPEI’s report, saying that the length of transmission lines of 220 kilovolts and above in China reached 920,000km as of the end of 2023 – up 69.1% compare to 2013 – which has “significantly optimised” the distribution of electricity.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that two Chinese solar companies have “signed deals worth some $3bn to build plants” in Saudi Arabia. A Reuters analysis says that, within the next year, Chinese solar manufacturers are expected to have “at least 20 gigawatts’ worth of annual solar panel production capacity on US soil”, which will be “enough to serve” about half of the country’s market and puts “China in position to dominate the nascent industry”. The US’s export controls chief Alan Estevez said on Tuesday that “proposed rules on connected vehicles” will be issued in August for Chinese-made EVs, another Reuters report says. The WTO says that China has not been “transparent on subsidies” for the country’s major industries, such as the EV sector, in its first trade policy review for China since 2021, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports. The state-supporting newspaper Global Times argues that the “intricate nature” of the dispute on EV subsidies between China and the west “calls for a greater role for the WTO in ensuring the fairness of the international trading system”.

Elsewhere, Xinhua reports that the continuous heavy rainfalls across China have “triggered flash flooding, landslides and mudflows” in many parts of the country. State-run newspaper China Daily reports that “a vast stretch of areas”, including Sichuan, Chongqing, Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, are forecast to experience “brief but heavy downpours through Thursday”, with national weather authorities having issued the second highest level of emergency response. People’s Daily reports that the vice minister of China’s Ministry of Water Resources, Wang Baoen, says that “the frequency and intensity of extreme events like heavy rainfall and floods [in China] are expected to increase, posing a complex and severe situation”. None of these articles mention climate change.

Torrential rainfall and flooding have “killed more than 200 people and displaced millions across South Asia”, the New York Times reports, with “more than 100 people were killed in India alone” in recent days. In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, “1500 villages were affected and five people were killed just this week”, state officials tell the newspaper. Downpours have been “test[ing] the limits of the country’s infrastructure” as “dozens of bridges in the state of Bihar were washed away”, it adds. Climate scientist Roxy Mathew Koll tells the NYT that “extreme rainfall events in India have tripled since 1950” and that “[t]here is a definite shift in monsoon patterns with more extreme rainfall events and long dry spells becoming a new reality”. In the country’s west, India Today reports that severe flooding in Gujarat’s districts of Manavadar and Keshod is “leaving no place for burials”, forcing villagers “to walk through knee-deep water to find suitable burial grounds”. 

In energy news, India’s oil import bills went up by nearly 11% in June to $11bn even as import volumes reduced, according to the Financial Express, which it attributes to the “lowering of discounts offered by Russia on its crude oil”. Tougher western sanctions, however, are making “secret tanker oil switching” by Russian shippers sending cargoes to buyers “most likely” in India or China “harder to trace”, per a Bloomberg investigation. On Monday, the Indian government hiked its windfall tax on domestically produced crude oil to Rs 7,000 (£64) per tonne, the Economic Times reports, with no such duty on diesel, petrol or jet fuel exports. A comment by Tarun Jain in the outlet, however, calls for windfall taxes on oil and gas to be “abolished…at the very least”, arguing that “such steep taxes effectively position petroleum products in the space reserved for sin goods”, while “petroleum products…are literally fuel for economic growth”. Business Standard reports that state-run Coal India has finally “formalised its coal gasification/coal-to-chemical plans” after “an inter-ministerial tussle for decades”. Scroll.in reports that, in Uttar Pradesh, a new coal-fired power plant operated by an Adani subsidiary will “destroy more forests than projected”.

Meanwhile, according to the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) “will impose an additional 25% tax on carbon-intensive goods exported from India to the EU” that “would represent 0.05% of India’s GDP”, Press Trust of India reports. In a comment piece in the Print, Vibhuti Garg from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis calls for the new government’s budget to include “support, tax breaks, relief in import duties and tariff barriers or tax credits” for India’s renewable energy ecosystem. Experts tell Business Standard that they expect the new budget to be “green growth-based”, with the government “expected to provide [a] concessional tax rate on [the] sale of all carbon credits and renewable energy credits (RECs), not limited to [those] validated” by UN Climate Change. Finally, the Hindu features a comment piece on how climate change-induced heatwaves are “evaporating the right to play”.

Plans confirmed in the King’s Speech to set up a publicly owned clean-power company and reform the planning system to avoid infrastructure “getting snarled up in disputes with local communities” is good news for energy companies, but the benefits for investors will “be more of a slow burn”, argues a Lex column in the Financial Times. Energy companies have been hit by higher costs and a sharp drop in power prices this year, but Great British Energy should help the sector in coming years, it continues. Where the company focuses its attention will be “crucial”, with industry executives preferring help to de-risk emerging technologies such as floating wind turbines, it adds. Planning delays have also “long been a bugbear of energy investors”, however, the proposed new streamlined process is already being assumed for many projects planned before 2030, notes Lex. “Rhetoric about “turbocharging” the UK economy is to be expected at events such as the King’s Speech. The reality for the power sector is that any improvements will still take some time,” it concludes. 

Meanwhile, an editorial in the Financial Times argues that the government “should strive to be an enabler, not a controller” as challenges including the climate transition “cannot be solved by the private sector alone”. An editorial in the Sun says there is “no doubting our new government’s energy and ambition with Keir Starmer’s first King’s Speech”, but it adds that “we fear Ed Miliband’s Great British Energy has ‘dud’ written all over it”. The Daily Telegraph’s editorial argues that Great British Energy’s “remit is still unclear but which has the hallmarks of a “picking winners” investment vehicle”. A comment piece in the publication by the climate-sceptic Conservative peer David Frost argues Labour will transform the UK into a “big state, low-growth, low-energy nation”, adding that, “of course, we see the desperation to push on with the maniacal approach to net-zero, led by Ed Miliband, perhaps Labour’s battiest minister”. A separate comment piece by assistant editor Jeremy Warner argues that “the insanity of Labour’s electric car plan is now too glaring to ignore”. Additionally, the Times climate-sceptic columnist Juliet Samuel argues “we must invest in oil and gas” as “relying on renewables is recklessly optimistic”. The Daily Telegraph also has a comment piece by freelance journalist Ella Whelan arguing that “comparing Extinction Rebellion to the Suffragettes is an insult to women”. 

A global temperature rise of 2C could lead to a “complete collapse of functions” at four protected coral reefs in Australia, new research finds. To project species and ecosystem losses due to warming, the researchers use model simulations estimating species abundance and ecological persistence at current and potential future warming levels. The findings show that Australia’s four World Heritage coral reef regions face species extinctions under 1.5C and 2C of warming. This includes the Great Barrier Reef, 40% of which is estimated to exceed critical thresholds that may “trigge[r] mortality” by 2050, the researchers write. The study findings demonstrate that reef extreme warming is “rapidly pushing locations to conditions where significant yearly bleaching can be expected”.