Reporting on the Africa Climate Summit underway in Nairobi, the Guardian says that “African leaders and campaigners are at odds over the way forward for the continent”. According to the newspaper, countries including Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa have been expanding their renewable energy access and leading transition efforts on the continent. But countries such as Nigeria and Senegal with large oil and gas reserves “argue they should be able to use those resources for economic growth and increased energy access” while others are “straddling a middle ground”, it says. The outlet adds that climate campaigners held a peaceful climate march in Nairobi yesterday, arguing that a fossil fuel phaseout should be on the summit’s agenda. Climate Home News reports that the United Arab Emirates is “positioning itself as a carbon credits leader in Africa” after a coalition of major UAE energy and financial companies indicated its intention to buy $450m of carbon credits generated in Africa by 2030 yesterday. This was “one of the most highly-anticipated announcements”, the outlet says. Reuters says the UAE’s pledge was part of an initiative to boost Africa’s carbon credit production 19-fold by 2030. Elsewhere, Euractiv reports that the UK will announce £49m worth of investment in projects which “focus on mobilising finance for climate action and will help people manage the impact of climate change across Africa” at the summit. Deutsche Welle says “some representatives in attendance are wondering whether the political elite will match their words with meaningful action”. AllAfrica reports that Kenyan president William Ruto has “challenged the youth to assume their rightful position in the climate change conversation”, saying “this age group is so powerful that its voice can no longer be left at the periphery”.

Elsewhere, Reuters covers a report released yesterday by the World Meteorological Organisation, which warns that Africa is heating up faster than the rest of the planet and enduring more severe climate and weather disasters. The continent was hit by 80 extreme weather and climate hazards last year, resulting in 5,000 deaths and more than $8.5bn in economic damage, the newswire says. The New York Times outlines the “paradox” that “the world’s poorest countries, mostly in Africa, are effectively priced out of the action by a global lending system that considers them too risky for investment”. It goes on to outline the success of Archip Lobo, whose company raised $70m in international funds this year to build solar-powered microgrids in Congo. Climate Home News reports on problems at Africa’s largest wind power plant – which has 365 wind turbines and provides nearly a fifth of Kenya’s electricity. According to the outlet, building was “slower than it should have been” because “Indigenous pastoralist groups regarded it as an illegal seizure of their land”. The outlet argues that “developers must work with local communities from the outset”. And Reuters outlines Africa’s options to finance the protection of its natural resources.

A new report on invasive alien species published yesterday by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has received widespread media attention. The report finds that invasive species are costing the world at least $423bn every year and have become “a leading threat to the diversity of life on Earth”, the Guardian says. The newspaper adds: “Leading scientists say the threat posed by invasive species is under-appreciated, underestimated and sometimes unacknowledged, with more than 37,000 alien species now known to be introduced around the world and about 200 establishing themselves each year.” The cost of biological invasions has risen by 400% every decade since 1970 and is projected to “soar” in the coming years, it adds. The newspaper continues: “[The report] was produced by 86 experts – including scientists and Indigenous communities – over four-and-a-half years and was approved by governments this weekend in Bonn. The findings follow a 2019 report that warned 1m species were at risk of going extinct, threatened by pollution, climate change, invasive species, the direct exploitation of organisms and land-use change. While invasive species have contributed to 40% of all known animal extinctions, governments requested more research to better understand the problem.” The Financial Times notes that the $423bn estimate is likely to be “very conservative”. The Hill reports that 85% of the impacts of invasive species on native species are negative. “Invasive non-native species were a major factor in 60% of recorded extinctions of plants and animals, according to the report,” the New York Times reports. Reuters notes that “warmer temperatures under climate change are expected to further drive the expansion of invasive species”. New Scientist, the Press Association and BusinessGreen also cover the report.

BBC News, the i newspaper, MailOnline and the Guardian highlight the risks of invasive species in the UK, focussing on Asian hornets – a species that feeds on bees and wasps, and whose numbers are on the rise in the UK. The Times also focuses on the UK, highlighting the case of the grey squirrel. The Conversation carries a piece by four of the study authors, who call the report “the most comprehensive overarching policy-relevant report on biological invasions to date”. They also provide more context on Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand: “Australia already has close to 3,000 introduced alien species. Aotearoa New Zealand has almost 900…Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand have among the highest modern global native species extinction rates. The economies of both countries rely heavily on agriculture, trade and eco-tourism. These sectors are highly susceptible to threats from invasive alien species.” The piece concludes: “The rising pressure of trade will likely outpace the resourcing dedicated to biosecurity measures… We will have to simply become smarter, more effective, and better coordinated across the human, animal, plant and ecosystem health sectors.” The Sydney Morning Herald also focuses on Australia, noting that it has the second-largest number of “endemic species” – plants and animals found nowhere else in the world – after Indonesia. The Guardian calls Australasia a “global hotspot” for invasive species and notes that Australia has lost more native mammal species than any other continent.

Thousands of people have protested against rising electricity and petrol prices in Pakistan over the past week, the Guardian reports. According to the newspaper, the cost of electricity has doubled in the last three months, while petrol prices have risen from 262 rupees per litre in June to 305 rupees this month. The newspaper continues: “Pakistan is in the midst of political and economic turmoil, with a record inflation rate of 36.4% and the prime minister, Imran Khan, ousted in April last year after a vote of no confidence. The country was also devastated by floods last year, which submerged much of the country. Protests turned violent in Karachi last week when a worker from the utility company K-Electric (KE), which generates and distributes power to the city, was attacked by an enraged mob…The protests culminated at the weekend when shops and markets across Pakistan closed in response to a call by the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami. Closures on Friday and Saturday are thought to have cost the country an estimated 10bn rupees (£25m).” The Financial Times reports that the “outpouring of anger” threatens to derail Pakistan’s $3bn IMF programme. The outlet notes that Pakistan “narrowly avoided default in June after securing a loan from the fund that came with strict conditions to enact economic reforms, including cutting energy subsidies and imposing taxes to reduce heavy losses in the power sector”. (See Carbon Brief’s in-depth profile of Pakistan.)

Despite a significant rise in solar and wind energy, Australia still has the highest per-capita greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal, according to new analysis covered by the Guardian. “While Australia and South Korea have cut per person emissions from coal-fired electricity since 2015 – by 26% and 10% respectively – they continue to release more CO2 than other major economies,” the newspaper says. The South China Morning Post reports that China’s coal power emissions per capita grew more than any other G20 country between 2015 and 2022, making China the third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide from coal power on a per capita basis. And Reuters reports that, overall, per-capita CO2 emissions from G20 countries from coal have risen by 7% since 2015. Separately, the Independent covers a new study which finds that rich countries that have “decoupled” their economic growth from carbon emissions will take more than 200 years to reduce their emissions to net-zero.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Australia is considering extending the life of Eraring – its largest coal power plant. According to the newswire, Eraring was due to shut down in 2025, seven years ahead of schedule, in part because falling power prices had made it difficult to turn a profit. But “surging power prices and a growing worry that renewable energy is not coming online fast enough to offset retiring fossil fuel plants have combined to revive the case for delaying the Eraring’s closure”, it says. The Guardian says that opponents of the move are calling on the government to use the funds intended for the coal plant to instead go towards rooftop solar and batteries. Bloomberg also covers the story.

Carmaker BMW expects to sell more cars in China this year than last year, despite a “local price war in the electric vehicle segment, and muted demand overall”, Reuters reports. BMW’s chief financial officer made the comment at a car show in Munich, according to the newswire. It adds: “In his first interview since becoming finance chief in May, Walter Mertl told Reuters that BMW had been able to grow 3.7% in China in the first half, faster than the world’s top auto market as a whole, and expected this trend to continue.” Elsewhere, the Guardian reports that “China’s share of the European electric car market has more than doubled in less than two years as the world’s second largest economy tries to take the lead in the transition away from petrol and diesel cars”. The newspaper says the share of Chinese cars in the total European car market has risen from 0.1% in 2019 to 2.8% in the first seven months of 2023. It adds that, “so far this year, Chinese manufacturers have won 8.2% of the European electric car market, selling 86,000 battery electric cars”. It continues: “The rapid rise of Chinese carmakers has set off alarm bells in Europe, where millions of people work in car manufacturing. China also has a significant advantage because it has the lead in production of batteries, leaving European industry reliant on a geopolitical rival until it builds its own ‘gigafactories’… The BMW chief executive, Oliver Zipse, on Sunday said Chinese carmakers posed an ‘imminent risk’ to the European industry, particularly for the makers of cheaper models.” The Daily Telegraph frames the story as “a net-zero ban on petrol and diesel cars means European car makers risk being wiped out by cheaper Chinese competition, the chief of BMW has warned”. It says that “Chinese manufacturers can make electric cars much more cheaply than European competitors since the country started building its lithium battery production industry much earlier than rivals”. 

Ministers will announce a series of changes this week to make it easier for developers to win planning permission to build onshore wind turbines, the Guardian reports. According to the newspaper, the government could publish proposals as soon as today. The paper notes that, under the current system, a local authority can reject an application to build an onshore wind farm on the basis of a single objection from a local resident, and any new development must also have been included in the authority’s most recent local development plan. Collectively, these measures have contributed to new onshore wind development almost stalling, leading critics to call them a “de facto ban”, the paper says. It continues: “No 10 decided to act last year after 34 Tory MPs, including the former prime ministers Liz Truss and Boris Johnson, signed an amendment in support of more onshore wind. In response, the government published a consultation on changing the rules, which suggested that developments could be approved as long as local authorities could show they had consulted local residents, rather than having had to address every single concern.”

Separately, the Guardian says that “Britain’s energy security and progress to net-zero are under threat as the energy bill enters the Commons again”. It says that “warring factions” of the Tory party have tabled amendments to the energy bill, including relaxing rules on onshore wind permissions, banning certain types of solar developments and softening a ban on oil boilers. It continues: “As ever, there is a tussle between those Conservative MPs who believe new renewable energy is crucially important for economic growth, and those who are more concerned about the impact of wind and solar farms on the countryside view.” The paper says that Sunak was in the latter camp when he made his pitch to be prime minister last year, but that “after pressure from the 150 MPs in the Conservative Environment Network, he caved in and consulted on lifting the ban”. However, it adds that according to Greenpeace’s chief scientist, Doug Parr, the amendment was “so weak that developers would not be able to use it to break ground on new onshore wind, if it passed as it was currently written”. The Times reports that the rebel group “believe that they have the numbers to defeat the government” on the amendment to the energy bill today. However, it notes that, under the proposed changes, onshore wind would not be considered acceptable unless there is community backing. 

Elsewhere, CityAM covers a warning from the trade association RenewableUK that “proposals to lift onshore wind out of a de-facto moratorium are unlikely to boost private investment in the sector”. And the Times covers a new poll which finds that “a majority of Britons believe that building more wind and solar farms is the best way to tackle high energy bills and that planning laws should be overhauled to speed up their deployment”.

In other UK news, BBC News reports that a heat health alert has been issued for parts of England, as temperatures could reach 32C by the middle of the week. The Daily Telegraph reports the UK will see back-to-back “tropical nights” this week, in which temperatures do not drop below 20C, for the first time in September. The Daily Mail also covers the forecast. Elsewhere, Bloomberg reports that “greenhouse gas emissions from offshore oil facilities in the UK fell for a third consecutive year in 2022 even as production grew”. BusinessGreen reports that Jim McMahon this morning announced he was stepping down as shadow environment secretary, and was replaced by Steve Reed – the Labour MP for Croydon North who was previously Shadow Justice Secretary and Shadow Lord Chancellor. And the Press Association says: “Conservationist and TV presenter Chris Packham led a climate change protest by more than 100 scientists in Westminster on Monday.” 

Bloomberg reports that China Shenhua Energy, the country’s biggest coal company, is “‘seizing’ the opportunity to build more fossil fuel power plants before 2025 as the government prioritises energy security after a series of power shortages”. The company has nearly “11.8 gigawatts (GW) of coal and gas generation under construction” and is considering “reviving previously postponed and suspended projects”, adds the outlet. 

Meanwhile, China’s state broadcaster CCTV and its foreign-language channel CGTN report that China’s energy project construction and investment has grown rapidly, including constructing a hydropower station on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau and a green hydrogen project in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Tim Quinson, Bloomberg’s senior executive editor, writes that the biggest US companies are lagging behind their Chinese counterparts in terms of earning revenue from renewable energy sources, according to data by BloombergNEF. 

Separately, China National Radio quotes Chen Zhenlin, director of the China Meteorological Administration, who says that “the development of ‘new energy’ sources has become an indispensable way to address the global resource crisis and climate change”. The state-run industry newspaper China Energy News reports that China’s ministry of industry and information technology (MIIT) has issued a work plan to advance the construction of a “modern energy system, including clean energy bases, electricity transmission channels, coastal nuclear power, as well as new energy vehicle charging facilities”. The Chinese outlet Jiemian reports that the MIIT has issued another policy to promote “steady growth” in the industry of electric equipment, which sees a “strong” demand driven by “significant increase of the new wind power and solar installed capacity”.

In other news, the Canberra Times reports that Chinese leader Xi Jinping will skip the East Asia Summit in Indonesia as well as the G20 Summit in India. BBC News writes that US president Joe Biden has said he is “disappointed” that Xi will not attend the upcoming G20 summit. Reuters reports that China’s premier Li Qiang will attend G20 instead. Li will also attend meetings of ASEAN in Jakarta from Tuesday, Turkish state-run agency Anadolu Agency reports. Bloomberg reports that China’s ministry of state security says the Biden administration’s focus on “competition and controlling competition towards China is doomed to fail”. The South China Morning Post says that the ministry’s statement has raised uncertainty over Xi’s attendance at the coming APEC summit in San Francisco. A separate Bloomberg article writes that US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo says her visit to China “produced a great deal of progress though there can be no trust unless Beijing takes action in areas such as more predictable regulations”.

Writing in the Times, former Conservative leader William Hague says the government “must resist pressure to water down its energy bill and show enthusiasm for the opportunities it can bring”. Hague calls Claire Coutinho – the new UK energy and net-zero secretary – a “promising and refreshing arrival at the cabinet table” and says she will need all of her “talents” during the upcoming debates on the energy bill. He continues: “One group of Tory MPs, including the former COP26 president Alok Sharma, will be trying to toughen the government’s approach to climate change, with more onshore wind farms. Pushing in the other direction will be another group, which includes Jacob Rees-Mogg, seeking to water down net-zero policies by insisting that the consumer can’t be expected to pay more. Across the House, Labour MPs will be pouncing on any inconsistency in ministers’ policies while nervously contemplating their own mauling in the Uxbridge by-election for pushing environmental costs on to their voters.” Hague says that, until recently, political parties could “accommodate a green agenda without much dissent”, but that the politics of climate and energy “have entered a second phase” in which the costs of the changes needed are becoming apparent. He predicts that within the next decade, climate will become the “dominant issue in politics” and says “this week’s Commons debates are a precursor of intense arguments to come”. Hague says “helping to lead the world to net-zero carbon emissions while maintaining the support of the population at large will be one of the greatest tests of leadership in the 21st century” and argues that politicians should “show unabashed enthusiasm for the opportunities that new, green technologies will bring”. He argues that voters want “fairness in how climate policies are applied, foresight in planning them and more involvement in how they work”. He says that “fairness” means “saying honestly now if targets such as building sufficient car-charging points cannot be met, rather than changing policies at the last minute”. It also means “foresight about future security and resilience”, he says.

Elsewhere, the Daily Telegraph has published an editorial noting Rishi Sunak’s likely u-turn on the onshore wind ban. It says: “Any move to bring down costs and ease our low-carbon transition ought to be welcomed, but this will only cut through to voters if they are confident it will work.” It concludes: “The Conservative reshuffle saw the appointment of a new energy secretary. Let us hope Ms Coutinho can identify ways of allowing the country to pursue its green agenda without imposing ever-rising costs on consumers. It may not win an election, but it could win over voters jaded by the massive impact the drive to net-zero is having on their lives.” Elsewhere, an editorial in the Sun says “if Rishi Sunak is about to u-turn on wind turbines under pressure from backbench rebels we welcome it”. The Daily Telegraph’s climate-sceptic financial columnist Matthew Lynn calls the Green party the “recession party”, saying “if saving the planet means we all get a bit poorer, that is a price they will happily pay”. And Daily Telegraph comment writer Rowan Pelling argues against wind farms in a piece with the headline: “Our countryside is being wantonly sacrificed at the altar of net-zero”.

A comment piece in Nature Climate Change argues that “the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been successful at building its scientific authority, but it will require institutional reform for staying relevant to new and changing political contexts”. The piece says: “There has been no shortage of previous proposals for reforming the IPCC. These have reflected different expectations for the role the IPCC should play in the complex web that connects science with policy and how it can best serve decision-makers. Due to institutional constraints, however, these proposals usually end up as a wish list. Structural inertia and power asymmetry within the IPCC make it hard to imagine the institution structured in radically different ways from its current form.” The authors argue that the IPCC’s authority rests on five institutional pillars: comprehensive assessment, policy neutrality, diverse participation, rigorous procedure and governmental ownership. They also present three speculative scenarios for reforming the IPCC: building on success, diversifying viewpoints and advocating for change. Separately, Nature Climate Change has published an interview with outgoing IPCC chair Hoesung Lee.

Kadri Simson, the EU commissioner for energy, writes in the Financial Times that “electrifying the EU economy must be made easier, cheaper and quicker”. Simson notes that, in 2022, the EU saw a record surge in wind and solar power, but argues that “Europe will only ensure its energy security and deliver on its climate ambitions if we sustain a fast pace in the rolling out of renewables and the electrification of our economy”. She continues: “Our 11m kilometres of grids need to grow and change to serve increasing demand…Grids will need to integrate a large share of intermittent renewable power and adapt to a more decentralised electricity system: with millions of rooftop solar panels and electric vehicles, electrolysers producing green hydrogen, and local energy communities sharing resources, we will need flexibility, speed and digitalisation.” She argues that more investment is needed, that we “need to make progress on cross-border interconnections” and that “ we must not underestimate the industrial and commercial opportunities for Europe”.

Tropical forests in drier South American climates experienced the greatest impacts of the intense 2015-2016 El Niño, indicating that they are the most vulnerable to extreme temperatures and drought, a new study finds. The research took ground measurements of trees in 123 forest plots across tropical South America to investigate whether drier and hotter tropical forests “may be protected [from extreme climate conditions] by prior adaptation or more vulnerable because they operate closer to physiological limits”. The research finds that drier forests are in fact the most vulnerable, noting that they lost their ability to absorb carbon during the 2015-2016 El Niño. The authors add: “However, intact tropical South American forests overall were no more sensitive to the extreme 2015-2016 El Niño than to previous less intense events, remaining a key defence against climate change as long as they are protected.”

Climate change could worsen the impact of urbanisation on wildlife, a new study suggests. The research uses data from 725 sites located across 20 North American cities to investigate the interactions between urbanisation, climate and species traits for 37 native mammals. The research finds that species diversity and occupancy were most negatively linked to urbanisation in warmer cities. This suggests that “shifting climate conditions could worsen the effects of urbanisation on native wildlife communities, such that conservation strategies should seek to mitigate the combined effects of a warming and urbanising world”, the researchers say.