|
Angela Giuffrida and Ajit Niranjan, The Guardian
There is continued large-scale coverage of the wildfires in France and Spain. The Guardian reports that “nearly 4,000 people have been evacuated from tourist sites on France’s Atlantic coast as the return of winds and extreme heat jeopardises firefighters’ battles to contain wildfires raging in France and Spain”. It continues: “Wildfires in France, Spain and Italy have forced the evacuation of about 330,000 people over the past week, with Spain entering Europe’s fourth intense heatwave of the summer [and] attempting to contain some of the worst forest fires in the country’s history.” The article quotes UN climate chief Simon Stiell saying: “The climate alarm is blaring, from every direction…These spiralling disasters are now the lived reality for billions in a world getting rapidly hotter, as humanity moves too slowly from fossil fuels to clean energy and to protect forests.”
The EU’s crisis commissioner tells Reuters that the bloc’s wildfire response must “evolve” to keep up with “accelerating” climate change. Hadja Lahbib tells the newswire: “We must prepare for risks before disasters strike and not simply react afterwards.” The Financial Times reports that Lahbib also said that the fires were a sign of the risks of failing to act on climate change. She tells the newspaper: “The [European] Commission can only be as ambitious as the member states want it to be…When member states drag their feet [on climate change]…there is a real danger and an incalculable price.” The Independent speaks to researchers about how the fires are linked to climate change and whether the disaster could prompt the EU to take faster action on emissions. NPR reports that Spain’s politicians are “battling over climate change’s role” in the ongoing fires. Politico says: “As France burns, the far right sees an opening.” A Channel 4 News broadcast report asks: “Europe is burning, why are politicians not acting?”
MORE ON WILDFIRES
The UK’s new foreign secretary Ed Miliband is to visit France and Spain amid the wildfires, says the Independent. The Financial Times reports that Europe’s fires “expose” a shortage of Canadair water-bomber planes. The Independent has a frontpage special report from the “frantic battle to save France from the flames”. The Guardian: “'Ash fell from the sky': Tourists describe fleeing 'apocalyptic' wildfires in France.” The Associated Press has a report from “inside a temporary shelter in France for wildfire evacuees”. The Associated Press reports on why the global area burned by wildfires has decreased despite more extreme blazes in Europe and North America.
Times of India
The number of lives lost to this year’s floods in the north-eastern state of Assam rose to 75, as seven more people died in the Sivasagar district, reported the Times of India. According to the Independent, the flooding affected around 700,000 people “at its peak”, “submerging more than 800 villages” and 35,000 hectares of cropland. It adds that while “deadly floods return to Assam almost every year” during the monsoon, “[s]cientists have warned that a warming climate is making such downpours more intense and erratic, while deforestation and building on flood plains leave more people exposed.” The story quotes Assam chief minister Himanta Biswas Sarma as saying: "The character of the calamity has changed. We need to prepare ourselves for such events in future." However, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) “clarified that the event did not qualify as a cloudburst”, notes the Assam Tribune, with one scientist saying that “rainfall alone may not explain the floods” and experts also pointing to “weak embankments, roads and wetland degradation”.
MORE ON INDIA
India’s monsoon has “swung between dry spells and extreme rainfall, leaving the country 16% rain-deficient”, reports Down to Earth. Despite “high exposure” to impacts and “lived experience” of climate change, more than half of Indians are “largely unfamiliar” with the term "global warming”, researchers write in India Today. Frontline features a decade-long visual archive by photographer Siddharth Behl, documenting the “what it means to live through recurring climate events” across India and South Asia.
Xinyi Wu, South China Morning Post
China’s Ministry of Commerce has released a document “rebutting claims of Chinese overcapacity” from major trade partners that said Beijing’s extensive support across sectors such as electric vehicles (EVs) and solar panels has “artificially lowered costs and driven industrial overcapacity”, reports the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post. The document argues that China’s industrial output is not the result of subsidies or insufficient domestic demand, but rather of innovation and reforms, adds the outlet. Bloomberg says that the “forceful position paper” comes as Washington continues a probe into Chinese manufacturing, while Brussels faces an October deadline to address the bloc’s record trade imbalance with China. State news agency Xinhua carries the full text of the document. It also calls for countries to uphold openness and cooperation, saying that protectionism would only “disrupt the global economic and trade order”, according to state-run newspaper China Daily. Nikkei Asia also covers the story and the Communist Party-affiliated newspaper People’s Daily broadcasted the press conference.
The EU’s recent “protectionist measures” against China seriously undermine Chinese companies’ confidence in cooperating with the bloc, according to Lin Weilong from China’s Ministry of Commerce, reports Xinhua. Lin also said that trade frictions between the two parties are “inevitable”, but it should not be used as a “pretext for imposing restrictions”, adds the newswire. Chinese president Xi Jinping told Slovak president Peter Pellegrini in Beijing that the two countries should deepen cooperation in areas, including clean energy, reports Xinhua. The South China Morning Post says a Chinese-made vessel has carried a record 7,738 new energy vehicles (NEVs) from Shanghai to Europe. Meanwhile, Germany is identifying Chinese “economic vulnerabilities” and preparing “contingency measures” in case “China again weaponises critical raw materials”, according to Bloomberg. The South China Morning Post reports the world’s largest known rare earth deposit in northern China could “contain far more resources underground than currently reported”.
MORE ON CHINA
China will phase out certain land-use tax exemptions for some energy resource companies in sectors including coal, mining, oil and gas, and power generation, reports Xinhua. More than 400 electricity retail companies in China exited the power market in the first seven months of 2026, reports International Energy Net. Table Briefings: “Emissions trading: China wants to give coal sector more leeway.” Local authorities in China are optimising renewable energy development using their own resource talent and industrial bases, according to People’s Daily.
Eamon Farhat, Bloomberg
Bloomberg reports that the UK’s energy regulator is “proposing new rules to stop speculative datacentres from clogging up the grid connection queue by requiring hefty upfront financial commitments and tougher project milestones”. It continues: “Ofgem’s proposals would require datacentre projects to provide “significant” fees or other financial guarantees, such as letters of credit, performance bonds or cash deposits, according to an emailed statement from the regulator. A consultation due to be published Wednesday will outline the details, including how the fees would be calculated, how they would be administered by the National Energy System Operator and the circumstances under which projects could lose both their place in the queue and the money they put down.” It adds that the UK’s “congested electricity grid has become a constraint on economic growth, the energy transition and the government’s artificial intelligence ambitions”.
Elsewhere, the Times continues its anti-net-zero campaigning with a frontpage story titled: “Net-zero ‘will cost households £1,400 a year by 2030”. The figure comes from a report by the Prosperity Institute, a right-leaning thinktank, says the Times. It considers the cost of government subsidies for renewables and the cost of upgrading the grid to connect new projects, according to the newspaper. [The article does not say whether the report considers cost savings from renewables due to reduced reliance on high-priced fossil fuels. It also does not mention whether the report considers the increasing cost of climate impacts if emissions continue to rise unchecked.] The Daily Mail also covers the report. In addition, the Times has another story on National Energy System Operator (Neso), claiming that it has “repeatedly failed to submit reports on risks and electricity planning to the energy regulator”. The Daily Telegraph also has another story attacking Neso.
|
