|
|
Sign up for DeBriefed, Carbon Brief’s essential weekly email, which will be sent out later today.
|
|
|
|
|
New on Carbon Brief
• Factcheck: Trump’s climate report includes more than 100 false or misleading claims
News
• 2024 saw a record-breaking number of dangerously hot and humid days | New Scientist
• US: Trump’s Treasury set to decide fate of hundreds of wind, solar projects | Bloomberg
• Global conference spotlights China's climate leadership | China Daily
• Torrential rains trigger flash floods in Kashmir, killing at least 56 and leaving scores missing | Associated Press
Comment
• The shutdown of ocean currents could freeze Europe | Editorial, Economist
• Governments are avoiding renewable energy goals – and it matters | Katye Altieri and Dave Jones, Climate Home News
Research
• New research on urban heatwaves in France, heat-related illnesses in Bangladesh and seasonal shifts in extreme precipitation.
Other stories
• Countries deadlocked on plastic production and chemicals as talks on a global treaty draw to a close | Associated Press
• Data centres need own power supply, US grid watchdog says | Bloomberg
• UK: No cars available for full electric car grant nearly a month after launch | Press Association
|
|
|
|
|
Ayesha Tandon, Leo Hickman, Cecilia Keating, Robert McSweeney and Tom Prater
A “critical assessment” report commissioned by the Trump administration to justify a rollback of US climate regulations contains at least 100 false or misleading statements, according to a Carbon Brief factcheck involving dozens of leading climate scientists.
|
|
|
|
|
Madeleine Cuff, New Scientist
Climate change drove record levels of humidity around the world last year, according to the latest “state of the climate” report from the American Meteorological Society, New Scientist reports. The global average number of high humid heat days over land exceeded the 1991-2020 average by 35.6 days in 2024, which is 9.5 days more than the previous 2023 record, the article says. It explains that “this is resulting in more days with weather conditions close to the limits of survivability”. The Press Association cites experts who say that people find it harder to cool down in hot and humid conditions, due to sweating being less effective than in dry heat. The article notes that the same report highlights that 2024 was the hottest year on record globally, as well as “the wettest year for extreme rainfall on record”. A larger amount of water vapour in the atmosphere – which results from such conditions – also leads to “a number of other issues”, including increased potential for extreme rainfall, flash flooding and tropical storms, the Daily Mail reports.
MORE ON HEAT
Le Monde has an article about how, in France, temperatures above 40C “have become increasingly common with climate change”. Greenhouse gas emissions produced by humans may have “locked in” the negative phase of a climate pattern called the “Pacific Decadal Oscillation”, responsible for a long-term megadrought in the US west, according to a new study covered by the Hill.
Caitlin Reilly and Ari Natter, Bloomberg
A US treasury department decision due next week could threaten the “financial viability of hundreds of planned clean energy projects”, according to Bloomberg. In July, President Trump ordered the department to “tighten long-standing guidance” governing who qualified for clean-energy tax credits, the article explains. Developers’ appetite to continue with renewable-energy projects “will hinge on how far the treasury department goes in toughening eligibility standards”, the article adds. It cites analysis by BloombergNEF that finds more than 2,500 announced wind and solar projects could be impacted by the decision. The move is the result of an executive order issued by Trump following the passage of his “one big beautiful bill act”, which had already significantly restricted tax credits for clean energy, Reuters notes. Further tightening requirements “would be the latest in a string of steps the administration has taken to stall development of wind and solar energy”, the newswire says.
MORE ON US
Shale oil and gas executives tell the Financial Times that they are in a new “price war” with Saudi Arabia, Russia and other members of the Opec cartel, which threatens Trump’s call for the US to pump more oil. The Washington Post says electricity prices “are on the rise across the US and the political ramifications could be dramatic” due to Trump’s frequent promises to lower bills.
Chen Ye, China Daily
At the “2025 green low-carbon innovation conference”, Liu Zhenmin, China’s special envoy for climate change, “underscored that green innovation is no longer optional, but a necessity in the face of escalating climate crises”, reports China Daily. Liu added that China remains committed to its “dual-carbon” goals and credited the country’s energy transition progress to the "two mountains” theory, according to the state-run newspaper. A retrospective of the theory by state news agency Xinhua has appeared on the website of the National Energy Administration (NEA). It says the theory has guided China to achieve sustainable economic development in the past 20 years. Meanwhile, another China Daily article cites a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) saying that China is “cementing its position as the dominant force in global clean energy investment”. It adds that China now accounts for one third of global “clean energy investment” in areas including solar and wind, up from one fourth more than a decade ago.
MORE ON CHINA
China’s industrial output “likely slowed sharply” in July, partly due to extreme weather events, including high temperatures, that disrupted factories, Bloomberg reports. A comment by Reuters’s columnist Ka Sing Chan says that an Opec-like solar “cartel” created by China’s leading solar firms may “stifle” competition. The New York Times publishes a long read under the headline: “How China went from clean energy copycat to global innovator.” Politico publishes an article saying that China and the US went “in opposite directions” on tackling climate change and emissions in the first six months of 2025. E&E News also has the story. Dialogue Earth: “Chikungunya outbreak in southern China linked to global warming.”
Aijaz Hussain, The Associated Press
Flash floods in a remote Himalayan village in India-controlled Kashmir have killed at least 56 people and left scores missing, according to the Associated Press. The event was linked to a sudden, intense downpour known as a “cloudburst”, the article adds. It cites experts who say that cloudbursts “have increased in recent years partly because of climate change, while damage from the storms also has increased because of unplanned development in mountain regions”. Reuters says the incident occurred in Chasoti town of Kishtwar district – “a stopover point on a popular pilgrimage route” – shortly after a heavy flood and mudslide engulfed an entire village in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.
MORE ON EXTREME WEATHER
The National Fire Chiefs Council says there has been a record number of wildfires in England and Wales in the first six months of 2025, adding that climate change is “fuelling” such events, according to Sky News. US Republicans have issued a statement urging Canada to do more to tackle the forest fires that are currently sending smoke into several US states, the Associated Press reports. However, it adds that “what they haven’t done is acknowledge the role of climate change”. The EU said today that it is working "non-stop" to support countries such as Spain and Greece battling the wildfires raging across Europe, RTE reports.
|
|
|
|
|
Editorial, The Economist
The Economist has dedicated an editorial to the threat posed to Europe by a shutdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), one of a number of potential “tipping points” in the Earth system. “Changes in sea surface temperature and salinity caused by global warming could conceivably make it stall…For Europe that could mean a sudden, severe cooling – even as the rest of the world keeps warming,” the article explains. It says that while AMOC is “not a weapons system”, it “could lay waste a continent – specifically, Europe – to an extent that only a nuclear war could outmatch”. The editorial says there is no evidence that these risks are feeding into government planning and argues that they should be. It concludes: “If this were a military threat, such risk-reduction would be second nature, as would table-top analysis of vulnerabilities and contingency plans for softening impacts.” [For more on AMOC, see Carbon Brief’s reporting on new research concerning the topic in June and also Carbon Brief’s tipping points explainer.]
MORE EXTREME WEATHER COMMENT
Dean Florez, a former California senate majority leader, writes in the Los Angeles Times about the need to enforce rules to protect farm workers from heat because people “are still dying every summer” as “the climate has turned meaner”. In light of a jellyfish swarm linked to unusually warm waters triggering the shutdown of French nuclear reactors, Bloomberg columnist David Fickling writes that “most of our infrastructure is designed for temperatures that global warming is messing with”.
Katye Altieri and Dave Jones, Climate Home News
Katye Altieri and Dave Jones, both analysts at the thinktank Ember, have an article in Climate Home News about faltering efforts by world governments to set out strong renewables targets. They note that, two years ago at the COP28 climate summit, 133 countries pledged to triple global renewable capacity by 2030. However, they explain how new Ember data shows that 2030 national renewable targets add up to just 2% more than they did just prior to COP28 – resulting in a planned doubling of global renewables capacity by 2030, rather than a tripling. The analysts explain why targets are useful, stating: “Targets may seem symbolic, but in energy markets, signals are everything. Investors, developers and manufacturers plan around national goals.” They conclude that while the pace of wind and solar expansion is “impressive”, rising electricity bills and the recent blackout in Spain and Portugal are “stark reminders” that the transition must be delivered more affordably and more securely. “Clear roadmaps make renewables cheaper and more secure,” they conclude.
MORE COMMENT
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, world economy editor for the Daily Telegraph, has a piece about progress in the electrification of heavy trucks. He writes: “Just Stop Oil can call off their protests. Technology is stopping oil more dramatically than they could ever achieve.” Júlia Gouveia, a Brazilian youth climate advocate, writes in Context that young Brazilians “are being priced out” of the COP30 climate summit in Brazil.
|
|
|
|
