Climate Focus

By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello!

Today’s newsletter focuses on record-breaking heat gripping southern Europe and has unleashed a wave of devastating wildfires, forcing mass evacuations, claiming lives, and spurring a surge in arson arrests.

Temperatures in Spain have pushed past 45 °C, drying landscapes into fuel and driving blazes from Portugal to Greece.

Spain – now the epicenter – has lost about 148,000 hectares to flames this year, over a quarter of the EU’s total burned area.

At least seven people, including firefighters, have died, while some 9,500 residents have been evacuated.

Authorities are confronting both natural ignition and deliberate acts, with ten arson arrests since June.

Spain has appealed to its European partners for support, requesting aerial firefighting resources to bolster its strained response.

In Portugal, nearly 1,000 firefighters battled a blaze near the scenic mountain village of Piodao. Crews managed to bring under control a wildfire burning for 11 days - the longest for this season - in the mountainous area of Vila Real in the north.

In Greece, intense fires near Patras and on islands like Chios and Zakynthos have displaced thousands, overwhelmed emergency crews, and ravaged farmland and infrastructure. More than 5,000 firefighters and 33 aircraft are engaged in round-the-clock containment.

Firefighters contained several wildfires raging across Turkey, including a large blaze in the northwestern province of Canakkale that forced hundreds to flee from their homes. Both Canakkale airport and the Dardanelles Strait, which connects the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara, were temporarily shut due to the wildfires earlier this week.

A man also died in a fire in Albania, while a 61-year-old Hungarian seasonal worker is suspected to have died of heat-related causes while picking fruit in Lleida, in Spain's eastern Catalonia region.

In Montenegro's mountainous Kuci area, northeast of the capital Podgorica, one army soldier was killed and another badly injured when a water tanker they were operating overturned, the Defence Ministry said.

Global warming is giving the Mediterranean region hotter, drier summers, scientists say, with wildfires surging each year and sometimes whipping up into "whirls".

Click here for my brief Reuters LinkedIn video explainer on the recent wildfires.

At least 60 people died and more than 200 were missing following sudden, heavy rain in Indian Kashmir, officials said, as rescuers used shovels and earthmovers to search for survivors under boulders and debris on Friday. It comes a little over a week after a heavy flood and mudslide engulfed an entire village in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.

Members of rescue teams help stranded people cross a water channel using a makeshift bridge after floods in Chasoti town of Kishtwar district, Indian Kashmir. REUTERS/Stringer

Delegates discussing the world's first legally binding global treaty to tackle plastic pollution failed to reach consensus, voicing disappointment and even rage that the 10-day talks produced no deal, diplomats said on Friday.

States pushing for a comprehensive treaty, including Panama, Kenya, Britain and the European Union, shared frustration that key articles on the full life cycle of plastic pollution – from the production of polymers to the disposal of waste – as well as the harm to health had been removed entirely from the text.

Tropical storm Podul dumped torrential rain on southern China and caused widespread disruption in Hong Kong after tearing through Taiwan and leaving 143 people injured.

In southern China, still reeling from record downpours last week, airports reported cancellation rates of around 20%, according to data from Flightmaster, as Podul pelted parts of the provinces of Guangdong, Hunan and Jiangxi with more than 70 mm (2.76 inches) of rain an hour.

The typhoon also blew through southern Taiwan packing winds of up to 191 kph (118 mph) and leaving one person missing, as a large swathe of the island shut down and hundreds of flights were cancelled.

The Environmental Defense Fund and the Union of Concerned Scientists are suing the Trump administration for secretly convening a group of climate skeptics, which prepared a report that served as the basis for a reversal of U.S. rules on greenhouse gas emissions without public notice.

The lawsuit claims that the so-called Climate Working Group that Energy Secretary Chris Wright put together, evaded public view, delivered erroneous results and was illegally used to inform the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to reverse the scientific finding that served as the foundation for federal climate regulation.

In keeping with U.S. politics, the Trump administration is expected to take another step toward curbing the growth of renewable energy in the country by making it harder for companies to claim federal tax subsidies for wind and solar energy. Click here for the full Reuters report.

Click here for an insightful Reuters video on Abdul Karim Abbas, a gardening volunteer who is attempting to fight one of Iraq’s most pressing threats: desertification.